Here are five other ways to give your brain a break during your workday:
1. Take a moment to do something you love. This is the idea behind all the games available at those Silicon Valley campuses. Take advantage of what’s at or near your office. Being fully engaged in an activity lifts the mood and contributes to feelings of overall well-being. At Dun & Bradstreet Credibility, we encourage team members to pursue personal interests, and our employees have created clubs including whiskey club, Russian club, and running club.
2. Get in touch with nature. Being outside activates different brain regions than sitting inside, as most of us do for the majority of our workday. Simple ways to incorporate nature include taking a walk in a nearby park or regularly having lunch outside. At my office, we took it up a notch by bringing in a wildlife expert and her exotic animals during a particularly challenging week for our developers. Nothing like petting a sugar glider or a hedgehog to activate less-used parts of the brain!
3. Be physically active. Company-sponsored yoga classes and in-office gyms are becoming increasingly common, with good reason. Exercise is good for our brains. If you can’t get in a full workout, don’t fret: stretching for five minutes or even using a standing desk makes small changes that can spur creativity and recharge your batteries.
4. Nap. I’ll admit that this is the hardest to do in a typical office environment, but if you can find a way, the benefits are huge. Some offices actually have sleeping pods, but for those that don’t, slip out into your car for a power nap. Much of what happens in the brain while we sleep is still unknown, but what is certain is that people perform better in terms of memory and concentration after a nap.
5. Do nothing. If a snooze isn’t possible, then simply sit in a quiet place and allow yourself to relax for ten minutes. Just as when sleeping, important mental processes occur when we daydream.
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