Easing Brain Fatigue

When I was in fifth grade, I remember having a really hard time on a math problem. Not to toot my own horn, but I was a really good math student, so the difficulty was enormously frustrating to me! And probably came as a bit of a surprise to my teacher, who finally told me to take a walk outside for a bit and then come back and give it another try. (Importantly, my school was surrounded by woods.) So I did. Math problem solved.

Now check out this article from the New York Times, Easing Brain Fatigue With a Walk in the Park. 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/easing-brain-fatigue-with-a-walk-in-the-park/?smid=pl-share

As the article acknowledges, the findings from the referenced study are not necessarily rocket science, but they’re interesting nonetheless to me at least, for two core reasons:

1.     Forget a walk on city streets vs a park, nowadays the most popular way to ease brain fatigue is going on that “Starbucks run.” So even if it’s not rocket science, it certainly makes you think twice.

2.     Strolling through a leafy park eases brain fatigue much like eating your way through a leafy meal eases body and organ fatigue. The cat is out of the bag! Green is good. Really, really good.

So what if you don’t have access to a leafy park on a regular basis? No excuses. Yoga is a wonderful way to ease brain fatigue as well. Do it on your own if you know what you’re doing, or try out http://www.yogaglo.com/ for a two week free trial ($18/month thereafter if you want to join.) Tons of online classes ranging from 15 minutes to two hours that you can do anywhere, anytime. Or think about meditation too. Nope, doesn’t have to be weird. Do this breathing exercise to start: breathe in through the nose for four seconds, hold your breath for five seconds, breathe out through your mouth for six seconds. Do it ten times in the morning and ten times at night. Or anytime during the day you need to ease the mind.