Why?

Because we have just experienced a night's rest and are full of energy.

In computer terms, we have just started again.

However, we have a lot of things and a long day. Besides the morning, we need to work efficiently.

So what should we do?

First, introduce a concept: decision point.

We do things one by one.

Between two things, or between different stages when a thing is interrupted (there is always an accident), it is a choice point.

At this time, we need to decide what to do next.

Generally speaking, we all decide what to do next at will.

This is reckless and dangerous.

We should think carefully about what to do next.

For example, there is an important report in half an hour, and it must be in good condition at that time.

It is obviously unwise if we choose to do something that may cause emotions at this time (such as checking and replying to emails).

There is a matching relationship between time and things. We should do the right thing at the right time, which may reduce a lot of energy and time waste.

Therefore, we must attach great importance to the selection point.

Stop here for a few minutes.

On the one hand, make a thought and choose the following things.

On the other hand, take a break and start your energy again.

However, I took a rest at night, but I slept for a few hours. Is this a few minutes or a little longer?

In order to answer this question, we need to understand what rest is from the perspective of scientific principles.

Our body has a very important system: the autonomic nervous system.

This system is also called autonomic nerve or autonomic nerve, because it is not controlled by our consciousness and is our own master.

The autonomic nervous system has important physiological functions, such as heartbeat, respiration, digestion, blood pressure and metabolism.

Autonomic nervous system is divided into sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system.

When the body is in a state of intense activity, sympathetic nerve activity plays a major role.

Parasympathetic nervous system mainly maintains physiological needs when it is quiet, and most of them play a role in recuperation.

Therefore, these two systems, one meets the dynamic needs and the other meets the static needs.

They have opposite functions.

More specifically, the main functions of sympathetic nerve are to dilate pupils, accelerate heartbeat, contract blood vessels of skin and viscera, dilate coronary arteries, raise blood pressure, relax bronchioles, weaken gastrointestinal peristalsis, relax bladder wall muscles, reduce saliva secretion, sweat secretion by sweat glands and contract hairy muscles.

It can be considered that sympathetic nerve extracts energy to cope with external challenges, so the above phenomenon appears.

Parasympathetic nerve mainly maintains the physiological needs when it is quiet, plays the role of recuperation and repairs our body. Its function has three aspects:

1 Pupils are narrowed to reduce irritation, promote the production of hepatic glycogen and conserve energy.

2 cause the heartbeat to slow down, the blood pressure to drop, and the bronchus to contract, so as to save unnecessary consumption.

3. The secretion of digestive gland increases, which promotes gastrointestinal activity and defecation (constipation is one of the manifestations of parasympathetic nerve inactivity) and maintains the energy of the body. Assisted reproductive activities, such as expanding reproductive blood vessels, contracting bladder and increasing the secretion of sexual organs.

Simply put, when the sympathetic nervous system gathers energy for external use, we can achieve something in our work and study.

Parasympathetic nervous system enables us to recover and fight again.

Obviously, if the two are unbalanced and sympathetic nerves are dominant, we will soon collapse.

In modern life, the pressure of life and work is very great, so sympathetic nerves are often dominant.

This is the fundamental reason why we often feel tired, and it is also one of the main factors that affect our mood.

In order to pursue the balance between the two, we should actively adjust and pay attention to activating parasympathetic nerves in order to be energetic and happy.

Why should we pay attention to parasympathetic nerves?

Because of the pressure of life and work, sympathetic nerves will be naturally activated, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Being active in sympathetic nerves for a long time will seriously affect our physical and mental health and reduce work efficiency.

Since autonomic nerve is autonomic nerve, it will not automatically adjust for us if it increases the pressure of life and work again and again.

If our life is just the opposite, without any pressure and challenges, it will be the other way around, equally unbalanced, just the opposite. People are still unhappy.

This is why people who have nothing to do and have no pursuit will be depressed.

There are many things to do now, and people with great pressure must pay attention to activating parasympathetic nerves.

The essence of our rest is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

From this perspective, we can understand why the ancients said that peace is far-reaching.

The pursuit of tranquility is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, thus repairing our bodies, enhancing our immunity and enabling us to go further.

Of course, the most common and necessary thing is to sleep.

Sleep is very important to us. If you don't sleep for several days in a row, people are likely to die suddenly.

When we sleep, the parasympathetic nervous system is silently repairing our bodies.

Therefore, we can call sleep a restart. It restarts our bodies and enables us to meet new challenges.

