03 Sep Get out your brain’s way
If you’re someone who feels guilty about taking breaks throughout your work day… this brain scan finding might change everything: Your brain is actively working for you while you “do nothing”, and the best thing you can do is to get out of its way. Here’s what I learned from the book Rest by Alex Pang: When you’re resting, your brain is almost as active as when you’re focused. One particular study, back in the 1990s, showed that there’s as much going on in the brain while reading text (a cognitively complicated activity) as while staring at a blank wall. It’s just a different kind of activity, driven by different brain regions. As soon as we stop concentrating on an external task, our brain automatically switches on the Default Mode Network (DMN) - a series of interconnected sections that are involved in mind-wandering, daydreaming about the past and future, and introspection. This kind of brain activity is hugely important and valuable. The DMN is busy processing, connecting, and consolidating ideas - completely outside of our conscious awareness. “It is clear that the brain’s creative work is never done, that even in its resting state the brain is plugging away at problems, examining and tossing out possible answers, looking...