Friday, April 17, 2015

Straight-up chilllin' out for 20 minutes a day will make your brain better. Here's how.

20 minutes. Healthier you. No sweat.




Let's talk about exercise.



It's sweaty. But it's good!


Exercise helps keep your heart beating and keeps you walking long into *ye olden tymes.*


It also helps you do cool fireman tricks such as carrying a grown man like a backpack.




Exercise makes you feel like a kid again!


But you know who feels left out?



This guy.


Fret not, brain owners!


Actually, let's take that one step further. CHILL OUT.




And by chill, I mean take 20 minutes and just think. Watch your thoughts go by. Be like, "Hello, thought." And keep on chillin'.


What I mean by chillin' is meditating. It's like "Sweatin' to the Oldies" for your brain.


From the Harvard Gazette:


"By practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life," says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany.

That's right. Just like you can do pushups and squats if you want to lift more men like backpacks, YOU HAVE CONTROL over your brain!


Your brain can be well on track to Benjamin Button-ing itself, focusing and remembering better, and connecting all its disparate parts with just 20-ish minutes a day of sitting still and practicing mindfulness meditation.


Brain exercise. No sweat.


For more on the specific ways your brain's physical shape is changed by meditation, have a look at this two-and-a-half-minute video. Then set your timers — it's meditation time!




Video by Scientific American.


Here's a link again to the Harvard study on how eight weeks of meditation will change the shape of your brain. I also found this definition of "mindfulness meditation" helpful.


Good luck!






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