Labor Day: Shut Down the Stress Circuits and Give Your Brain a Rest

Greetings, it's Susan at the Academies, and as I make this video, we are heading into the Labor Day weekend in the U.S., and in honor of this, I propose that we consider giving the busiest part of our brains a rest during Labor Day. So the brain has several brainwave states. You may be familiar with them. There's alpha, there's beta, delta, gamma. Beta wave is busy brain, and that's when we are really attending to things like our to-do lists, our calendars, our goals, all of the action things that we need to accomplish during the day. And we can be in other brainwave states when we're attending to these activities, but in general, that's sort of where we often operate. And that brings me to Jill Bolte Taylor, the famous Harvard neuroanatomist whose TED Talk on experiencing an actual stroke and living to tell about it has some insights around this. So her latest book is called Whole Brain Living, and she acknowledges what we all know, which is that the brain has two hemispheres, the left and the right, and the left is busy planning and organizing and comparing and judging and so on, often that beta wave state. The right is known for seeing the bigger picture, and it's often associated with artistic or creative endeavors. But the interesting part is that Taylor takes it a step further by sharing that both hemispheres have both that thinking logical activity going on, as well as an emotional activity going on. So the left emotional hemisphere is involved in remembering emotions from the past, maybe shame or guilt or sadness over something that happened long ago or briefly ago, and then also emotions about the future. So many times that can be worry or anxiousness about something that's going to happen in the future. On the other side, the right emotional hemisphere is enjoying the present moment, the joy of being mindful and grateful. Obviously, there's a boatload more around all of this, and I'll be sharing some more videos around it. However, for today, as we approach Labor Day, I am inviting myself to let my left hemisphere logic and emotional circuitry go offline, take a break, take a rest, and of course, inviting my right hemisphere connection with that bigger picture and the emotions of the present moment and the people that I'm with and the gratitude that I'm experiencing. To be the focus. I know my brain will thank me for that, I'm sure, as would yours. Have a great day.