How to Take a Break

4 minute read

Hallelujah, multitasking is bad for us! I say this with a mix of triumph and mild relief because I don’t like it and I’m not good at it. In midlife, women are supposed to be militant multitaskers. It’s the standard by which many of us judge ourselves and each other, and I’ve always felt I’ve fallen short. I’m a methodical, detail-orientated individual. I like to tackle one task at a time, do it really well and then move calmly onto the next. This equates to one big fail in our modern, always-on culture.

While multitasking is often unavoidable, especially for our sandwich generation, it shouldn’t be a long-term way of life, or the altar at which we worship. And this is not for philosophical reasons but for pragmatic ones. In a New York Times article earlier this year, clinical psychologist Inger Burnett-Zeigler recommended that we try to avoid multitasking as much as possible. Why? Because “Attending one thing in each moment can help to improve your ability to store information.” The article goes on to explain that the stress which multitasking can cause can lead to memory impairments in healthy adults. Is it any surprise then that midlife women suffer so much from brain fog?

So while we believe we’re ticking boxes, checking off to-do lists and taking control of schedules, we are actually overloading our brains and therefore more than likely making errors and misjudgements. If our memories cannot be relied upon, then our actions cannot be depended on. Galway-based holistic psychotherapist Mary Lynn tells me that the best way to achieve memory consolidation – the process by which a temporary memory is transformed into a more long-term, stable memory – is to take what are called cognitive breaks. These aid memory, reduce stress and ease anxiety also.

While many women will read this and think, what a luxury! If only I could take a ‘cognitive break’ or any kind of break other than a KitKat. But this is something women need to stop considering an indulgence, and actually factor into their day as they would a doctor’s or dental appointment. It might feel silly or pointless to begin with, but Lynn explains that the more you take these breaks, the more they will become a part of your lifestyle and the more benefits you will reap.

But it isn’t just multitaskers who need to be more mindful of how they structure their day, individuals whose main or sole focus is work will be depleted sooner if they don’t take a cognitive break also. A 2017 study in Applied Cognitive Psychology revealed that when university students were given a 45-minute task that required sustained levels of attention, the group that was allowed a five-minute break halfway through performed better than those students who were forced to work continuously until the 45 minutes were up. Prolonged focus can actually impede performance it turns out.

“We need to replenish our brains,” explains Lynn. But what constitutes a cognitive break? Is it the same as a TV break or an Instagram scroll? Lynn explains that the most important thing is that you “mindfully take this break, so no television, radio or reading”. She suggests having a cup of tea, but taking it into the garden. “It’s been shown that nature can have a huge effect on people’s mood, bringing down heart rates and easing stress. “Try to use all of your senses,” she continues. “Pay attention to what you can hear, smell, touch etc, because this will help to anchor you in the moment.”

A power nap is another option, and it’s a good idea, Mary explains, to drink a shot of coffee beforehand as it will have moved through your system during the 15 to 20 minutes of rest and help jumpstart you for the hours ahead. Yoga and meditation are also popular methods of stepping away from the mind melt of everyday life, although Lynn wisely recommends you begin with something that’s accessible and easy for you to engage with. Yoga and meditation need time and dedication and while we all know women deserve to carve out this space for their own wellbeing, sometimes it’s simply not possible. Ten minutes to sit in the garden or on the balcony and be in the moment, however, shouldn’t be a reach for any of us.

Lynn advises that we start small and build momentum. “Anything is better than nothing,” she says. “Schedule it in your diary or set an alarm if you need to. Just try and set it in stone.” When you let your brain and your emotions rest, you make better choices, adds Lynn. One of these choices might be to recognise that the juggle you’re performing is not sustainable and to try and remove something – anything – from your plate. This kind of considered thinking doesn’t happen in the middle of a midlife burnout, it happens when our emotions are stable and our minds composed.

Consider how many minutes we all lose to mindlessly scrolling - what if we were more careful with those minutes. Just ten minutes spent on something nourishing, something just for you?

How about closing your eyes, sitting up straight and concentrating on listening to your breathing?
Or applying a face mask and putting on a 10-minute meditation on the Calm app, knowing you are nourishing your soul as well as your skin. The key is to break from what you are doing and step away from it. Breathing deeply breaks through most things - even stress and panic.

It comes down to carving out time, and this comes down to knowing you deserve it and you will benefit from it, as will those around you. You deserve to hit refresh.

Marie Kelly, September 2021