Therefore, we must first attach great importance to sleep, improve the quality of sleep, and form a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early.

Nowadays, it is very convenient to surf the Internet by mobile phone, and people often surf the Internet at night. We must pay attention to control this aspect.

There are all kinds of things on the internet, or information that stimulates our emotions, which will make us sleep well.

Besides sleeping, what other methods can activate parasympathetic nerves?

For white-collar workers, the following activities also have quite good effects and can be used during the day:

1 Take a deep breath

2 Active cough

3 meditation (meditation)

4 mindfulness

Five sports

Do housework and other light manual labor

7 humor

8 listening to music

These activities are simple and easy, and will not bring time pressure to our work and study.

They can make us restart frequently, maintain vigorous energy, and work and live happily.

The so-called deep breathing is the combination of chest and abdomen breathing, which can expel residual gas and other metabolites from the lungs and inhale more fresh air to supply oxygen needed by various organs and improve or enhance organ function.

Deep breathing can make people's chest and abdomen muscles and organs exercise to a greater extent, inhale more oxygen, spit out carbon dioxide, strengthen blood circulation, and help relieve fatigue and relax mood.

People breathe all the time, but it is often the easiest to ignore breathing. As we all know, the lung is the main place for gas exchange inside and outside the human body, and its surface area is as big as two football balls. However, many people can't breathe deeply into the lower part of the lungs because of shortness of breath, resulting in a small ventilation, so most people only use about 65,438+0/3 of the lungs in their lifetime.

Modern people have different breathing conditions and are optimistic.

Many modern people breathe shallowly, which leads to the decrease of oxygen content in the blood. Coupled with the usual unbalanced diet and insufficient exercise, various chronic diseases follow.

Especially those who work in offices, many of them lack exercise and breathe shallow and short. This breathing mode has a very small ventilation at a time. Under normal breathing frequency, insufficient ventilation will cause carbon dioxide accumulation in the body, leading to hypoxia in the brain and dizziness and fatigue.

Deep breathing is the best way to relax yourself, which includes everything from simple deep breathing, yoga to meditation.

Deep breathing can not only promote the oxygen exchange between the human body and the outside world, but also slow down the heartbeat and lower blood pressure. It can divert people's attention and improve their self-awareness in a depressed environment.

When people know that deep breathing can keep calm, they can regain control of their emotions and relieve anxiety.

When severe stress occurs, people can take a deep breath, which is an expert's advice to those who try to overcome fear (the greatest stress).

You can practice deep breathing at any time, not necessarily when you are stressed. Such as: on the way to work; Before each meal; When exercising; Before the performance

The specific method is: choose a place with fresh air and do it 2-3 times a day. Thoracoabdominal deep breathing is similar to breathing exercises in yoga. When inhaling deeply, tuck in the abdomen first, then tuck in the chest. After reaching the limit, hold your breath for a few seconds and exhale gradually. When exhaling, contract the chest first, then the abdomen, and try to expel the gas from the lungs. Breathe in and out repeatedly for 3-5 minutes each time.

Skills:

1. Sit in a chair without armrests with your feet flat and your thighs parallel to the floor. Straighten your back and put your hands on the front of your thighs.

2. Take a deep breath naturally through your nose, expand your abdomen, and imagine the air filling your abdomen.

3. In continuous breathing, completely expand the chest and lungs, and feel that the chest is slowly rising. Imagine the air expanding in all directions between the abdomen and the chest.

4. Breathe out slowly through your nose. Expiration time is longer than inhalation time.

Breathe for at least one minute, keep the rhythm slow, and don't force yourself. Pay attention to the depth and integrity of breathing and relax your body.

Some people think that exhalation is more conducive to activating parasympathetic nerves, which is why exhalation time is required to be longer than inhalation time.

It is better to be 2 times, which can be controlled by counting. For example, the inspiratory count ranges from 1 to 5, and the expiratory count ranges from 1 to 10.

Many people know the benefits of deep breathing, but it is easily overlooked that coughing a few times when you are not sick is also a positive health care action.

Active cough can promote lung cleaning, enhance immunity and protect respiratory tract from injury.

Cough is a protective reflex action, which can remove foreign bodies or secretions in the respiratory tract, and these substances are one of the causes of lung diseases.

The specific method is: after getting up, taking a lunch break or sleeping every day, take a deep breath in a place with fresh air, slowly raise your arms when taking a deep breath, and then cough actively, so that the airflow is ejected from your nose and mouth, and then your arms droop. Repeat this for 8- 10 times, and try to discharge the secretions in the respiratory tract.

