Some of the most worried people I see in my practice tell me the same thing:
“My memory is getting worse.”
They forget why they walked into a room, reread the same paragraph, lose their train of thought, or struggle to focus like they used to.
Naturally, they wonder:
Is something wrong with my brain?
Sometimes, memory changes do need a medical evaluation.
But often, I see another pattern:
Their brain is simply overloaded.
Work. Parenting. Email. Texts. Endless mental to-do lists. Constant input with almost no space to recover. Their body may leave work. Their brain never really clocks out.
Stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and major life stressors can all contribute to memory problems and forgetfulness. Importantly, those problems can improve when the underlying issue improves.
So for our final week of the Brain Health Challenge…
I want to help you create some space.
Welcome to Week 4.
I cannot believe we’re already here.
More than 350 people participated in this Summer Brain Health Challenge, and creating this for you has been one of my favorite projects I’ve done with this newsletter.
Week 1, we moved.
Week 2, we fixed our sleep.
Week 3, we went into the kitchen
And this week, we’re tackling something I think a lot of us desperately need:
Recovery.
Also, this will NOT be our last challenge.
I’m planning to do many more Brain Health Challenges like this, and I’m also exploring smaller groups focused on very specific problems: ADHD, sleep, brain fog, and potentially a small cohort for people who want to go through a deeper brain-health audit and build a plan around reducing their dementia risk.
I have some big ideas for where we can take this community next.
Stay tuned for what’s next.
Leo somehow gets funnier every week.
He and Basil are becoming best friends. They hang out together constantly, and watching my son grow up with a built-in best friend makes me ridiculously happy.
He’s spending more and more time on his feet, and I know that first real step is coming.
I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
We’re already planning his first birthday, which seems impossible. Mostly, I’m just trying to soak up the end of summer because time is moving way too fast.
Work has been exciting too. Goodman Psychiatry, my practice for physicians and other healthcare professionals, is getting close to capacity. If you know someone looking for a psychiatrist, they can schedule a free call with me here.
And... word on the street is that I recently got my medical license in a whole new state. 👀
I spent a lot of time there. I even went to college there.
I’ll officially announce it soon, but to my friends in that part of the country:
I’m looking forward to working with y’all. 😉
Okay. Back to your brain.
I talk about burnout constantly in my clinical work.
The simplest way I think about it is:
Burnout happens when demand consistently exceeds recovery for too long.
And high performers often respond by doing more: working later, organizing harder, adding another productivity system, pushing through.
But sometimes the answer is not more.
Sometimes the answer is less.
That might mean turning off notifications, delegating something, leaving space between meetings, calling a friend, or protecting an hour where nobody needs anything from you.
Small changes create breathing room.
And your brain needs breathing room.
Yes, I want to reduce my dementia risk, stay independent, and keep my memory as I age.
But brain health also matters right now.
Can you focus? Think clearly? Be present with people you love? Stop thinking about work when work is over?
Long-term brain health involves more than movement, sleep, and nutrition. The World Health Organization’s updated 2026 dementia-risk guidelines also emphasize cognitive stimulation and social engagement.
Your brain needs good food, movement, and sleep.
But it also needs people, challenge, joy, purpose, boundaries, and recovery.
Which brings us to our final challenge.
Below, I’m giving paid subscribers my complete 7-Day Brain Reset.
This is built from strategies I use in my own life and regularly discuss with high-achieving patients who are dealing with stress, burnout, brain fog, and cognitive overload.
Over the next seven days, you’ll learn:
• The morning boundary I use before the world gets access to me
• My Do, Delete, Delegate, Defer method for getting things out of your head
• A simple trick for breaking automatic phone habits
• How to create an actual transition out of stressful days
• Why meaningful human connection belongs in a brain-health plan
• Why I want you to spend 30 minutes doing something completely “unproductive”
• My Sunday Recharge for figuring out what drains you, what restores you, and what deserves space on next week’s calendar
One assignment per day.
You’ve spent three weeks building a healthier brain.
This week, we give that brain some room to breathe.
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