Daily Tip #34: Cross-Crawl Brain Activation Tutorial
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VARSHA: ~ Oh, it already started recording. Is it recording? Okay. I guess it is recording. I don't know. Okay. Well, I wasn't ready, but that's okay. Okay. Okay. My hair looks alright. Okay.~
~What if I told you there, what if I told you there's a two minute movement that can sharpen your focus before a big meeting, A study session? Oops. Dang it. ~[00:00:00] What if I told you there's a two minute movement that can sharpen your focus before a big meeting, a study session, or anytime you need mental clarity.
No coffee required, no supplement. ~Just a simple movement that, ~just a simple movement pattern that might look a little silly, but it strengthens your communication between both sides of your brain. And we call this the cross crawl brain activation.
~This exercise. ~This exercise involves moving one side of your body in sync with the opposite side, like touching your right elbow to your left knee. Why does this help your brain? Well, let's break it down.
When you move one side of your body and coordinate it with the opposite side, like touching your right elbow to your left knee, this activates and enhances coordination between both brain hemispheres via something called the corpus callosum, which is a bridge between your left and your right brain hemispheres, and it's made up of about 200 million nerve fibers. most of the time we move in the same patterns, but when you cross the midline of your [00:01:00] body, you force the hemispheres to communicate and work together more efficiently to keep you balanced.
Research has shown that these cross lateral movements improve coordination and balance, focus and alertness, processing speeds, reading skills, especially in children with a learning or coordination challenge and your working memory.
~Your brain works? Bath one.~
Your brain works best when both hemispheres communicate efficiently ~these cross and cross. ~And cross body training strengthens that connection through neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to reorganize and optimize its pathway over time, these movements make your brain more efficient at coordinating complex tasks.
And this is especially powerful if you do it first thing in the morning or before any cognitive demanding task. You're essentially waking up your whole brain and priming it for peak performance later.
This brings me to the Daily Habit Challenge for today. Today, I would like you to do a cross body brain [00:02:00] activation exercise for at least two minutes. And here's an example. So you can stand, or you can even sit and then take your elbow and touch your knee. So if you're standing, you can bring your knee up and your elbow across to touch your knee, and then you do it to the other side.
And you wanna do this for at least two minutes. Now if you're sitting, you can just touch the opposite knee, or if you're. Flexible enough, you could even bring your elbow to your knee in a sitting position. And then once you get the movement down, then you wanna make sure that you're breathing and you wanna breathe rhythmically.
~You wanna inhale for two steps and then exhale for two. ~ You wanna inhale on one and exhale for the other, and this breath helps regulate your nervous system and brings more oxygen to your brain. And then you can even put on some music that even further enhances your brain, something with a good, steady beat.
Because music engages multiple brain areas at once. Your auditory cortex, your motor areas, and your emotional centers. And it makes this [00:03:00] exercise go by a little quicker too. And so it can also boost your mood, which is also good for you. Do your cross body exercise today. ~And I hope you'll in, ~I hope you'll also incorporate it several times through the day.
I would do it before anytime you need that focus. So before you give a speech, before you are in a meeting, you know, anytime you feel like you might be foggy or scatterbrained, then do this for two minutes and you will see that. ~You'll feel more focused. ~You'll feel more focused and awake.
I hope this was helpful. ~Please follow, subscribe, or share. ~Please follow or subscribe and share. There are some downloadables in the description that you may find helpful. Thanks for listening or watching, and have a fantastic day.