The easiest way is to practice quietly.

Let's take a look at its original explanation:

Meditation is a technique and way to achieve meditation in yoga. In the initial stage, it is completely focused on mind, mind and spirit, and the ultimate goal is to guide people to the realm of liberation.

Yogis conquer the mind through meditation and transcend material desires; Direct communication between feelings and original motives.

Simply practicing meditation can help people bid farewell to negative emotions and regain control of their lives.

Pay attention to the conquest of the mind mentioned above.

The function of parasympathetic nerve is to repair the body. This process is beyond our control, and it is at the molecular level.

So what can stop this repair?

Our countless ideas.

Therefore, both yoga and meditation focus on the pursuit of tranquility, which is actually to subdue the mind.

This is the essence of meditation. Let's not imagine it as mysterious.

There are endless temptations around us, and our brains naturally like to scan them, so we have all kinds of desires and our thoughts can't stop.

These will prevent parasympathetic nerves from repairing our bodies.

This is why meditation can help us.

You can spend a few minutes doing it at any free time of the day.

In order to subdue the mind, we must think nothing, but this can't be done, so we focus on breathing.

This will gradually improve our quiet level.

The quieter we are, the better our bodies can be repaired.

It can also be combined with deep breathing.

Deep breathing activates parasympathetic nerves at the physical level, while meditation deactivates them at the mental level.

Since it is to subdue the mind, meditation can do more.

Meditation can be divided into four levels:

1 Get rid of conscious thinking

2 Observe deep consciousness

3 eliminate deep fear, egoism and other harmful deep consciousness.

Develop a deeper consciousness: the subconscious.

When we focus on breathing, we gradually get rid of conscious consciousness, which can no longer prevent parasympathetic nerves from repairing the body.

This is the first benefit we get.

If we meditate for a long time when we have time, such as more than ten minutes, we will enter a deeper level.

At this time, our deep consciousness may emerge.

For example, consciousness is the foreground program of computer, and depth consciousness is the background program, which has many potential influences on us.

Many of them are useful, but also harmful.

When we meditate, we observe silently, praise the good and delete the bad. It is of great benefit to the later life.

A bad subconscious has a destructive influence and is the root of negative emotions. We dig roots through meditation, and the benefits are self-evident.

All negative emotions come from deep fear and self-centered consciousness.

Everyone has deep fears, even those who hold power.

These fears will undoubtedly prevent the body from repairing.

So we need to clean up our deepest fears often, and we can do this through meditation.

In meditation, we can observe them, analyze them and weaken them again and again until they disappear into the invisible.

Self-centered consciousness is also very common and can be weakened and eliminated through meditation.

People are social animals, and people can't move forward without cooperation. Everyone has a sense of cooperation.

Through meditation, the consciousness of cooperation will deepen and strengthen, the consciousness of self-centeredness will gradually weaken, and our hearts will become stronger.

Our bodies will be easier to repair, our energy will be more vigorous and our mood will be better.

All these contribute to the overall improvement of our ability.

Deep fear and self-centered consciousness are formed in the long-term evolution of human beings.

Our ancestors, as advanced creatures, have a history of millions of years. In most of them, even today, the living environment is full of dangers, but the form has changed and the intensity has obviously decreased.

So it's natural to have fear in the subconscious.

This is a self-protection mechanism.

Egocentricity is also a manifestation of self-protection mechanism.

We don't need to blame ourselves for our deep fears and egocentric consciousness.

But they do bring us negative emotions and may cast a shadow over our work and life.

We can analyze and solve them through meditation.

It can be found that most fears are unnecessary.

Some fears, as long as we change our minds, are no longer fears.

Some fears reveal the defects of our abilities. Through analysis, we can find the direction of our efforts and add new vitality to our lives.

Wait a minute.

As for egoism, meditation can make us abandon it.

The concept of cooperation can make our life better. Our food, the road we walked, and the house we lived in are all due to cooperation. There are examples of cooperation everywhere, aren't there?

Now it is very different from the living environment of primitive human beings, and the depth of human cooperation has increased unprecedentedly. This is a reality today, and it is still developing.

Only by living in harmony with the environment can we live better.

Our strength lies in our inner peace, in our ability to repair our body quickly every day, and in our ability to coordinate well with the environment.

Meditation frees us from the control of consciousness temporarily, and may develop a deeper consciousness: the subconscious.

Some people think that the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind.

People don't know much about the subconscious, but it is certainly helpful for creativity.

