Giving Your Brain a Break

Through out my school years, I have had to study numerous topics and had to understand complex subjects that tortured my brain many times--it sounds like  an exaggeration but that's how it felt for many years.  My brain had to work hard in order to memorize and understand the topics; and at times, it felt like I was working harder than many of my high achieving classmates despite how little effort they seem to put into the school work.  I did not understand why some classmates study only one hour while I had to study two to three hours on the same topics and get the same test grades, or worst, getting lower grades than them.  Years after I finished my undergraduate years, I realize that the reason why this is the case is that I did not know how the brain works; I did not understand the quirks of the brain that would have given me an advantage on my study and that would help me to spend less time and get more out of my studying.

I discover recently that the brain loves it when we give it a break.  Why? First of all, the brain is processing the information on the unconscious level, without our permission and notice; it is distinguishing facts and sorting and organizing information in a way so that we can understand it when we come back to study.  Secondly, when we take breaks, we are giving our consciousness a break; when we are studying, I don't know about you but it feels like I am using much more energy than otherwise and everything seems harder when we use only our consciousness.  For instance, I strain and lose my focus easily rather than letting the natural flow of studying takes over.  Breaks allow our consciousness to rejuvenate itself and to renew its fuel so we can reuse it in later time in another study session.

I want to note that this quirk does not only apply to studying for school purposes only; we can apply it in other areas of our life.  For instance, if we run into a problem with a friend or a coworker, we can take a break if we are stuck and are unable to come up with any solution; eventually, a solution will come up when we give it times.  We can use this tip for work- related project or problems as well.  I find that whenever I get stuck on a task at work, taking a break helps me to deal and find the solutions to the problems better later on.

The brain is a complicated organ and researchers are constantly learning new facts about it.  It can handle any learning situation but in order to do this we have to know its quirks and how it works. We now know that the brain loves breaks; so give it tons of breaks, and the paid-off will be obvious in the long run.