Calming Your Overactive Brain

You know that feeling when your thoughts start chasing each other?

You try to reason your way out, but it only gets louder.

Thinking harder rarely brings clarity—it just stirs the water.

Scientists call this pattern overactivity of the default mode network—the part of the brain that replays the past and rehearses the future.

It’s useful when we’re reflecting or planning, but when the body feels uneasy, this network can loop endlessly.

What’s surprising is how quickly those circuits calm once the body feels settled. Focus doesn’t return through willpower.

It returns through rhythm.

How Calm Shapes Cognition

Your brain and body are in constant conversation.

Every slow breath, every soft sound, tells the nervous system that it can ease its grip.

When you lengthen your exhale, tiny pressure sensors in your chest—called baroreceptors—send signals through the vagus nerve that slow your heart rate and steady your blood pressure.

That change in rhythm quiets the brain’s alarm circuits and makes space for attention to return.

Researchers have measured this shift.

In a 2023 study on paced breathing, participants who exhaled twice as long as they inhaled showed both higher heart-rate variability and reduced activity in the brain’s worry centers.

Another study in 2022 found that humming produced similar results.

The vibration in the throat and chest stimulated the vagus nerve, creating measurable drops in tension and restlessness.

It turns out clarity isn’t something you think your way into. It’s what happens when rhythm returns to the body.

When rhythm returns to the body, clarity follows.

The Exhale-Pause Reset

You might notice how quiet it feels right after a full exhale. That stillness is the nervous system resetting itself.

Try this small practice:

1. Sit comfortably and close your mouth.

2. Inhale gently through your nose for a count of four.

3. Exhale with a soft hum for a count of six. Feel the vibration in your chest.

4. Pause for two easy seconds before inhaling again.

Repeat for about three minutes.

Let the hum travel through your body.

Notice how the pause at the end of each breath grows a little longer, a little calmer.

That pause is your nervous system finding its rhythm again.

Letting the Body Think First

When the mind feels crowded, it’s often the body asking for rhythm. Overthinking isn’t a flaw—it’s a signal.

By bringing attention to breath and sound, you give your system permission to lead again. After a few cycles, you may notice that your thoughts begin to line up instead of collide. Focus feels softer, less forced.

Clarity doesn’t arrive by control.

It arrives when the body feels steady enough to trust the moment.

Be Well,

Jim Donovan, M.Ed.

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References

• Critchley, H. D., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2020). Interoception and emotion regulation: New insights from neurophysiology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(11), 903–915.

• Krause, F., et al. (2022). Humming modulates vagal tone and decreases self-reported anxiety: An experimental study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16, 921387.

• Lin, I., & Park, S. (2023). Paced breathing reduces default mode network activation and improves attention. NeuroImage, 278, 120284.