Five deep breaths + a moment in motion: How to bring our bodies to work
Melissa Painter
Founder: Breakthru I Embodied Cognition I Wellbeing I Spatial Computing I Future of Work
We’ve learned over time that collaborative break taking is key to reinforcing healthy habits, and we’ve tracked and better understood the value of refreshed teams. Our research shows that movement driven microbreaks are the most effective, accessible, and impactful practices for all audiences. So why do we rarely bring our bodies to our workday?
Your body is the best piece of technology you own
Short moments in motion ‘turn on’ our metabolism, decrease stress, increase productivity, while boosting creativity. We finally stop holding our breath, clear our heads, and learn more deeply. We transition better between parts of our day.
Yet we’re now in a moment of critical reinvention of the workday, as we move to hybrid in-person and remote workplace scenarios. At this moment, we need to advocate for movement as a tool that can be most useful.
Your body makes energy
As work becomes more virtual, data shows it’s more critical than ever to have embodied moments in our day. We know that sedentary behavior leads to chronic conditions, and it’s not offset by just one hour of exercise a day.
Teams are feeling more pressure than ever to be productive. Many of us have never been in a situation where there’s so little unrestricted time, yet we’re burning more hours. As a result, we’re eager to recharge while working or studying remotely.
Let's give each other permission to: move
That is why we made Breakthru, a tool to deliver immersive microbreaks for the work and school day, powered by our bodies in motion. At present, Breakthru has 3,805 partners worldwide—from Fortune 500 companies to preschools—standing up to make time in the workday to build collective energy together. Why not join us. When we stand up and move, we increase kinesthetic literacy (movement that’s innate) and better modulate our sense of time. Adding the restorative habit offers a huge boost in mood and productivity for teams.
Breakthru restores the unstructured time we once had to transition between events, to fill the void of spontaneous group movement we lost when many of us went virtual. Breakthru meets us where we are, to play more in our day. We start to anticipate the custom notes that remind us to move. It’s like a gift we look forward to receiving.
Movement, a lifelong key
Breakthru helps jumpstart a lifelong movement practice. It’s a way to check in—to make sure we’re ready for the next opportunity or challenge. A lifetime of movement contributes to risk management and mitigation. It’s the antidote to anxiety.
Maximum wellbeing happens in groups. The most refreshed teams are the most present.
Ecommerce Manager | Amazon Specialist
3 年Melissa! What an incredible accomplishment! This is SO GREAT and it was such a treat to see your face pop up on the demo!!!
Empowering every developer to shape the future with AI.
3 年Satya Nadella, Kathleen Hogan, Jeff Teper - love the research you shared today about our Brains Needing Breaks... take a look at this lovely "microbreak" experience already built inside Teams by entrepreneur and small business owner Melissa Painter. Microsoft is one of a handful of companies piloting this 2 minute mental/physical reset and IT'S AWESOME! The genesis came from work started in Mixed Reality but evolved into a 2D offering with the pandemic, which makes it accessible to more people right now. We've been socializing it internally for about a year - would love your feedback. (And it's free to schools forever...)
Empowering every developer to shape the future with AI.
3 年I use Breakthru frequently and have started doing the movement sequences in scenarios away from my computer... like in my kitchen waiting for the coffee to brew. I try to fit breakthrus into my day between meetings, in meetings, in prep for meetings, or just to wake up my brain. They’re really well done.