We can give it some instructions when we meditate, and it may try to solve our problems in the future.

This is the fourth level of meditation.

Specific practices can refer to key training.

Some people confuse mindfulness with meditation. They are not the same thing.

Meditation must be done specially to stop conscious thinking, so that they will not stop the repair of our bodies.

Mindfulness is carried out all the time in daily work and life:

Mindfulness is perceived in a specific way, that is, it is intentional. At present, there is no judgment.

To put it bluntly, it means single-minded

For example, eating, generally speaking, your mind is not only eating, but also "what should I do if my grades are so poor today?" "What if the work is not finished?" "People who eat across the street look down on me? I actually ignored what I said. "

In short, you generally don't devote yourself to "eating" and feel the taste of food with your body and mind.

Let such negative thoughts haunt my mind all day, and I don't know how many times I have added unnecessary troubles.

Then mindfulness is to let us consciously let go of these thoughts and taste food with our heart, that is, to live in the present without judging. Judgment can lead to new ideas and easily destroy the state of living in the present.

Simply put, meditation makes the conscious mind 0, while mindfulness makes the conscious mind 1.

Enjoy what you do, live in the moment, enjoy the moment and enjoy every second of your work and life.

This can prevent unnecessary emotions from consuming our psychological energy and protect our energy.

Music can activate parasympathetic nerves, which is confirmed by scientific experiments, such as Mozart effect.

To be precise, it is a slow repetitive melody.

This can still be explained by the static activation of parasympathetic nerve.

Such music can certainly guide us to calm down.

In addition to adagio and repetitive melody, we should also pay attention to the lack of words or incomprehensible words, so as not to cause unnecessary thinking.

Religious music (such as Buddhist music) is also suitable.

Listening to songs is more convenient. We can listen to it when we are not working or reading, or when we are doing housework or exercising.

In fact, we even have music therapy now.

Music can play a very important role. We can use it to guide tranquility and activate parasympathetic nerves.

Exercise can also activate parasympathetic nerves, but it must be moderate, and there are related scientific studies in this regard.

But excessive exercise is counterproductive.

To achieve the best effect of sports, we must keep in mind the "357" principle;

That is, exercise for 30 minutes every day, five times a week, and the heart rate+age during exercise = 170.

For specific individuals, self-feeling is an important indicator to master the amount and intensity of exercise, including mild shortness of breath, feeling a little heartbeat, slight fever all over the body, reddish complexion, sweating, etc., indicating that the amount of exercise is moderate; If there is obvious palpitation, shortness of breath, fever, dizziness, sweating and fatigue, it means excessive exercise.

If your exercise is always at the level of "don't change your face or jump", it means that you need to add more exercise.

This is similar to the action of movement.

The reason why it is mentioned in particular is that housework often brings trouble to people.

If we put housework on the choice point, it is a kind of rest, because it is also an exercise and also has the function of activating parasympathetic nerves.

From this perspective, we will not be upset.

Of course, you can't do too much at a time. You can make a plan one time at a time.

Humor can also activate parasympathetic nerves.

In the happiness class at Harvard, the following benefits were also listed:

1 Increase T cells in our body, thus enhancing our immune system.

Increase our interferon-γ, which is a protein against diseases.

Increase our B cells, which are responsible for producing antibodies and enhancing our body's ability to resist diseases.

Laughter can lower the serum cortisol in our body (cortisol is released when we feel stressed).

This also shows that parasympathetic nerves repair our bodies at the molecular level.

Humor is a convenient way to activate parasympathetic nerves, so we should strive to improve our sense of humor.

Humor is also a kind of knowledge: humor.

It is recommended to collect humorous websites, which are comprehensive, with theories and jokes.

Look at the above paragraphs first, then gradually look at the theoretical reasons, and gradually make progress in this regard.

Stone mirror originally had three articles, which can also be used for reference:

The benefits of humor

Humor and equality

Humor and aggression

Teachers have a clear scientific basis for the four points mentioned in Harvard Happiness Class.

The root of all this is due to the activation of parasympathetic nerve, which repairs our body at the molecular level.

Therefore, other methods of activating parasympathetic nerves should of course have the same function.

Therefore, practitioners throughout the ages believe that the pursuit of meditation has such a magical effect, because they feel comfortable and happy, get spiritual enjoyment, and make a religious explanation of this happiness.

From the perspective of modern science, what they pursue is to activate parasympathetic nerves.

Therefore, we should also attach great importance to activating parasympathetic nerves.