What am I thinking about?

I am a little under the weather presently and therefore wellness is on my mind. I have had a busy few weeks with overseas travel involved which can sometimes be a bit much on the body. Travel energises me but it is the combination of ground travel (sitting in buzzing rush hour traffic for 2 hours) and an overnight (red eye) return flight that tip the body over the edge. Disrupting our sleep cycle can have the worst effect on our body and brain.

Sleep is the most important element for brain and body recovery. In fact, in the Neuroleadership Institute’s Healthy Mind Platter, sleep is the number one element mentioned. An average of 7-8 hours per day is what our brain (and body) needs. Repair and healing happen during our sleep. I am a firm believer in this.

Did you know….?

I know I keep repeating these statistics but as I sit and write this whilst my body heals I can’t emphasise how important self-care is:

• Adding just 20 minutes to your sleep cycle doubles performance

• Physical time enhances memory formation

• Social intelligence is a predictor of successful performance as a leader

• Disconnecting, doing nothing, and having no plans help us increase our creativity

Are you disconnecting correctly?

And this week I want to focus on the last point which I realise many of us are doing wrong, myself included.

Downtime is another crucial element in our well-being. Many of us think we do downtime right. But WE DON’T.

Downtime is DOWN time – no gadgets, no mental to-do list processing, no TV, no Netflix, no social media scrolling. Doing downtime correctly is switching off completely. Would you believe it, but mindfulness meditation is NOT downtime – because we are getting the brain to focus.

Walking sans gadgets, gardening (not to clean but to BE in the garden), washing the dishes, reading, showering, and staring out of the window (wondering) are some ways of doing downtime correctly.

Here’s the link to the article, courtesy of NeuroLeadership Institute, that has the details on getting downtime right (and how you may be getting it wrong now), We’re Doing Downtime Wrong. It is a fantastic (and short) read!

Be well!

As always, you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com