Give Yourself A 'Brain Break'

Scientific research has added new depths to the act of delving deep into the realms of the subconscious; it has proven how zoning out benefits one’s creativity and well-being.

- Chris Griffiths

A fire without fuel burns out. It does not matter how much you blow or waft, without firewood to keep the flames going, it will inevitably regress to nothing more than blackened embers. What does this have to do with taking a brain break, you ask? Well, in the simplest of terms, our minds operate much like a fire. If we keep on burning and burning without stopping to refuel, then we will eventually run out of energy. Not only is this bad for our work, it is bad for overall well-being, too. Maintaining a flow of creative ideas, executing good work, and keeping your brain in tip-top shape might sound like an impossible feat—but it is not, and I am here to tell you why.

Burnout is a huge issue in the modern working world—it is even been recognised as a real, medical condition by The World Health Organization. The response both online and in the workspace has been panicked and reactionary. With tech regularly pinpointed as the culprit in this crime, workers have begun tech detoxes, using apps to block and track their usage. But can we really fight technology with technology? Tech is not in and of itself ‘bad’; it is the way we use tech that is the problem. With electronic calendars synced up and shared between teams, people feel increasingly under pressure to fill every moment of every day. People no longer carve out personal thinking time—they spend all day ‘doing’ and no time ‘reflecting’. The unending modern pressure to always be ‘hustling’ fuels the myth that taking pause is actually anti-productive. In reality, the opposite is true: by completing task after task without any time to stop and breathe, we forfeit our ability to keep on working. Taking a break and letting your mind wander is a key part of the cognitive process; it is during this time that your mind refuels so that you can keep the fire burning.