Clear Brain Fog - 20-Minute Walking Workout [ENCORE]

(This episode originally released October 21, 2025. Let's clear some brain fog!)

Ever feel like your brain has 50... no, a thousand, browser tabs open at once? And then you try to talk into the cat food bowl instead of your phone. (Yep. I did that. Full story in the podcast.)

We'll fix it with this low impact guided walk you can do outside or at home on a treadmill or walking pad. And... you'll get about 2000 steps in! 

My concentration is a mess some days.

During this 20-minute walking workout I share a super simple 3-step hack I use to shut down distraction and find some actual focus. Yippee!

Here's what we chat about:

• The "Just One Thing Rule" I use to figure out what really matters in the middle of the chaos.
• My "tangled knot of yarn" trick for tackling huge projects.
• The 5-minute "hide-under-your-desk" reset I stole from a TV show (you'll love it).

If your brain feels like a closet you are afraid to open, this one's for you.

P.S. You'll hear a bell halfway through the walk. If you're walking outside, that's your "turn around" cue. And tap Follow so next week's walk is waiting for you.

I also chat about cleaning out closets, talking into a cat food bowl instead of my phone, ADHD, cutting a chunk out of my hair, A Man on the Inside TV show.

Instagram/Facebook: @yourwalkingpodcast

Transcript

0:12

If you ever feel like you have 50 browser tabs open in your brain or a thousand tabs open in your brain like I do, today's walk is for you. It's a little longer, and it'll give us a chance to get fresh oxygen into our brains and clear out all that brain fog. And then I'm going to share with you a super simple three step hack that I use to shut down all that noise. Deep breath into your nose and exhale through your mouth. We're going to start out at a warmup pace, nice and easy, conversational pace. I'm going to remind you to breathe. I'm going to remind you to check for any tense spots in your body. Another deep breath in. Relax your stomach when you breathe in and exhale, get all that stale air out. If you're walking outside, there will be a bell at the halfway point, so that way you can turn around and head back. If you're working out inside, whether you're marching in place or on a treadmill then you can just work harder or go faster. A few intervals today, but not too many. Just going to really focus on clearing that mind and figuring out how to focus on one thing at a time, which for me is nearly impossible. Another deep breath in through your nose. Fill up those lungs and exhale. Still staying at that comfortable pace. And as we're walking now, just check in with your body, feel for any tense spots, and then we're going to try to release those tense spots a little bit. If your shoulders are tense, relax those. If your hands are tense, shake 'em out. And today we're not going to be trying to solve anything. We're just going to first take a little bit of a mental inventory just to see what is making it so difficult to focus and accomplish things. So keep your breathing going. I think about it like a messy closet and that we can't organize everything in that closet until we pull everything out. You can't really see what's there until you get everything in front of you and then see what's not important and what's the most important. Another deep breath and exhale. Now we're going to add a little purpose to our step, so go a little bit faster. Still comfortable, just a little shift, little lift in that heart rate. Take a moment now and think about everything that is cluttering up your brain as we're walking. You don't have to worry about your body, your body's doing its thing as long as you're breathing. And we're going to check in occasionally and see how physically you're doing. Think about all those tabs that are open. And then think about how many of those tabs are for your Someday Self, the you that has more time and energy, who's going to do the things that all those open tabs represent. And we're not going to think about those right now. We're just going to acknowledge that they're there and go, hey tabs. And if you have ADHD like me, you understand that because there's 50 tabs open, plus all the other things going on, and we just gotta multitask and we just get distracted. Another deep breath into your nose. And exhale through your mouth and you're holding onto that pace. Too many tabs open really causes brain fog and causes overwhelm, and then you're not paying attention to where you're at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I was at my cousin's house cat sitting for her and I was feeding her cat. I put the food in the bowl then my son called me to tell me that I left the gas on. And so I couldn't really hear or understand what he was trying to say to me. So I pick up the cat food bowl and try to put it to my ear instead of the phone. And that's what happens when you have too many things going on because I was in my head, I had all these tabs open for everything else I had to do. So sometimes you just need to slow it down and get more in the moment. Hold on to that pace. You're going to roll your shoulders backwards, going to roll those shoulders forwards. We're really just going to focus on eliminating some of those extra tabs and try to figure out what is important and what isn't, so we can be more in the present and get more things done. Now we're going to go a little bit faster. From a stroll to more of a brisk pace, and as I always say, feel how good it feels to move your body. You are going to keep breathing. Strong arms and some purposeful steps, and as we go faster or even faster, we're going to feel like we're having quick steps, lighter feet. And breathe. So here's something that I use. Here's one of my hacks. It is called the just one thing rule. And the idea is to just focus on the one task that if we do it