How to Take a Brain Break | Jim Kwik

Summary

In this educational video, brain coach Jim Quick introduces the Pomodoro Technique, emphasizing the importance of regular breaks for cognitive health. He suggests taking five-minute breaks every 25-30 minutes to breathe, hydrate, and move, which can enhance memory and concentration. Quick also recommends juggling as a brain-boosting activity that increases white matter and improves peripheral vision. He encourages embracing imperfection and using movement and cross-laterals to enhance brain function, promoting a healthy mind-body connection.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Your brain needs regular breaks to function optimally; it's not built to work 24/7.
• ⏲️ The Pomodoro Technique suggests taking breaks every 25-30 minutes to enhance concentration and memory.
• 🌬️ During breaks, deep breathing is essential as the brain consumes a significant amount of oxygen.
• 💧 Hydration improves reaction time and cognitive function by about 30%.
• 🏃‍♂️ Movement, such as standing up and walking, boosts brain health by increasing blood flow and oxygenation.
• 🤹 Juggling can enhance brain function by increasing white matter and improving peripheral vision.
• 💪 Cross-lateral movements, like touching the opposite knee with your hand, can enhance brain connectivity.
• 🎶 Activities like dancing and table tennis are excellent for brain health.
• 🧘 Super Brain Yoga, involving squats and ear massages, can also boost brain function.
• 🚶 Incorporate regular movement into your daily routine to maintain optimal brain health and performance.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is about giving your brain a break and the Pomodoro Technique, which includes taking regular interval breaks to improve concentration and memory.

What is the Pomodoro Technique mentioned in the script?

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method where you work for a set amount of time, typically 25 minutes, and then take a short break. It is suggested to help with maintaining focus and concentration.

Why is it important to take breaks according to the script?

Taking breaks is important because it gives the brain time to recharge and rejuvenate, and it helps in creating more primacies and recencies, which are the first and last items in a list that are more likely to be remembered.

What are the three things recommended to do during a brain break?

The three things recommended to do during a brain break are: 1) Breathe deeply to increase oxygen intake, 2) Hydrate to improve reaction time and thinking speed, and 3) Stand up and move to stimulate the creation of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF).

What is the connection between movement and brain function as described in the script?

The script suggests that movement is crucial for brain function because it helps control the body, stimulates the creation of BDNF, which is like fertilizer for the brain, and can lead to the generation of creative ideas.

Why is juggling mentioned as a beneficial activity for the brain?

Juggling is mentioned as beneficial because it has been shown to increase white matter in the brain, according to a study at Oxford University, and it also helps in expanding peripheral vision, which can potentially improve reading ability.

What is the significance of the term 'cross laterals' in the context of the script?

Cross laterals refer to exercises that involve crossing the midline of the body, such as touching one hand to the opposite knee. These exercises may help create connections in the brain and are considered beneficial for brain function.

What is the role of mistakes in the context of learning to juggle as per the script?

The script encourages embracing mistakes while learning to juggle, emphasizing that failure is not the opposite of success but a part of it. This mindset helps in progressing faster and not being hindered by the fear of making mistakes.

What is the script's stance on the importance of physical activity for brain health?

The script strongly advocates for the inclusion of physical activity in daily routines, suggesting that it is not just about occasional exercise but about making movement a regular part of one's day to improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain.

What are some alternative activities suggested in the script for brain breaks other than juggling?

The script suggests alternative activities such as jumping jacks, burpees, calisthenics, push-ups, sit-ups, dancing, table tennis, and Super Brain yoga as ways to engage in physical activity during brain breaks.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Brain Breaks and the Pomodoro Technique

Jim Quick, the brain coach, introduces the concept of giving the brain regular breaks to enhance concentration and memory. He explains the Pomodoro Technique, which suggests taking breaks every 25-30 minutes to recharge the brain, creating more primacies and recencies in memory. He emphasizes the importance of deep breathing, hydration, and physical movement during these breaks, and introduces juggling as a beneficial exercise for brain health, citing a study from Oxford University that shows it can increase white matter in the brain.

05:00

🤹‍♂️ Juggling as a Metaphor for Life and Learning

The script continues with Jim Quick discussing the metaphorical significance of juggling in life, encouraging viewers to embrace mistakes as part of the learning process. He provides a step-by-step guide on how to begin juggling, emphasizing the importance of relaxed practice and incremental progress. Jim also touches on the benefits of physical movement for brain health, suggesting that activities like jumping jacks, burpees, and push-ups can improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain.

