2.7 it doesn't have to be cute! - dance parties, and other body-focused breaks
in no universe do i want to be perceived while i do this, but....my dance party breaks are one of my best kept secrets. and if you tend to live brain first, and not notice until much too late that your body could use some care, body focused breaks might just be the tool for you! listen to this week's episode for more on this fun way to break up your day.
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Grab your favorite playlist, put on your comfiest dancing shoes and let's get into the most fun tool I've talked about yet on this podcast.
📍 Welcome to Grad School is Hard, But... A Thrive PhD podcast. I'm Dr. Katy Peplin and this is a show for everyone who's doing the hard work of being a human and a scholar. And in season two, I'll introduce you to various tools that might make the hard stuff from writing to managing your time to taking care of your brain just a little bit easier.
And if you rate and review this podcast, by the end of the month, you'll be entered to win a free session from me. More details at the end of the episode. Now let's get into the good stuff. .
As the title of this episode suggests today, I'm here to talk about dance parties. Or more generally speaking, a break that you take during the day that moves your body. Dance parties just happen to be my favorite version of this. So in case you have never heard of a dance party, let's be clear about what I mean when I talk about them.
It's just, you put on your favorite song. And you move your body. You don't have to dance or dance well, it can look more like a wiggle or a shake, but the idea is that this is a time that's boundaried, you know, the start of the song, the end of the song. And you get up out of your chair? You loosen up your hands, you move your body as a way of taking a break. The reason that I feel so strongly about body focused breaks. Or because we as scholars spend so much time in our heads.
For me, I can sit down at my desk at eight 30 or nine o'clock and literal hours can go by. I'm talking five, six hours before I realize that I might be thirsty or hungry. Or maybe I need a break or use the bathroom. For example, I live most of my scholarly life and let's be honest, some of my human life too, very much brain focused. It's hard for me to remember that I have a body when I am in the middle of a juicy research question.
Or if I'm in the middle of an anxiety fueled writing session. It's really hard for me to zoom out of whatever it is that I'm focused on and pay attention to my body. But the problem with that is that eventually my body will make its needs known. And it's really hard for me to get back to whatever I was doing after I do that.
When I'm in these really intense brain heavy sessions, the likelihood that I'm going to crash out of them and need some recovery time, very high. Body focused breaks are my way of helping forestall that a little bit so that I have a little bit more control over how and when my focus sessions end instead of just having them end whenever I collapsed at my desk.
So if you're going to try using a body focused break, Let's talk about when and how you might employ them during your day. I especially love them as a transition point. . If you are switching between teaching and writing or research and outlining, or your emails and something else, a dance party in between that can really help loosen up the energy and give your brain and body a chance to sync back up again.
I often will have a dance party before or after I eat lunch during the day. Depending on how big the lunch was, of course. But that also helps me mark that transition. It's a way of kind of getting my body involved so that it's not just next task, next task, next task, all up in my head.
This also is an extremely effective energy bump during the day. If you like me have a lull at various points in the day, I have one around 11 o'clock and another one, probably between three and four. A dance party is a perfect insertion inside of that lull to get some energy back. You wiggle it out, you shake it out, you dance it, you pump it up. And you don't get sure, full energy stores back after that, but you might get the five or 10% back that you need in order to focus just a little bit more effectively and get one or two more things checked off your list.
There is absolutely no way to do this kind of a break incorrectly as long as your body's involved. The way that you can compare it is take, for example, a standard Twitter break. I know that when I first started using Pomodoros and see last week's episode for more about how Pomodoro has worked for me.
I'm gonna be like, great, okay. 25 minutes of focus and then five minutes of Twitter. And those five minutes would be really stimulating for my brain, but the timer would start again and it would feel like my body was stuck in the same position sometimes for two, three, even more hours at a time that would make me sore, cranky, tired, hungry, . It would be really difficult to feel the sense of the time passing when my breaks were having my body stay in the same position that it was during my focus sessions.
The people that I find who especially benefit from body first breaks are what I lovingly refer to as brain in a jar folks. I once told a therapist that it was my most sincere desire to become a brain in a jar that somehow was able to type so that I wouldn't need to sleep or eat or rest or do anything. I would just be a brain offloading all of my intellectual capacity into the computer. Things would be great.
And she was like, well, brains in a jar can't really go for hikes or enjoy the sunshine or a really good piece of cake. And I was like, touché Dr. Nancy, there are some benefits to a body. But those people who are focused and really have a hard time getting into their bodies can really benefit from breaks like this because it's a chance to sync back up again.
If you think about your body and your brain being on two separate tracks during the day, sometimes they're pretty far apart and a body focused break is a chance for them to sync back up again and be like, oh, Hey body. Oh, Hey brain, are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you need to switch gears? Do you want to go outside for a second?
It's a chance to sync up and ask those questions. When if those two pieces of you, your body and your brain are on separate tracks all day long, it's really hard to tune in and see what you might need.
I also think the breaks like this are especially good for people who have the, just one more thing, tendency. The just one more thing tendency is that voice in your head- it's like, okay, I will take a break or I'll eat lunch or I'll get some water as soon as I finish this next thing. Just one more thing before I'm done for the day. Just one more thing. Just one more thing.
A, body focused break gives you a chance to say, okay. Do I still want to do that thing? Is it important, is it better for me to switch? Is it better for me to change gears? If you tend to hyper-focus or just be really relentless, getting your to-do list done no matter what. These breaks can give you a chance to kind of back away from the computer or the laptop or wherever it is that you're working. And wait for the body and brain to sync up and decide if just one more thing is what you actually need.
These don't need to be dance party breaks.
Although for my money, that's the most fun and a fun way to, you know, really shake it up and get in some of that music listening that you might not have otherwise done. You can also take body focused breaks by starting your laundry. There's nothing better than going down to the basement where your laundry machines are getting some laundry going during a break. It gives you a chance to kind of catch back up on some household chores and also move your body.
This doesn't need to look like dancing either. I would generously call what I do during dance parties as a "Wiggle plus." It's not dancing in any way that I would perhaps want to broadcast on the internet. So just shaking my arms and my legs, moving my feet around a little bit. It could also be stimming if you're a person who has a lot of stimming behaviors these breaks to physically do those, maybe you jump up and down. Maybe you move your arms in a certain way. Maybe you pace in circles. These can be an excellent way to kind of get some of that tension out during the day during those sessions and check back in with your body at the same time.
The only thing to think about is, is more of my body moving than not moving during these breaks. So is more of me wiggling moving, going up and down the stairs, going outside, going for a walk around the block, maybe doing a couple of forward folds or some sideways stretches. There's no way to do it wrong.
Like I said, as long as your body and brain are kind of giving a chance to stop working, even if it's just for two and a half or three minutes, but maybe a little bit longer. It gives you a chance to say, okay, Let's sync back in. Let's get the parts of me back together and make sure that I'm moving forward with intention.
And if you're the kind of person who really benefits from periodic reminders to move your body, just as much as you're moving your mind during the day. You might want to check out my community for just $5 a month. You can join us, have access to weekly coaching calls, daily accountability threads, and lots and lots of reminders that you are human and a scholar too..
More in the show notes. Thank you so much and see you next week.
📍 Thank you for listening to Grad School is Hard, but... You can find more information and resources in the show notes and at thrive-phd.com. Every month, I'll select one reviewer for a free 45 minute session with me. So please subscribe, rate, and review to help spread the word about the show. Thanks so much and I'll see you again soon!