The Mindfulness Memo

Introduction

In one of the great constitutional decisions of all time, Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of “separate but equal” as set forth in Plessy v. Ferguson and applied to education had no place in American jurisprudence. As a result, schools were ordered desegregated, and thus began the process of integration.

In today’s Mindfulness Memo we’ll explore the concept of integration in a different educational context. Separate regions in the brain communicate through networks of neurons. Neural integration refers to the connectedness that exists and can be facilitated in the brain and brings about more optimal functioning.

By bringing a greater sense of awareness to your exercise and sleep routines you can bring about a new era of neural integration in your brain that will help you feel refreshed and invigorated as the school year wears on and you find yourself becoming overwhelmed or bored of education.

Boredom and Procrastination

Notwithstanding the excitement and intellectual challenge of the law school experience, it is common for its newness to lose its charge and for things to get boring at times – especially when you are continually battling exhaustion. When this happens, motivation is low and focus diminishes. With persistent stress, feeling bored is replaced with feeling overwhelmed and the tendency to procrastinate.

While there are a great many reasons why boredom sets in and procrastination takes hold, all is not lost. Research shows that you can engage in mindful, deliberate activity that actually changes the physical structure of your brain – with the effects taking place almost immediately – to make you more engaged and attentive as you navigate your way through the remainder of your semester. As you cultivate the growth of new neurons in your brain and strengthen the synaptic connections between them, you will find it easier to catch yourself from falling into a cycle of frustration at school and quicker to pick yourself up when you begin to feel sluggish.

Exercise

Exercise can help you overcome the challenges you face in law school on at least two different levels. First, exercise releases beneficial neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which improve mood, increase perception, and enhance attention. So, the next time your eyelids feel heavy, yoga, jogging, or lifting some weights may be just what you need to keep you going late in the day.

Second, exercise has also been shown to promote brain growth that can enhance your learning potential. Specifically, a cardio workout is connected to the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (“BDNF,” and also known as “Miracle Grow”) which encourages neurons to sprout new branches to increase their receptivity to stimulus and enhance the connections among neurons which can lead to a more integrated brain and foster more enlightened, creative thinking. As a bonus, the release of BDNF is especially pronounced in the hippocampus, the memory center of your brain. You can watch the “Exercise Smart” video that discusses this in more detail by visiting www.themindfullawstudent.com/exercise_smart_lecture_video.html.

Keep in mind that, according to recent studies, the persistent use of text messaging and e-mailing can lead to as much as a 10 point drop in IQ because the brain functions less optimally when distracted. If you are having trouble concentrating, smarten up by not turning so frequently to your smart phone. Realize that it may not be necessary to be at others’ beck and call and that you may find a more lasting effect on your ability to keep hitting the books if you get up and hit the wellness center instead of your phone.

Sleep

You can’t imagine the benefits of a good night’s sleep or a well-timed nap. During the different sleep cycles you rest keys regions in your pre-frontal cortex (Stage 1 and 2), curtail the release of stress hormones and release growth hormone which repairs and restores your cells and body (Stage 3) and encourage the conversion of studies material from short term to long-term memory (REM). A full night’s sleep gives you a healthy dose of all four. If you feel like you can’t afford to get a complete rest, pause to consider a NASA study that found losing a night’s sleep resulted in significant impairment in cognitive and perceptual abilities. The same deficits were found when an hour a night was lost over the course of a week. Even more, those sleep deprived didn’t appreciate that there would be any deficit, either before or after their compromised performance.

If it turns out that a full eight or nine hours of sleep isn’t in the cards, a smart nap can give you a serious brain boost and – if done correctly – won’t leave you feeling groggy afterwards. Take a short 15-30 minute nap and you’ll get all the concentration and focus benefits of Stage 2 sleep. And, because you haven’t slept long enough to fall into the deeper, Stage 3, sleep, you won’t feel groggy when you wake up. As an additional pointer, you might not know that the effects of caffeine don’t always set in immediately. If you are concerned about recovering from a power nap, you might try a “coffee nap” by having a cup of coffee before lying down to sleep. The caffeine from the coffee should begin to kick in about 15-30 minutes later – just as you are emerging from your snooze.

Once you realize the power of smart napping, you may want to experiment with a 90 minute nap between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. Your body is hitting a natural lull around that time and if you can manage to sleep for a full 90 minutes in the “nap zone,” you’ll cycle beautifully through all stages of sleep. You awake refreshed, rejuvenated, and rewired.

Conclusion

The tips contained in this memo probably involve no more than tweaking your exercise and sleep routines, and the mindful usage of your cell phone and e-mail. So, the next time you find yourself bored or procrastinating and want to pick up (i.e., Topeka) your motivation and performance, you’ll know what to do.