The 5 minute brain break

Can you spare 5 minutes for a brain break? Chances are you are already running on a tight schedule, and the thought of scheduling in a brain break seems rather ridiculous.

However, everything in your life depends on your brain’s ability to function. Yet most of us know more about how to maintain our cars than how to do maintenance on our brains.

We just assume that we’re using this brain energy time clock that requires some sleep and a little coffee to perk up its electrical grid of neurons.

In all of human history, it’s our world that makes the greatest demand on our brains.

What a Good Brain Needs

A good brain needs to be stimulated, it needs to be fed and nurtured, it needs to be given downtime, and most important of all it needs distractions.

Your brain can only take so much punishment in a day. Click To Tweet

Besides all the critical and creative thinking, you are asking it to do, it has to sort through emails, private messages, spreadsheets, infographics, ringtones, pdf’s, jpegs, mp3’s, 140 character tweets, memes, emojis, html, .docx, wav, gif, tiff, png and any other short-cut codes needed to communicate in our extended digital environment.

Ever wonder why your brain suddenly hijacks you into erroneous thoughts, old memories, or fantasy daydreams? You think it’s a lack of focus and concentration on your part. When in fact, it’s your brain saying it’s had enough and it needs some distractions. 

Obviously, if you aren’t going to give it some interesting distractions, your brain is going to wander off on its own.

Want to be Productive?

If you want to have a productive day, then you have to build in some 5-minute brain breaks.

• a trip to the bathroom counts
• a trip to the refrigerator also counts, so long as you just look and don’t eat
• some stretches will do, and if they are yoga stretches all the better
• open a window or door and take deep breaths of fresh air
• practice your best dance moves wearing ear buds
• hit your home gym for a quick spin cycle
• find another human and have a quick face-to-face conversation without holding anything in your hands
• meditate

I know you think meditating takes more than 5 minutes. After all, you need your comfy meditation clothes, your meditation mat, your votive candle, your meditative music and time to settle into your meditation pose. Then, and only then, can you focus on your breathing and begin to quiet your mind.

Instead, why don’t you give yourself  a brain break with a YouTube, 5 minute meditation. They do exist, they are easily accessible from where you already are, there is more than one to choose from, and yes some are longer than 5 minutes.

It only requires that you sit back, continue to breathe, close your eyes and listen. No physical or mental challenge here.

Try the sample below and see if your brain is more willing to stay on track and get you through the rest of your day.

How many brain breaks did you take today?

Image: pixabay 1093904  Video: 5 Minute Quick Break Meditation: A Heart Chakra, Guided Spoken Visualization