For some, the holidays are quite stressful.  I’ll introduce you to an important concept that has a dramatic affect on your life. In fact, this concept can literally make you smarter (or dumber) and even dictate job success.

You’ll learn why this occurs, and what you can do to reduce the problem. Plus, make connections for your kids in school. The concept is grounded scientifically and let us look at tangibility for the evidence. In fact, people joke about this concept all the time. They just don’t know that it’s actually REAL. The mind-blowing concept that can change your life (and raise student achievement) is…

The Research

The key term is called “cognitive load.”

Cognitive load is the amount of stuff you’re “juggling” mentally at any given time. Humans cycle thoughts and feelings through their head all day long. This concept was first proposed by John Sweller in 1988, while studying problem-solving. He says that the amount of information, the complexity and the interactions that must be processed simultaneously is our “cognitive load.”

New learning can be processed in real time or overwhelm the brain based on 1) your knowledge of related background information in long-term memory, 2) the emotional context and valence, and 3) the strength of your working memory.

How can this concept make you (or your students) feel stupid, or pretty smart? You guessed it. Unless your students are prepped with strategies, long-term and short-term memory skills, they will go into “cognitive overload” and freeze up … not good.

Here’s an example of “cognitive load issues” in the classroom. If you work with students from poverty, scarcity of resources in their lives consumes “mental space.” You know what that’s like; if you’re worried about making rent or a house payment, it constantly uses up part of your brain’s functioning power. Cognitive capacity can be stretched thin because of excessive cognitive load issues, said Harvard economist Dr. Mullainathan, part of the research team on a new study. The non-stop worry that comes with being poor demands constant cognitive juggling and mental energy. As a result, the poor have less brainpower to devote to school (unless you, the teacher, know how to change it).

In two countries (U.S. and India), with very different types of poverty, the researchers looked into the daily cognitive load. In both countries, the results were the same. The poor are more likely to make mistakes and make poor decisions that amplified and perpetuated their problems. The mental strain was typically costing poor people as much as 13 IQ points (Shah, Mullainathan & Shafir, 2012). In short, TOO MUCH on your mind hurts your thinking skills and intelligence.

Here are other examples of loss in brainpower. If you feel very guilty about something you have done, you can subtract 15% of your brainpower. If you’re going to a holiday function and you’re worried about what others will think of you (instead of thinking about how you can be interested in others), you can subtract 20%. If you’re trying to prepare a holiday dinner and at the same time, you’re worried about being caught because you’re having an extramarital affair, you can subtract 50% of your brainpower. If you’re in an abusive relationship at home or being beaten every day, you can subtract 40% of your brainpower. The more things “weigh” on your mind, the less capacity you have for vitality, health and joy.

If you’re thinking of what else you could be doing right now (besides reading this awesome newsletter), you just lost another 10% of brainpower. Fail to get a full night’s sleep and you can temporarily lose the amount of brainpower equal to 10 points of IQ (Wolfson & Carskadon, 2005; Killgore, Kahn-Greene, Lipizzi, Newman, Kamimori & Balkin, 2008).

In short, the more you have on your “mental plate”, or the more “plates you’re juggling in the air”, the worse your cognitive skills will be. Worry too much over the holidays (or anytime!) and you lose brainpower.  So try to enjoy the holidays and put less stress on your shoulders.