Cognitive Refreshment Quotes

The tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened not merely by rest, but by using other parts.

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.

The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest.

When I'm feeling a little empty in the head, I like to go see movies or read to loosen things up there.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

Comedy keeps the heart sweet; but we all know that there is wholesome refreshment for both mind and heart in an occasional climb among the pomps of the intellectual snow-summits built by Shakespeare and those others.

Recreation is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt,--as good no scythe as no edge.

The brain has an attentional mode called the "mind wandering mode" that was only recently identified. This is when thoughts move seamlessly from one to another, often to unrelated thoughts, without you controlling where they go. This brain state acts as a neural reset button, allowing us to come back to our work with a refreshed perspective. Different people find they enter this mode in different ways: reading, a walk in nature, looking at art, meditating, and napping. A 15-minute nap can produce the equivalent of a 10-point boost in IQ.

Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season. All great men of letters have therefore been enthusiastic walkers.

Leary can get a part of my mind that's kind of rusted shut grinding again, just by being around him and talking.

I play chess with the computer when I feel dull in my mind and after two games - 'out or win', I feel sharp again.

We're not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions; we need to restore and expand ourselves. Our idea of relaxing is all too often to plop down in front of the television set and let its pandering idiocy liquefy our brains. Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running.

We should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in Music, Chess, or the merriments of our family companions.

Nothing like poetry when you lie awake at night. It keeps the old brain limber. It washes away the mud and sand that keeps on blocking up the bends. Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors. And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.