will make everything else easier, or you realize that those things don't even need to be done anymore. I use Basecamp in my business to organize tasks for different clients. I also like to just have a notepad and write down the top things that I need to do, and sometimes I break them into categories. There's something about writing on a piece of paper. I don't have to look at my calendar. I just have to look at the notepad and I can check things off, and it makes it so much easier. Another deep breath in now. Holding that pace, you want it to be a little bit challenging, but we're going to go longer during this section, so we're not going to be completely out of breath, but just really get that oxygen flowing through your body. Because walking sends more oxygen to your brain, and that actually helps us create brand new brain cells. And let me tell you, I need those brand new brain cells. So that's what we're going to focus on now first, is just getting that oxygen flowing, getting that heart pumping. It's like your oil change for your brain. And stay with that pace for a bit. When you think about the one thing that you have to do, almost think about a tangled knot of yarn. Don't do a tangled ponytail because what I do is I cut the hair thingy out of my hair . Yeah. So don't do that because the hairdressers do not like when you actually have to cut a piece of your hair to get it out. So think about a ball of yarn and it's a tangled knot, and you can't just untangle it all at once. You have to find the one loose thread. The one loose piece of the yarn to pull. Keep your breathing going. You are going to stay strong, fairly quick walking and kind of strong arms to help you keep your pace. Roll those shoulders again backwards. Get all that tension out. Still holding your pace though, and roll them forward. Shake out your hands again. Just feel how good it feels to move. Ask yourself, what is the one thing that would give me the biggest feeling of relief when it's done? Sometimes I do my best thinking when I'm moving. It doesn't have to be walking. I did my best thinking when I was spinning. I also do really good thinking in the shower. Any kind of repetitive movement helps you think and be more creative. Hold on to that speed. Going to be a little uncomfortable. Just enough to bump that heart rate up a little bit. All the things you need to do, don't let them stress you out right now. Just think about one thing you can do that you've been putting off when you get back from your walk today. It happens a lot with me that I just feel overwhelmed and I don't know where to start. I'm looking at a blank piece of paper, looking at a blank screen. I have stuff in Basecamp. I have emails. I have Facebook messages. I have texts, and a lot of them are relating to business. That's why I like to write things down even briefly on that pad of paper. Also, one thing I like to do is I have a sheet of paper, it has four boxes with little lines on it, and I split them up for me as to what needs to be done. It's like a to-do list. I print it out and then I have to call, to email, to do. If you're going to psych yourself up to make a phone call, you can batch some phone calls together. So you're in that frame of mind, where you're just thinking about those phone calls and now you're going to think about the work because you're in the work mode and now you're going to think about the emails that you have to answer and then you can do your scrolling. But for me, that helps to break things up. Also you can do a brain dump at night, which you write everything down on a different notepad. I don't know if you've ever done this, but sometimes I'll like suddenly get this surge of adrenaline because I forgot to do this. And so if you write everything down before you go to bed, you can get that out of your brain and hopefully get a better night's sleep. We're going to pick up a little pace, but only for about a minute. Let your thoughts flow. Let your mind relax. Let your mind clear. Feel the way your body's moving. Everything's in sync. Everything's pushing. And you're breathing. Your shoulders are not tight. Your hands are not tight. Your jaw is not tight. And now slow it down just a little back to our pre-burst speed. Deep breath in. Give yourself a posture check. Are you still walking tall? Are your shoulders down and back? Are your glutes squeezed? Just let your body do what it needs to do. Pump those arms. A little bit quicker steps, or you can do longer strides. If you're on equipment inside, you can add more resistance. Keep those shoulders from becoming earrings. You want to bring them down. Relax it. Periodically throughout the day, you can also turn off your phone or put on do not disturb and have certain times of day where you don't check social media. A couple years ago, yeah, I did an episode where I said I was going to stop looking at my phone first thing in the morning. And did I do that? Yeah, for like one day. I read an article recently where the first hour of your day is really important to not be besieged by news . Get up like 15 minutes earlier and maybe just do some mobility exercises or some stretching or just sit there, and close your eyes and just take a moment before the busy day starts. You're not already tired from everything that you've read about or heard about. Another deep breath in now. You're going to slow it a little bit. Bring it out of that brisk pace and roll those shoulders again. Bring them backwards. Roll those shoulders forwards. It is a pace where you could talk if someone was walking with you, so you're not out of breath. I was watching Man on the Inside with Ted Danson. The person who runs the retirement home or the convalescent home she has so many things coming at her all the time. Everybody wants something and things have to be fixed, and things have to be ordered, and there's certain times throughout