Thinker Moments

I was taught about thinker moments recently and it has been a powerful force for change in my busy schedule. As someone who is constantly on the go, I often had found myself reaching the end of a work day and realising that I had never stopped to take a breath or sit down. This was leaving me exhausted & unable to function in the evenings. Getting home, I often found myself sitting mindlessly in front of the tv for hours as I no longer had the capacity to do anything else after a day that had consumed my completely. Enter Dr Caroline Leaf, a Neuroscientist who has been a pioneer in the field of Mind Management for over 3 decades. Dr Leaf teaches the concept of a thinker moment (You can read her blog post about the science behind it here at drleaf.com). A thinker moment can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Personally, I am for a 30-second to 2-minute moment every hour or two and try to take two thinker moments of 10 minutes in a day as well. I have two alarms set on my phone for my 10-minute thinkers – at 11am and 3pm. I often miss these exact moments but just having the reminder pop up means that my brain is reminded of what I want to do, and I then make sure I include my thinker moments in my days.

Why should we daydream?

1. They reboot our mind. A moment of daydreaming has been shown to allow our mind to reboot and refresh, this means that later in the day we don’t experience the crash that so many of us feel after a busy day.
2. You allow your brain to heal itself. Daydream triggers our cells to heal and repair.
3. Not giving your mind a rest decreases blood flow by up to 80% to the front of our brain (our prefrontal cortex which is our evolved mind). No wonder we often feel we can’t think straight or experience decision fatigue when we get to the end of a day.

How to have a thinker moment:

It’s simple, close your eyes and let your mind wander. Try to observe your own thoughts as you do this, being aware of any patterns that come up. If the weather is good but not too hot, I like to wander around the garden or sit outside in the sun while I do this.

Try it and let me know how you find it.