mental exercises – Crisbie Coach

Why Your Brain Will Be Affected if You Procrastinate

To procrastinate is a fashionable word nowadays that you may have heard. We procrastinate for invoices to be paid, for the dentist, to take the trash out to the bin…

Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or even past the deadline.

Waiting too much can have serious consequences. Think of climate change, for instance. Or illnesses. If you don’t try to find out what you have as soon as you notice the first symptoms, it might become too late. The doctor could say: “You would have come at the beginning, it would have been different. We would have been able to deal with it, the chances would have been better… ”

Cras in Latin means tomorrow, pro means for. Therefore, pro-cras means: it is for tomorrow.

Statistics show that in the United States about 20% of the population, postpone the boring tasks to the next day, as if the tasks in question had then the virtue of disappearing or becoming less boring (seriously, isn’t it rather the opposite)?

A study carried out by Chinese researchers shows very interesting results: procrastinators have certain hyperactive intellectual regions, that are a part of a network of mental wandering: when it is time to take an appointment with the dentist, to pay the invoice or to take the trash out to the bin, these centers make the person think at something else. And, let’s say it, to try to find excuses on how unpleasant it would be carrying out these tasks.

Besides, in procrastinators’ brains, another zone is weak. It is the zone that blocks the activity of wandering and that allows one to remain focused.

People who work in advance according to a planning, in order not to be taken by surprise at the time of an examination, or of the fiscal term, have a high activity in this area, so that the wandering zone is blocked.

When the mind gets loose from the planned purpose and begins to wander, the brain gets vulnerable in that area, which is very sensitive to all that is uncomfortable or disagreeable.

What to do?

The brain is a muscle, let’s train it and exploit its plasticity!

Are you a procrastinator? Let me know!

How Discipline Can Lead to Success

Self-discipline is the ability to train your body and mind. Successful people are masters in this art. Sportsmen, stars of the showbiz, great doctors, inventors, researchers, managers, but also parents, teachers, nurses, all those who have achieved important results during their career and their lives, practice fundamental techniques to train their body and mind. They know that thought generates habit and by disciplining their thinking they create the attitude to do better and better. Let’s see some techniques to learn how discipline can lead to success.

Visualization – Listen to audio that explains what visualization is and how to practice it. You will learn to condition your mind to relaxation, and in this state, you will be more receptive and therefore more creative. Write down your goals (not many, maximum three) and read them aloud. Listen to energizing music repeating your goals like a mantra.
When you visualize your goals, visualize them exactly as if they were already achieved. For example, if you want to see yourself slimmer, visualize yourself in a dress that you have not been able to wear for a long time.
Do this exercise daily: repeat to yourself several times that you have already achieved your important goals. Observe yourself in your new “version”. Persevere in wanting to achieve your goals, do not abandon them, take care of them.
Make a list of some important and essential things that you don’t feel like doing because you don’t like them, they’re demanding, or you don’t have time to do them. Set a deadline and comply with it. The action dedicated to performing unpleasant tasks reduces stress and tension (I know, it sounds strange, but that’s how our brain works).
Remember that you need to improve your body’s discipline as well. So practice sports activities, walk at least three times a week for half an hour, rest and sleep regularly, eat healthy, nutritious and balanced meals, try to always maintain the same weight.

Finally, don’t forget that both losing and winning are mental attitudes that can be learned, but it takes days, weeks, and even months of consistent practice to achieve your goals. Discipline can lead to success if you are determined to follow these fundamental steps.

If you want, you can read in my blog more articles about discipline.

Windows

Windows are thresholds for the human mind.

Windows are thresholds for the human mind. Looking out the window, leaving your gaze suspended beyond a glass pane is not synonymous with wasting your time.

Sometimes, the person looking beyond this threshold doesn’t want to see the outside world. They simply want to cross their reflection to navigate through the waves of introspection and reach inner worlds in search of new possibilities. In reality, there are few mental exercises that can be more useful than this one.

Windows are often indispensable resources for any dreamer. And also for that person who needs to rest after a stressful day and leans their head against the icy glass of a subway window. It is at this moment that the gaze relaxes and the imagination begins. At this time, we start to daydream and our brain finally finds relief, freedom, and well-being.

Windows allow daydreaming

Expert psychologists in the world of creativity like Scott Barry Kaufman and Jerome L. Singer, explain in one of their studies that today daydreaming is almost considered a stigma. Whoever chooses to look out the window for half an hour instead of continuing to work on their computer is nothing but lazy.

In addition, in another study by these psychologists, they showed that 80% of business leaders believe that creativity is enhanced by work and continuous activity. Thus, the person who, at some point, chooses to go for coffee in front of a window is someone who cannot stand the pressure, someone who may also be unproductive.

Today, we continue to associate action with productivity and passivity with laziness. We shall change these old and rusty ideas. Daydreaming is the art of going in search of the wonders hidden in our brain. It means training our mind to develop a little more introspection, curiosity, and imagination.

As Art, one of the authors of Wise and Shine, would say: Dare to dream.

Are you a daydreamer?