When you incorporate movement into your day, you can boost productivity at the same time. \u201cBuild in brain breaks throughout your day to optimize your brain performance and prevent fatigue,\u201d Krystal L. Culler, DBH, tells Thrive.<\/p>\n
Most of us with office jobs know: Incorporating movement into your routine can be tough when you\u2019re stuck behind a desk<\/a> all day. Plus, hustle culture perpetuates the myth that if you work \u2014 while seated \u2014 until you drop, you\u2019re optimizing your performance and setting yourself up for success. In reality, that\u2019s not the case at all: Ultimately, overworking and working a sedentary job late into the evening every night is a recipe for burnout<\/a>. In other words, you need to give yourself breaks \u2014 the kind that involve leaving your desk and moving around\u00a0 \u2014 in order to keep performing at your best. \u201cBuild in brain breaks throughout your day to optimize your brain performance and prevent fatigue,\u201d Krystal L. Culler, D.B.H., tells Thrive. According to research<\/a>, regular breaks \u2014 even short ones \u2014 can help you make better decisions, inspire motivation, and increase productivity and creativity.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just your brain that needs a break: Your body does, too. Research has shown that extended sitting can be harmful: According to the Mayo Clinic<\/a>, one analysis found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to those posed by smoking and obesity. Other outcomes of \u201csitting disease\u201d include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and depression<\/a>. According to the Harvard Health Blog<\/a>, just 25 minutes of physical activity (walking counts!) can help offset the negative health effects of sitting all day.<\/p>\n Opting for walking meetings<\/a> instead of stationary ones is a great way to do that. Not only do they allow you to get in more movement they also provide a valuable opportunity for your brain. Walking and moving together is tied to \u201ccognitive mapping,\u201d which can actually help you cope with workplace stress. \u201cOur sensory systems work at their best when they\u2019re moving about the world,\u201d Shane O\u2019Mara, D.Phil., a neuroscientist who studies the connection between brain systems and cognitive function explains in The Guardian<\/em>.<\/a> \u201cCognitive mapping,\u201d O\u2019Mara says, is about creating pathways that get marked in your hippocampus, and prompt new cells to fire. Those cells begin to fire when you move \u2014 so if your stress is taking a toll on your work and your mood, going on a walk can help counteract some of those debilitating effects.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why suggesting walking meetings to co-workers can be such a great, and simple, way to improve your well-being throughout the workday. O\u2019Mara says your cognitive map can be seen as a \u201csilent sense\u201d that is largely constructed without awareness, so cultivating it during a walking meeting can help you relieve stress while staying productive. Research<\/a> has also shown that walking meetings can help strengthen relationships with colleagues<\/a>, and foster creativity, so really, it\u2019s a win for everyone. It\u2019s no surprise that Steve Jobs<\/a> was such a proponent of walking meetings throughout his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you incorporate movement into your day, you can boost productivity at the same time. \u201cBuild in brain breaks throughout your day to optimize your brain performance and prevent fatigue,\u201d Krystal L. Culler, DBH, tells Thrive. Most of us with office jobs know: Incorporating movement into your routine can be tough when you\u2019re stuck behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/777.webp","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}