This past week I found myself feeling worried about many things. The future of our country, climate changes that caused an unusual two-week dome of stifling humidity, the power grid taking banks and businesses temporarily off line, a friend hospitalized. It seemed like a lot all at once.
Then, as often happens, my friend and colleague Brad Yates sent out his weekly EFT tapping video and it felt like he knew just what I needed! Of course, I’m sure lots of others needed this video this week, which is why Brad made it, but at the time it felt as though it was just for me.
I’ve shared the video, below, so that you can tap along with Brad and reduce your worries for a few moments, too.
I have a class that I’m teaching simple tools to build more neurons and improve our brain health as we age. As I was researching another tool to share with this class, I found this tip from brain experts Jim Kwik and Dr. Carolyn Leaf:
Take Time to Recharge Your Brain!
Our brains can get overloaded and bogged down when we are multitasking or worrying, or can get drained by chaotic thoughts running through our minds.
Something to keep in mind is that stress, and simply having too much on our to-do list, can also make it very challenging to focus.
Kwik says, “Focus is a muscle. If you don’t use it, you lose it. That’s why mindfulness training is so very important.” There is extensive research that supports the role of mindfulness techniques in improving memory, cognition, and other aspects of mental wellbeing.
It’s one thing to know what we need to do to keep the Dementia Demon away, but it’s altogether another to take action based on our new knowledge.
Dr. Leaf says that she sets an alarm to go off once an hour during the seven most busy hours of her day – every day, and takes a two-minute break for daydreaming, doodling, visualizing, or to smell the flowers (mine are pictured above), to give her brain a chance to recharge.
As much as we all would love to go away to a beach somewhere and watch the surf for an hour, science has not yet figured out the “beam me up, Scotty” technology. So it’s nice to know that even something as simple as a two-minute break, once an hour, can help improve our brain. Just a few moments a day can make a meaningful difference.
“These moments give your brain a rest and allow it to reboot and heal, which can increase your clarity of thought, help you deal with stress and help improve your mood,” says Dr. Leaf. In these two-minute breaks, she explains, “we switch off the external and switch on the internal,” which gives the brain a chance to recharge so we can focus better and feel more productive.
In our Zoom class this week, I had my students gaze out a window or doodle for the two-minute break, and then, I had them complete a balance exercise.
They were able to complete this balance pose better than they normally do in our class, demonstrating right away that their focus improved with this simple little exercise.
After that, we all pledged to set our alarms for once an hour and recharge our brains every day too!
How about you?
Want to join us?
Take action today, set up this small change in your daily activities, and you’ll be happy you did for the rest of your life!
Here’s Brad’s video:
Best of Health,
Kathi
