SmallBizResource Blog -- Productivity

Brain and Body, Unite!

Posted by Gayle Kesten Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008, 10:41 AM ET

My friend Arthur likes to pace his office when he’s on a business call. Walking lifts his energy level and sharpens his thinking, he tells me. Turns out, a growing body of research shows that always-ahead-of-the-curve Arthur is onto something.

The concept is called “embodied cognition,” and its premise is that people think better when they’re in motion. But you don’t have to run a marathon or do 100 jumping jacks to benefit. Movements can be as subtle as shifting your gaze.

Proponents of embodied cognition believe it could usher in a whole new way to understand the abilities of the human mind.

“In any particular instance, what's going on inside the brain in large part may depend on what's going on in the body as a whole, and how that body is situated in its environment," said Shaun Gallagher, director of the cognitive science program at the University of Central Florida, who was interviewed for this article in The Boston Globe.

The history behind embodied cognition is fascinating, born partly out of technology and partly out of biology. In recent years, researchers have been putting the idea to the test; results include subjects more quickly solving problems when eye movements were involved, and actors more easily remembering their lines when learning them while moving.

These findings could have huge implications for health care (for example, a stroke patient relearning skills) and education (for example, kids who require a multimodal academic approach), according to the article.

But it’s also clear to me that the message applies to small businesses. How often do you find yourself in extreme-concentration mode, only the ideas are just not flowing? The longer you sit stuck to your chair, staring at your screen, the more stuck your mind becomes.

The way to get unglued seems pretty simple.

Productivity