I Forgot Again. But This Wasn't Brain Fog — It was Flow.

"Wait, I can't remember," I said. “Remind me, where did you go?” 

It happened again, just the other night at dinner with my daughter Sonia. She was telling me about her recent trip to Europe, and despite picturing it in great detail from earlier photos, I couldn't recall the last of three cities she'd visited. Sonia looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. In a way, I had.

I was smiling to myself, though. This wasn't the "brain fog” I'd so often experienced in the past, when chronic fatigue syndrome and an autoimmune thyroid condition left me debilitated, dysregulated, depressed — and forgetting things. Like so many patients I've seen since, I felt a mental sluggishness, a loss of the intrinsic motivation and sharpness that had gotten me through medical school. I'd lost my memory many times in situations like this — what city? who was there? and at one point, where am I? It was destabilizing and scary.

Brain Fog vs. Flow Brain

What I didn't know then was that brain fog has a biology. Inflammation in the brain — neuroinflammation — disrupts neural signaling, clouds memory, and dampens the reward centers of the brain. Inflammatory chemicals that flood the body during chronic illness can affect mood, cognition, and motivation. So this experience wasn’t just “in my head.” It was, quite literally, in my head. 

Sitting at the table now, I was at ease. For the past several years, I'd also experienced forgetfulness while deepening into my qigong practice for greater flow in the mind, heart, and body. I once forgot how old I was. Was I turning 40 or 50? I knew it was a milestone birthday, but I couldn't remember which decade I was entering.

While it's hard to describe the difference between the forgetfulness of fog and flow, here’s an honest go at it: 

The brain in flow state is often accompanied by a distorted sense of time and space.

There is an expansiveness, not a contraction.

An aliveness, not a lethargy. 

A highly focused yet unforced awareness of the present moment.

Neuroscientists have observed a temporary quieting of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for self-monitoring, judgment, and the relentless inner critic. When that quiets, something else opens.

This is a state of peak healing, where the body's functions are optimized.

The flow state isn’t just mental. It can be embodied: the heart and breath synchronize with the coherent energy of the brain, and a visceral calmness overcomes you. The nervous system shifts from sympathetic overdrive into a coherent, regulated state — measurable in heart rate variability, brainwave patterns, and even immune markers.

This calm isn’t passive or sleepy. It’s an activated calm. On an EEG, the flow state shows a distinctive pattern: alpha waves associated with relaxed alertness, and theta waves associated with deep meditation and the edge of sleep. It's a paradoxical state. Deeply restful and fully alive at once.

In this state, life and to-do lists seem to float by, as if happening to you rather than by you. Even activities as mundane as taking your supplements, doing a cleanse, or receiving a medical treatment.

Life feels like a dream. One you’re both living and observing. 

So as I looked at my daughter and said, "Wait, I can't remember, remind me, where did you go?” I recognized this lightness of being. It didn't carry the density or slogging quality of a foggy brain searching for its own thoughts. This was the flow brain. You can relax into it. And eventually, everything — past and present — might feel collapsed into the eternal now.

Where inflammation disrupts and fragments the brain, flow reorganizes it.

An Invitation (or Dare) for You

You can learn to cultivate flow too, to transform your healing. In as little as 10 minutes, 3 times a day, you can begin entraining your nervous system toward the peak healing state. Here are several short practices to start with.

Clinical note: If you're having increasing lapses in memory, or your family members are concerned about it for you, get a checkup with your primary care providers right away. Sudden lapses in memory or odd behaviors warrant immediate attention.