10:02

🤸‍♀️ Cross Laterals and Super Brain Yoga for Brain Health

In the final paragraph, Jim Quick explores exercises that involve crossing the body's midline, such as cross laterals and Super Brain yoga, which may help create connections in the brain. He explains the mind-body connection and the role of the Corpus callosum in brain communication. Jim also suggests activities like dancing and table tennis for their brain benefits and concludes by encouraging viewers to share their brain break activities in the comments, fostering a community of learning and growth.

Keywords

💡Brain Breaks

Brain Breaks refer to the practice of taking short, regular intervals of rest to improve cognitive function and memory. In the video, Jim Quick emphasizes the importance of these breaks to recharge the brain, using the Pomodoro Technique as a framework, which suggests working for 25-30 minutes followed by a 5-minute break. This concept is central to the video's theme of enhancing brain performance through rest and activity.

💡Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that involves breaking work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. The video script mentions this technique as a way to maintain concentration and productivity, highlighting its role in creating more 'primacies' and 'recencies' in memory retention, which are the first and last items in a list that are most likely to be remembered.

💡Primacy and Recency

Primacy and Recency are psychological phenomena related to memory retention. Primacy refers to the tendency to remember information presented at the beginning of a list, while recency refers to the last items. The script uses these concepts to explain why taking breaks during study or work sessions can improve memory by creating more opportunities for primacy and recency to occur.

💡Deep Breathing

Deep breathing is a relaxation technique that involves taking slow, deliberate breaths to increase oxygen intake and reduce stress. The video script suggests deep breathing during brain breaks to enhance mental clarity and reduce mental fog, emphasizing the brain's high oxygen requirement despite its small size relative to body mass.

💡Hydration

Hydration is the process of drinking enough water to maintain proper body function. The video script points out that being well-hydrated can increase reaction time and thinking speed by about 30 percent, making it an essential part of maintaining cognitive performance during study or work sessions.

💡Movement

Movement is the act of changing the position or posture of the body. The video script encourages standing up and moving during brain breaks, as it is associated with increased blood flow to the brain, which in turn provides more oxygen and nutrients. The script also mentions that movement can create brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), which support brain health.

💡BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factors)

BDNF stands for Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factors, which are proteins that support the growth and survival of neurons in the brain. The script mentions that movement can stimulate the production of BDNF, likening it to 'fertilizer' for the brain, thus promoting brain health and potentially enhancing cognitive function.

💡Juggling

Juggling is a skill that involves tossing and catching multiple objects in a continuous cycle. The video script discusses juggling as a beneficial brain break activity, citing a study from Oxford University that found juggling can increase white matter in the brain, which is associated with improved cognitive function and reading ability.

💡White Matter

White matter in the brain refers to the areas composed of myelinated nerve fibers that facilitate the transmission of neural signals. The script mentions that juggling can increase the amount of white matter in the brain, which is crucial for efficient communication between different brain regions and overall cognitive performance.

💡Cross Laterals

Cross laterals are exercises that involve crossing the body's midline with limbs, such as touching the opposite knee with the opposite hand. The video script suggests that these exercises may help create connections in the brain by engaging both sides of the body and the corresponding brain hemispheres, thus potentially enhancing cognitive function.

💡Corpus Callosum

The Corpus Callosum is a part of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres, allowing for communication between them. The script briefly mentions this structure in the context of cross lateral exercises, suggesting that such activities might enhance the connectivity between the brain's hemispheres.

💡Super Brain Yoga

Super Brain Yoga is a specific type of exercise mentioned in the script that involves massaging the earlobes while performing a squatting motion. This activity is suggested as a way to engage the brain and body simultaneously, potentially enhancing cognitive function and physical coordination.

Highlights

The brain requires rest and cannot function optimally 24/7 without breaks.

The Pomodoro Technique suggests taking regular breaks to improve concentration and focus.

Breaks create more primacies and recencies, enhancing memory of the beginning and end of information.

During brain breaks, deep breathing provides oxygen and nutrients to the brain.

Staying hydrated can increase reaction time and thinking speed by about 30 percent.

Physical movement during breaks helps create brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), beneficial for brain health.

Juggling is a beneficial exercise that can increase white matter in the brain, as shown by a study at Oxford University.

Juggling requires expanding peripheral vision, which can potentially improve reading ability.

Crossing the midline with physical exercises can potentially enhance brain connectivity.

Dancing and table tennis are activities that are particularly beneficial for brain function.

Super Brain yoga, such as massaging the earlobes while squatting, can be incorporated into daily routines for brain health.

Incorporating movement into daily routine every half an hour or an hour can significantly benefit brain function.

The importance of not striving for perfection but rather focusing on progress and learning from mistakes is emphasized.

Juggling serves as a metaphor for life, illustrating the balance of multiple responsibilities and roles.

