Peppermint

The Detached Brain

If you’ve ever worked your brain at or near its maximum capacity, you might be familiar with this feeling.

Your brain almost feels detached from the rest of your body and senses.

Your hearing dulls all relatively constant sounds to a “white noise.” Your vision tunnels down to the page. You’re not aware of any smells or tastes. Even your sense of touch has abated, until you try to change positions and realize there are divots in your skin from where you rested your arms on the desk.

What’s worse? You get up to take a “break” from studying, but you can’t lift this fog. You and your brain still feel detached from the world. Sure, you might be at the grocery store, but because your brain has not reset, your brain does not feel at rest.

Many of the brain breaks that I post will focus on awakening the senses.

Brain breaks designed to awaken the senses can be so powerful. Waking up your senses can halt your brain in its tracks and force it back into your body and the present moment.

Using Peppermint as a Brain Break:

Smell it. Taste it. Feel it.

Peppermint is a fantastic tool for sensory brain breaks. Many sensory brain breaks only engage one of your senses. Peppermint can engage three of your five senses.

Smell:

To smell peppermint, you could diffuse peppermint essential oils. You could take a few deep breaths near an open container of peppermint oils or peppermint lotion. You could probably just open up a tin of Altoids and breathe in.

Taste:

To taste peppermint, you could obviously chew peppermint gum or eat a peppermint candy.

You could rinse your mouth with peppermint mouthwash.

You could drink a cup of peppermint tea. There are caffeinated and decaffeinated options. So, you could use this as a brain break that energizes, or a brain break that gets you ready for your longer sleeping brain break.

You could also place a drop of peppermint oil on your tongue—if your peppermint oil is ingestible.

There is an added benefit to tasting peppermint.

Ingesting peppermint can calm an upset stomach.

Assuming you're in law school or studying for the bar, you're more than likely under a considerable amount of stress. You're also likely consuming vast amounts of caffeine on a daily basis. Calming your stomach could be a welcome bonus.

Feel:

To feel peppermint, you could rub peppermint lotion or a diluted peppermint oil onto your skin.

There is one particularly great way to wake yourself up by feeling peppermint oil. Add a few drops to a spray bottle full of water. Then, spray yourself! You get the added tingly sensation of the water droplets floating onto your skin.

If you're really brave, you can spray your face—just be sure to keep your eyes closed. I would suggest starting with only a few drops of peppermint oil for an entire 16 ounces of water. You can adjust the peppermint upward after that.

For me, of the three senses, feeling cool, tingly peppermint on my skin is the most immediately invigorating!

Perhaps you don’t have peppermint lotion or peppermint oil laying around (both are incredibly cheap to purchase next time you’re out at the store or shopping on Amazon).

If you don't have the first clue what to buy, don't worry. It's not the Rule Against Perpetuities. You just want to look for peppermint oil that is 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oil.

It's actually easier than you think. Just copy and paste this phrase into Amazon, and you'll find tons of options: peppermint 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oil.

For whatever it's worth, personally, I like Eden's Garden's peppermint oil.

For the Curious: I am not affiliated with any company selling essential oils.

 

If I ever become affiliated with a company selling essential oils in the future I will let you know (and hopefully get you a discount if that’s the case).

If you don’t have peppermint oil or lotion handy—but you want to try this brain break now—you might be surprised how many household items contain menthol.

Menthol provides that same cooling, tingling, invigorating sensation.

Do you have a sport’s cream with menthol: Flexall, Icy-Hot, Tiger Balm?

Perhaps you’re not much for sports creams, but if you’ve ever had a cough, you might have Vick’s “VapoRub.”

You might even have peppermint oil capsules in your medicine cabinet. In that case, you might consider breaking open a capsule for the peppermint oil inside.

[1] Mark Moss et al., Modulation Of Cognitive Performance And Mood By Aromas Of Peppermint And Ylang-Ylang, 118 International Journal of Neuroscience 59–77, 59-77 (2008).

[2] Phillip R Zoladz & Bryan Raudenbush, Cognitive Enhancement Through Stimulation of the Chemical Senses, 7 North American Journal of Psychology 125–140, 125-140 (2005).

Congratulations!

 

You just took a brain break!

 

Even if you don’t end up using this particular brain break idea, just reading this light little post gave your brain brief relief from dense legal texts and lectures.

 

Yay!

 

 

If your brain is ready to get back to work, great! Get after it!

 

If your brain is not ready to go back to work, that’s okay, too.

 

You could try a little brain break with peppermint.

You could also take a look at some of the other brain break ideas.

 

Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments to this post on Instagram!

 

 

No matter what,

feel free to congratulate yourself!

 

You took a brief brain break, and you explored ways to help optimize your brain, your study habits, and—ultimately—your performance!