In order for this recovery effect to occur even with such short breaks, the person taking the break must be able to let go of what he or she has just done. This doesn’t work automatically during the first mini-break, but it can be practiced.
Berlin Just press the pause button, pause, breathe deeply. Everyone knows the need, but most just sneak around the pause button: no time to rest, far too much on the list, and whoever takes a break puts the wasted time back on the end.
Science agrees that the function of the pause is profoundly misunderstood. “Anyone who thinks of a break thinks of at least 15, more likely 30 minutes that they can’t pursue their activities, they think of holidays, of sabbaticals,” says Claas Lahmann, Medical Director of the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Freiburg.
Far too seldom, however, do people think in the other direction: interrupting what you are currently doing for a minute, 30 or even just ten seconds. The mini break concept. “Such short breaks are of great value because the body can then regulate itself down for a moment,” says Lahmann.
You can learn to take a break
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