When Working your Brain helps Work the Body - Thinking Time

Descartes said “I think, therefore I am”.

We are all thinkers – we think, we plan, we analyze, we recreate, we ideate. Think of “Exercise time” as “Thinking time” and do all your thought processes while exercising.

For example, if you are student, mentally revise all that you have learnt through the day while exercising – be it cardio or weight training. If you are working, think of what you did during the day and make your plans for the next day while exercising.

If you are a musician, think of how you can improve the tunes you created that day and plan the next tunes. I personally think of the patients I treated that day and what kind of treatment I am going to provide tomorrow. Of course, one can think of other things as well. This morning, I was thinking about what I was going to blog about later on during the day while running on the treadmill.

The brain is a wonderful tool, but it has its limitations. It needs to slot all thoughts and file them away for use later so that it can create new space for new thoughts. So try and convert “Exercise time” into “Thinking time”. This has three advantages

• It can somewhat alleviate the pain and discomfort of exercise

• It can make exercise more productive

• It frees up mind space for other tasks

This hack might not work for beginners who are mainly focused on not falling off the treadmill or not dropping weights on themselves. However, it will definitely work for intermediate and experienced exercisers whose bodies can be on auto -pilot while exercising. So go ahead, put on your thinking caps – and go do your Exercise time – correction – Thinking time!