Simple Routines to Boost your Brain in the Morning and Increase your Productivity at Work
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- When it comes to starting the average week, most of us simply try to power through Monday morning from start to end. We aggressively commute to work, sit down at our desks, and get started. Optimistically confronting our most challenging task first. When we're done with our first undertaking, we quickly move on to the next and so on.
Do you experience high demands at work with little or no control of each task? "Five minutes of meditative journaling in the morning and five minutes during lunch improves your emotional awareness and ability to work under severe stress--a great asset in the workplace these days," says Carter.
"Incorporating just five minutes of putting pen to paper in the morning can have a hugely beneficial impact on your day," says Carter, "fewer visits to the doctor, increased self-awareness, improved mood/affect, and feeling of greater psychological well-being are just a few of the documented benefits." "A great way to start your day is mindfully writing down your goals, as we have seen with creating more self-discipline and forming empowering habits," says Dr. Kirti Salwe Carter, co-author with her husband, Dr. Rob Carter, of The Morning Mind: Use Your Brain to Master Your Day and Supercharge Your Life (http://www.themorningmind.com)
"Another form of early morning writing is meditative journaling, expressing how you feel about certain issues," says Carter. "Five minutes of mindful writing or meditative journaling can help people experience emotional benefits and lower the perception of their workload demands," says Carter "after a mindful writing session, you tend to feel more present and better equipped to deal with any personal or work issue, even if you did not talk to anyone about it".
Carter has four creative techniques to wake up your brain in the morning and increase your productivity throughout the day.
1. Write about an event that impacted you deeply. "Describe in detail an event that affected you emotionally," says Carter, "write as much detail as you can about what you felt, how the experience impacted you, and how you felt before and then after the experience."
2. Write a detailed account of someone you know. "Describe someone you know well, writing a quick biography of that person's life as you know it and your relationship with him or her," says Carter "what life experiences has this person been through that shaped who they are? How did you meet?" "Alternatively, do the same exercise but invent a fictional character and your relationship with him or her," says Carter.
3. Describe in detail an object in front of you. "Write about any object of your choice in as much detail as you can, including shape, color, function, and so on," says Carter, "let your imagination take you beyond what you can see in front of you, allowing yourself to add fantastical and fun details." For example, I have a toaster in my creativity with writing kitchen that is metallic and has recently been colonized by a group of tiny aliens that are siphoning off the heat from when I make a toast to power their thumb sized spacecraft.
4. Write about your perfect morning. "Write an entry about what your perfect morning would look like," says Carter "what activities would you fit into it, what would you have for breakfast and how would you feel?" "This is an excellent visualization exercise that can assist in stimulating creativity and ideas about what you'd like to get out of mornings in a perfect world," says Carter.
Mindful writing helps us more purposefully pay attention to all facets of life. Meditative journaling allows us to get our most precious thoughts out without allowing them to get lost in a sea of emotions." Give your 100% during the writing exercise. You will begin to notice that you are getting much more out of the experience than a simple journal entry.
About Dr. Rob Carter III and Dr. Kirti Salwe Carter
Dr. Rob Carter III and Dr. Kirti Salwe Carter are co-authors of The Morning Mind: Use Your Brain to Master Your Day and Supercharge Your Life (http://www.themorningmind.com) and reside in Austin, Texas. Dr. Rob Carter is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, an expert in human performance and physiology, and has academic appointments in emergency medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, in public health and health sciences at Los Angeles Pacific University, and in nutrition at the University of Maryland, University College. He holds a PhD in biomedical sciences and medical physiology and an MPH in chronic disease epidemiology.
Dr. Kirti Carter was born in Pune, India, and received her medical education in India, where she practiced as an intensive-care physician at Breach Candy Hospital before moving to Texas to complete postgraduate training in public health. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress (FAIS), has more than 18 years of experience in meditation and breathing techniques, and has been facilitating wellness seminars for the past decade.
SOURCE The Morning Mind
