You know those moments when everything just flows? You're in the conference room brainstorming with your team and you can just feel the energy, the cohesion. Or you're writing your book and it's just pouring out of you, the words an effortless stream of brilliance.

Wouldn't it be nice to have more of those moments in 2020?

Imagine there was something you could do daily that would simultaneously:

Build your core strength Release stress and tension Enhance whole-brain thinking (get your left and right hemispheres to work together) Calm your mind Energize your body

Now imagine it only took a few minutes to do, and you could do it anywhere.

There is. It's called the cross-crawl, and it's for real.

Neuroscientists have long known that cross-body movements help the left and right hemispheres of your brain to connect and coordinate. This is important because the more your hemispheres connect, the more optimally you perform on any given task.

The cross-crawl is simply a form of cross-lateral body movements--movements where you use opposition, like crawling, walking, or swimming. The magic comes from using opposite sides of the body to work together (i.e. coordinating the right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg).

Performing the cross-crawl strengthens the bridge between the right and left hemispheres of your brain, which allows electrical impulses and information to pass freely between the two. This helps with not only physical coordination, but thinking-based activities like learning a language, reading, and focusing.

According to neurophysiologistDr. Carla Hannaford, "Cross-lateral movements, like a baby's crawling, activate both hemispheres [of the brain] in a balanced way ... When both eyes, both ears, both hands and feet are being used equally, the corpus callosum orchestrating these processes between the two hemispheres becomes more highly developed."

This can have a major impact.

This was, as you might imagine, a huge problem. He wouldn't be able to graduate from high school if he couldn't read. He wouldn't be able to attend college or hold any number of jobs. His life would be, in many ways, compromised.

Fortunately, he and his parents were told about cross-lateral movements. The whole family started doing the cross-crawl with Todd, daily. They did it twice--once in the morning, before leaving for school (and work); and once in the evening, before bed.

Six weeks later, Todd was reading.

We tend to think about our physical bodies and mental capacity as two completely separate entities. But they're not; they're intimately linked. Our biology is our life. Our life is our biology. And by changing one, we can change the other.

According to Dr. Hannaford, the reason the transformation was so quick for Todd was that he, in fact, already had everything he needed in his brain--the two hemispheres just weren't communicating. By doing the cross-crawl, he stimulated the corpus callosum, linked the two hemispheres, and got them connected.

As an adult, you can use the cross-crawl for a number of different things. Because it's both calming and energizing, you can use it to both discharge energy (as in, after a stressful meeting); or recharge your energy (before a big presentation).

It's one of the quickest and easiest ways to stimulate your brain development and stabilize your nervous system. Basically, whenever you do it, you're reintegrating your brain and nervous system; it's like a little reboot for your bodymind.

So how do you do this magical exercise?

An easy way is to do a sort of elaborate march. You stand with your feet apart and arms all the way out (parallel to the ground). Shift your weight to your left foot, lift your right knee and touch it with your left hand. Go back to both feet and immediately shift to the other side. Repeat in anupbeat, rhythmic way--you can even do it to music. Breathe fully. (Asimple videoif you'd rather see it.)

You want to do this for only about 1-2 minutes at a time (or ~30 reps). You're not looking for full muscle fatigue, just stimulation. (For those interested in more cross-lateral movements for kids--especially those who struggle with focus issues--there are several morehere.)

As an adult, you are daily bombarded by a multiplicity of stimuli. Coworkers pingyou on Slack while yougettexts about your friend's upcoming birthday dinner (for which you still need a gift), plusVenmo notifications for ramen last night and an email about whether you want to split a hotel room for that conference next month.

You need reliable, easy, and effective strategies to not only managestress, but reliably getto peak performance. You need to be able to turn it on when you need to turn it on.

Heading into an important meeting? Do the cross-crawl.

Frustrated with a project or coworker? Do the cross-crawl.

Stuck on that one part of the deck that just doesn't seem to be coming together? Do the cross-crawl.

Doing the cross-crawl throughout the day is one of the best self-care activities you can do,and exercises you can have your team do. It's free, easy, and fast. Build it into your daily schedule. Teach it to your staff. Better yet, do it with your staff.

Then get ready for fireworks.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Link:
Want to Sync the 2 Hemispheres of Your Brain? Neuroscience Says to Do This Daily (It Only Takes 4 Minutes) - Inc.