Week One – Day Two
Brain Power Routine
Let’s start with a depressing statistic (no pun intended!): studies are starting to show an alarming picture of PhDs’ mental health. About a third up to half of PhD students might qualify as being ‘clinically depressed’. In some fields the figures are worse than in others, but across the board it looks like PhDs are a lot worse off mentally and emotionally compared with peer groups outside of academia. About two to three times worse…
Unfortunately many of us (including myself when I was working on my PhD) think we are the only ones grappling with feeling low and stressed. I don’t think my own struggles qualified as depression, but at times it was definitely depressing! Please know it isn’t a personal failure of any kind on your part. It is the result of how academia is set up (we’ll get to this later), yet these dynamics tend to go unacknowledged.
The first time I taught a workshop for PhDs one of the participants came up to me afterwards and said: “I am so glad to hear it is not just me.” It isn’t just you. It is everyone. It is just that it is often only afterwards, once the PhD is completed, that people will allow themselves to be vulnerable and talk about the more difficult stretches. In more competitive fields (where the problem is worse) this is all the more true: no showing of emotions allowed!
The life of the mind tends to be thought of as somehow separate from our physical body, and a connection between mental/ emotional health and academic performance tends not to be made. The old-school macho culture of competition, suffering and sacrifice as a rite of passage, tells us that writing a PhD should be difficult, yet you should weather it without complaint, otherwise you don’t deserve to belong. This is so messed up!
Let’s consider a different scenario: what if paying more attention to self-care and how to handle PhD stress well would yield positive results both for academic performance, as well as for mental and emotional wellbeing? This sounds to me sensible.
This is a massive topic, and for the purpose of the programme I have chosen to take the pragmatic route: what are the practices that are proven (either scientifically, or anecdotally, as in n=1 tested by me) to have a positive effect on wellbeing, brain function and academic performance? Are there ways we can incorporate those practices into our days and weeks, to lower the burden of stress, and increase the odds of enjoying our academic work.
This week you will start building a brain power routine. This routine does a number of helpful things.
- Boosts academic performance
- Reduces stress, on both a physiological and mental/emotional level
- Improves focus
- Makes it easier to ‘shift gears’ and ‘get out of your head’ after a day of hard mental work
- Boosts creativity
- Creates a baseline of contentment and improves your sense of well-being.
Next week we’ll discuss the science behind the brain power routine. For now, simply try it out and see whether you notice a difference.
The first pillar of your brain power routine is exercise
Exercise used to be about the body. Not anymore. It’s about the brain: exercise increases brainpower. This isn’t just a relationship. It is THE relationship. Exercise promotes learning and memory as it increases the size of the hippocampus (more on the science of this next week) and is associated with an increase of BDNF-serum in the brain: a protein that is crucial for brain health, mood and learning. Exercise also metabolises stress hormones, which ensures your system isn’t chronically flooded by them, which is highly important for keeping your brain healthy in the long run. An occasional burst of stress hormones will help you focus and will help you meet that deadline, but if levels of stress hormones are chronically high, they quite literally fry your brain. It causes burnout, and all sorts of other problems. Exercise also makes you release endorphins. They are mood-lifters and stress-busters. If you want to take better care of your brain, an exercise routine is the place to start. Operation love your brain!
Ideally you will be exercising for a minimum of 20 minutes 3 times a week. What you do is up to you, as long as it increases you heart rate and you enjoy it enough to keep doing it. Maybe it is difficult for you to ‘find the time’ to exercise. Exercise can be as simple as turning the music up and dancing or hopping along for twenty minutes (it’s what I did when I was finishing my PhD). Or maybe, you can go for a jog in your lunch-break or directly after work before you go home. Take some time to reflect on what you would most enjoy doing, what you are capable of doing, and what you would actually do for at least 20 minutes 3 times a week.
Your checklist:
- Exercise at least 3 times a week. Better to do 3 short work-outs instead of 1 or 2 long ones.
- Exercise for a minimum of 20 minutes at a time. Short and sweet is fine.
- Get your heart rate up to 70% of your maximum. For brain benefits this is important. (Ask at your gym if you want to get specific – they can help you find the right ‘zone’ for you).
- See it as a non-negotiable part of your workday, not as something you do after work. It’s as important as answering your email. You can put it off for a day, or maybe two, but no longer!
- Make it easy for yourself. Do something you enjoy and that is relatively hassle-free.
- Schedule it and do it.
The second pillar of your brain power routine is meditation
Meditation increases focus, calms your mind and boosts your mood. When practiced regularly, you will start noticing more ‘space’ between triggers in your environment (let’s say, a deadline), and your habitual reaction (freaking out). Instead of going straight into your habitual reaction, you will have more control over how to respond to the challenge. With practice, you will be able to choose to respond to a deadline by focusing in, instead of spinning out. You’ll be more in touch with yourself, and what you need, and you’ll be able to adjust you work and self-care habits accordingly. It will allow you to write your paper and have time to go out for drinks afterwards, instead of writing that paper in a crazy frenzy of adrenaline, and desperately needing that drink afterwards! Learn to control your mind. Learn to stay in touch with yourself. It’s gold.
You can find the guided meditations, along with the meditation schedule here.
In the first two weeks of the course you will focus on building a meditation practice. From week three onwards the meditations will have practical applications, such as getting out of your head at the end of the day, and using meditation to transform difficulties you may be having in your PhD experience, such as dealing with pressure, negative thoughts and feelings, or unavailable supervisors.
Practice the guided meditations every day for the next six weeks, preferably roughly at the same time each day. It doesn’t really matter when. I prefer to meditate in the evening before going to bed, but the morning, right after you get out of bed, is often seen as the most ‘ideal’ time to meditate. Just choose a time of day that works for you. Choose a spot that will be your meditation spot for the next six weeks. You can sit on a meditation pillow, on a chair, or simply cross-legged on the floor. Two important criteria are that you are comfortable, and that your position allows your spine to be upright (so don’t get too comfortable slouching on the couch or on your bed – you need to stay upright and alert).
For me personally, my evening meditation has become one of my favourite parts of the day. It’s the time for me to sit still, reflect and relax. It wasn’t always that way. When I started to meditate, I loved the idea, but found it hard to do in practice. Doing the formal practice still isn’t always easy, but it has become far easier to slip into a calm and happy state of mind. I often go into my meditation half hour feeling frazzled and tired and come out of it feeling like a more relaxed, more likeable and much happier version of myself. I get my buzz back. Often I feel inexplicably grateful for everything during meditation. I have stopped trying to figure out what this is and why it happens. Now, I just enjoy it.
Your checklist:
- Meditate every day, preferably at the same time and in the same place each day.
- Don’t get discouraged if it’s difficult or doesn’t make sense in the beginning. You will feel the difference over time.
- Schedule it and do it.
Assignment
Take out your calendar and schedule when you will be exercising and meditating this week (or – even better: schedule for the next 6 weeks!) Seriously. See these activities as non-negotiable parts of your workday. A burst of exercise should be part of every academic’s day. Add meditation to that, and your brain will be supercharging ahead.