The video provides a step-by-step guide on how to learn juggling, starting with tossing a ball from one hand to another.

For those new to juggling, the video suggests starting with one ball and gradually progressing to two or three.

The video encourages viewers to share their brain break activities in the comments to learn from one another.

Transcripts

I'm your brain coach Jim quick and in

this lesson I'm going to show you how to

give your brain a break because your

brain is not built to be going 24 7 all

the time without any kind of rest the

challenges nowadays as we're behind

screens for hours upon hours upon hours

we know there's a dip in concentration

and focus after about 25 or 30 minutes

about the span of a sitcom and they call

it the pomodaro technique that if you

are studying and you are thinking and

you are working it actually helps to

take regular interval breaks because it

gives your brain a little time to

recharge to rejuvenate and also it

creates more primacies and recencies

Primacy means you tend to remember

something in the beginning

recency means you tend to remember

something at the end so if I give you a

list of 30 words you're probably going

to remember the first ones Primacy and

the last ones recency the challenge is

you lose a lot in the middle so the

reason why you take breaks is you create

more primacies and recencies so you can

learn and remember a lot more

information now what do you do during

these Brain Breaks I recommend after 25

30 minutes you take a little pause and

for five minutes you do three things

number one in no particular order I want

you to breathe because a lot of times if

we are fatigued and you have mental fog

and you don't have Clarity part of it is

your brain is only two percent of your

body mass approximately but it requires

20 percent of the nutrients and oxygen

and so give yourself the gift of oxygen

and deep breathing what else do you want

to do during your break I would remind

you to hydrate when you are d hydrated

and you have more water it actually

increases your reaction time and

thinking speed about 30 percent what is

the third thing you do during this brain

break I need you to stand up and move a

lot of people they say that sitting is

the new smoking we're behind screens all

day hours and hours goes by and the

primary reason you have a brain is to

control your movement as your body moves

your brain grooves as your body moves

your brain grooves you create brain

derived neurotropic factors bdnf which

is like fertilizer for your brain when

you take long walks we talk about

Geniuses and how they come up with

creative ideas and they have walking

meetings outside in the sunlight and the

Clean Air and they're grounded these are

very important things to do even when

you're listening to an audiobook or a

podcast if you are taking a nice walk or

you're on an elliptical all or a

treadmill and you have that rhythm

you're likely to remember the

information understand it better now one

of the exercise I like to do because

there's multiple benefits is juggling

did you know jugglers have bigger brains

there's a study done at Oxford

University that said juggling actually

creates more white matter in your brain

so in a moment I'm going to show you how

to juggle and you can pause this video

right now and I want you to get one ball

maybe one ball two balls if you've done

this before three if you're good at it

or a rolled up sock even better than a

ball a rolled up sock because it doesn't

roll all around when you drop it I

actually taught myself how to juggle to

actually increase my reading ability so

I noticed that train readers when

they're reading they don't look at one

letter or one word at a time it's not

their fobial Vision they're expanding

their peripheral vision so they can see

more words at the time so they can read

faster

and I noticed a similarity when I'm

juggling I have to relax my sense of

sight so I could take more in so I could

see the balls because I only have two

eyes but if there are three balls I can

be following all of them so I expand my

peripheral vision so I could take more

in so you get the benefits of a bigger

brain and it's great training for your

reading so let's grab your juggling

balls or a sock or a tennis ball right

now pause the video and do that now okay

do you have something to juggle with I'm

not talking about swords and flaming

knives but something really simple like

a sock and for juggling you have two

balls in one hand one in the other now

if you are new to juggling just start

with one ball But ultimately to give you

a picture of what it looks like

successfully and again I'm not a

professional juggler it's not my backup

plan but I learned I taught myself so

this is what I feel like juggling looks

like are you ready

so I'm looking at you and I could see

the balls and I'm relaxing my eyes

and notice that I dropped the ball now

you're thinking Jim did you do that on

purpose you probably did or is it maybe

it was an accident juggling is a great

metaphor for life do you feel like

sometimes you're juggling so many things

that you have so many roles so many

responsibilities when we talk about

quick thinking one of the things that

keep us from growing and being

successful is the expectations of others

and the power of mistakes and some

people are really fearful that they're

going to make a mistake and so I'm going

to encourage you to throw the ball up

and just let it drop and feel good about

it the world did not end and even if

people are laughing at you they're not

going to be thinking about that a few

minutes from now all right so throw up

the ball and just drop it right and it's

on the ground and you feel like that's

okay you don't have to be perfect

because it's never about perfection it's

about progress and you actually progress

faster you fail forward because failure

is not the opposite Sid of success

failure is part of success so pick up

your ball again and let's begin the

basics of juggling so what I want you to

do quick thinker is take the ball or

whatever you're juggling maybe it's a

sock and put it in your dominant hand