her day she'd put her on the earphones and she would lay under her desk and she would listen to some kind of relaxing waves or white noise just to take a moment to clear her mind. Listen to white noise, pink noise, brown noise. Listen to the sound of the ocean, even five minutes. You don't have to meditate. Instead of scrolling on your phone take that time and just relax. Close some of those other tabs and try to focus on the one thing that will make the biggest difference in your day and the one thing that will make the biggest difference in your life? Now we're going to go a little bit faster. We're just going to play with our heart rate. People expect us to answer our texts right away and answer our phone calls right away and answer emails right away and answer Facebook messages right away. And sometimes we need to just put on the do not disturb and go for a walk. Even just a five minute walk just to clear your mind so you can get back to your list. Okay, now we're going to do one more little burst. Get ready. We're going to go for another minute and I really want you to push this and as you're pushing it, think about the fact that walking and exercise helps your brain from shrinking. We do cardiovascular exercise because it helps you keep more of your gray matter. And just really helps clear that mind and makes you less cranky. I want you to push it now. We're done thinking about our tabs. We're going to think about why we walk and why we exercise, and how that clears your mind and clears those tabs. Exercise also helps your brain's ability to rewire itself and adapt, and that really is the key to sharpening our focus and shaking off that feeling of confusion or forgetfulness. Push it. We're just going to do 10 more seconds. Push it. Now we're going to slow it down for real this time. I know I like to trick people. I used to do that in spin class. I would say, okay, we're almost done. Of course, we weren't almost done with that hard effort, but you gotta trick people sometimes because it's easier to think that the hard part's almost done, right? Deep breath in again through your nose. Exhale through your mouth. As we slow it down a little bit more, think about what is your first thread you're going to pull. What is the first tiny action? How do you untangle this thread? What is the most important of all the tabs that you have open? Sometimes you want to find out what are the quicker things you can do, the small things to close some of those tabs and let you focus on the bigger tabs. Do you want to see more quick little progress, or do you prefer to get the big thing out of the way? Deep breath in again. And exhale. What is the one thing that you can do? The tiny thread that you can start with on that bigger project, like planning a trip or if you want to organize your photos, for example, the tiny thread could be creating one new folder on your computer. Just start with something small that you can build on and you can add on so you don't get overwhelmed with all those tabs that are open. Keep breathing now. The hard work is done. We're going to start bringing it home, bringing it down, bringing that heart rate down. Feel for any tense spots in your body. Deep breath in through your nose. And exhale. Find ways that work for you to get organized, to clear those tabs, to get things out of your head. That really helps reduce the overwhelm and walking is amazing to really clear your mind and to help you focus. And if you're stuck on something, like you're stuck on your next step, or you're stuck on figuring out what that first thread is, just get out and go for a five minute walk. Put on some rocking music, some fun music. Then you come back and then you tackle that thing you didn't want to do And as we cool it down more, a little bit slower, remember that walking like this, 10 minute walks, 15 minute walks, just three to five times a week is enough to really help measurable brain improvements. The important thing when you're walking or when you're thinking about everything you have to do is really not to feel stressed about it, and like everything you have to do can seem so overwhelming. But you can also take a separate list. And I also have another list for this? I have a master list and then I have the individual tasks list. So what I did is I put everything down on the master list and then I moved it from the master list onto that little sheet that has the four squares because, um, you know, for me that's easier. Again, I'm, I, because I didn't know until I was in my mid to late fifties that I had A-D-H-D-I had to work. Around myself and outsmart myself and do things that would help me run a business and do everything else without knowing at A DHD. And so these things are what works for me, but they may not work for you. But find something that does work for you. Another deep breath in now. And exhale, let your heart rate come back down to earth. We're almost there. And then when you're done from any kind of a walk, if you can do a little bit of stretching, you can do it standing, stretch your calves, stretch your hips a little bit, stretch the front, your quads, the front of your thighs can also do some foot rolls to kind of give those ankles a little bit of a break. It's amazing how tight we are in unexpected places. Like when I get my calves massage and I almost. Jump off the table because yeah, there's a lot in those calves. And exhale, deep breath into your nose. And exhale. If you like the show, the biggest thing that you can do to support it is follow the podcast. Or like the podcast or give me a review . Reviews are always helpful. You can also leave me a comment on Spotify, which I just learned. There was like, whoa, I saw a comment. I was so excited. Help me get more traction so I can reach more people. Deep breath into your nose now. And ex exhale through your mouth and I will see you next time.