Boost your energy with these left-brain practices
Are you a mum whose day involves planning how to get school, play dates, appointments and after school activities into the family agenda? Or do you work with numbers, or writing and make big decisions every day? If so, your world is a left-brain one. Like most of ours.
Our left-brain is responsible for logical, linear, analytical and rational processes such as calculation, reading, writing, and processing information in an analytical way. Sounding familiar? If you think about the amount of decisions and planning we make in our day to day lives, it’s no wonder that your left-brain is feeling a little overused.
Right-Brain Insights
On the contrary, the right-brain is more responsible for creativity, intuition, non-verbal cues, imagination and insight. During childhood we functioned very much out of our right brain as we played with our imaginary friends, dreamed of monsters under the bed, filled our days with craft activities, painting and drawing and as we grew our left-brain became more dominant.
Left-Brain Fatigue
Life is extremely busy these days and a lot of people who live in a left-brain world are at the point where their left-brain is fatigued. It’s important to dedicate some time to boosting up your left brain so it can continue to support your life. Fortunately, activities to do this are very simple and quite enjoyable.
1. Breathing Out
Check how you are breathing right now. Are your breaths short and shallow from the top of your chest or are you taking deep slow breaths that fill your lungs with oxygen? Most of you will have answered with the former and as a result your brain isn’t getting as much oxygen as it could be.
Lying on your back or sitting in a chair, begin to concentrate on your breath drawing air in through your nose and out through your mouth. Breathing out should be twice as long as inwards. Breath in for a count of 3 and out for a count of 6.
2. Bouncing a Ball
Try sitting and bouncing a larger ball such as a basketball till you reach 100. If you master this, try performing with your eyes closed. If you can do this easily, try bouncing whilst standing with eyes open and then with eyes closed. If you find this easy then challenge yourself by using a tennis ball.
3. Soothing Music
Classical music or slow music with no lyrics are great for the left brain. If you have ear plugs to play the music in the right ear only will also increase the benefits.
4. Eye Movements
While sitting, hold your right arm in front of you with your thumb pointing to the ceiling. Have your eyes focused on your thumb and keeping the head still, slowly move your arm to the far right and far left all while focusing on your thumb.
5. Adult Colouring books
Whilst not specifically a left-brain booster, colouring brings a lot of benefit to the brain, the frontal lobe which is responsible for us making “good decisionsâ€, how we relate to others, planning etc.
6. Chiropractic Care
Every time you are adjusted the brain receives a large amount of information from the body. This information is like water to a windmill; your brain needs it. As the brain begins to have a better understanding of where the body is it, the performance of the body is improved and this is why we see a range of different health improvements when people are under chiropractic care.
Interested in staying healthy? Read our blog ‘Be True to Yourself’ too. And subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated and involved as part of our thriving community.