and we're going to start small small

simple steps what we're going to do is

we're just going to toss it into the

other hand that's it just toss it back

and forth and it's okay if you drop it

all right and when you drop it be happy

about it be joyful because here's the

thing if you're so stressed out about

being perfect you're going to tense up

and that's going to limit your

performance you want to do this in

relaxed State and I'm doing this also

because we have so many people who we've

taught how to juggle and they're able to

do it and it's a nice way of breaking

your belief that you can learn something

brand new and so you're going back and

forth

and it's okay you don't have to get this

perfect

and it's not about catching it better

it's getting that toss getting that Arc

and you could keep it to about the top

of your head if you like

and it varies right wherever you're

comfortable you're just going back and

forth and you're getting good and maybe

you're doing this for like your break

you know doing it for a few days doing

it for a week you don't even have to add

a second ball and when you do have two

this is what it looks like you have one

in each hand and here's what you do not

want to do what some people will do is

they'll throw them at the same time but

what happens they hit each other right

so you do not throw them at the same

time this is what other people do that's

also not correct they're not actually

juggling they're just passing it over do

you see that I'm just handing it into

another hand so in order to juggle both

balls have to go up in the air so you're

not passing it like this what you're

doing is you're imagining you're

throwing this ball up to this peak and

the other ball goes up to this peak

because if you had the same point then

they're going to collide and the goal is

once this ball hits its peak that's your

signal or trigger to throw the other

ball up so it looks like this

you see that

it doesn't have to be perfect at all now

three balls look like this you have two

in your dominant hand and it's actually

for me easier than two balls because

there's no pause you just again you go

for imagine a box like this a box you're

keeping the balls in this box and

there's a point here and a point here

this is what it looks like

now I don't have control over physics so

I can't slow this down because there's

gravity

but you see the two points

and you notice how I can look at you

right because my peripheral vision could

pull in the information here so it's a

nice way of learning how to relax your

vision so you could see more because if

I'm so narrow focused I won't be able to

see where the ball is and so that is

juggling now you could go on YouTube and

search for Great jugglers and get great

instruction on how to juggle the reason

I bring this up for you is it's a fun

way to kind of break up the monotony of

something you might be studying and also

you're giving your brain a break plus it

creates more white matter in your brain

and it's a great metaphor for life and

it can help potentially with your

reading ability so what else can you do

besides juggling the goal is to get

movement in your body you could do

jumping jacks you could do burpees you

could do some calisthenics some push-ups

sit-ups anything that moves the blood

around so generally what's good for your

heart it's going to be good for your

head so you get your heart beating

creates more blood flow to the brain

which means you have more oxygen in your

brain so the goal is to move but here's

some things you can do that could help

you potentially improve your your brain

function and they call them cross

laterals cross laterals and this is

where we're going along the midline when

you're crossing the midline and

potentially what has the ability to do

is we know the left side of your brain

controls the right side of your body and

that the right side of your brain

controls the left side of your body

right but it's not just a mind-body

connection there's a body mind

connection so what you're going to do is

you're going to take one hand go to the

opposite knee and you're just going to

connect them and then vice versa you're

going to go back and forth

now depending on your flexibility and

what you're wearing instead of your hand

you could use your elbow right and you

don't have to touch it but just come

close these are cross laterals this is

where the left side of your brain and

the right side of your brain it is split

by this thing called the Corpus colossum

which is like a bridging station how

they communicate and potentially with

some research suggests is that by using

your body in certain ways especially

crossing the midline helps you to create

connections here and even if that's not

the case you're moving right and using

conscious effort into your moving one of

the great exercises to learn is to dance

right ballroom dancing amazing for your

brain table tennis amazing for your

brain what's something else you could do

you could put your mind into your muscle

so how about this there's something

called Super Brain yoga you can look it

up super brain yoga how do you do it I

want you to take one hand and massage

your opposite earlobe

and then the other hand a massage the

other earlobe and as you're massaging it

just squat down

and then squat up so what's the major

message out of this lesson is take time

to move it's not just doing your Pilates

three times a week or doing your yoga

twice a week or running twice a week

it's about making movement part of your

daily routine every half an hour or an

hour just going for a walk and moving

and if you want to do something more

challenging take on one of the exercises

that I share with you today now in the

comments what I want you to do is what's

your brain break when you start taking

your brain break after 25 30 minutes the

Pomodoro Technique what are some of the

things that you want to do to be able to

just be physical and get inside your

body share it in the comments so we

could all learn from each other I'm your

brain coach Jim quick and I'll see you

in our next lesson