Why This Neuroscientist Wants You To Pause For 63 Seconds A Day

If you’ve ever spiraled after a passing comment, let pressure derail your entire day, or beat yourself up over an old regret, Caroline Leaf, Ph.D., wants to offer you something simple yet transformative: 63 seconds.

Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist with a Ph.D. in Communication Pathology and over four decades of research in psychoneurobiology. She’s also the bestselling author of 19 books and host of The Dr. Leaf Show. 

Leaf has spent over 40 years researching the mind-brain connection. On the mindbodygreen podcast, she argues that the modern pressure to be perpetually "okay" is not just exhausting—it interferes with our ability to think clearly, respond effectively, and build resilience.

"Ninety-five percent of our day, we're just getting through the day," she explains. When we layer on the demand to appear perpetually calm and productive, we risk suppressing our real emotions, which only compounds stress and impairs decision-making.

In a culture drawn to optimization and instant results, it’s tempting to look for fast fixes to our mental health struggles. But Leaf is wary of this approach. "Resilience takes time," she says. Real change, she adds, requires daily effort and self-awareness.

She critiques the "hack your way to health" mindset that pervades social media and much of the biohacking community. From a neuroscience perspective, sustainable well-being is a function of consistent, intentional practice, not shortcuts.

This becomes especially important in emotionally reactive moments. Whether you're stuck in a people-pleasing loop, experiencing a burst of anger, or replaying a regret, the key is to catch yourself in the moment before the emotion dictates your response.

Through her decades of clinical research, Leaf has pinpointed a key timeframe that helps shift the nervous system from reactivity to regulation: 63 seconds.

Why this exact window? According to her work, the brain processes information in roughly 10-second waves, and about six of these cycles create the space for a meaningful mental reset. In that time, we can evaluate our emotional response, reframe the situation, and decide how we want to move forward.

Leaf uses vivid metaphors to explain this shift. For example, she compares the emotional cascade to a storm. If you don't have an umbrella, you'll get drenched. But if you prepare, with tools like breathing, visualization, or awareness, you can step into a safer space.

The beauty of Leaf's method is its practicality. You don’t need to clear your schedule or find a quiet room to put it into practice. It can happen in the middle of a meeting, a conversation, or a moment of self-doubt.

It starts with awareness. Leaf recommends identifying the recurring stressors or emotional patterns that tend to throw you off course. Common ones include self-doubt, people-pleasing, performance anxiety, and unprocessed regret. Once you name those patterns, you can begin to catch yourself in the moment they’re triggered.

These steps may sound small, but with practice, they create space between stimulus and response. And in that space, you gain agency.

Finally, Leaf emphasizes that real transformation comes from consistency. Repeating the pause daily, even when it feels minor, helps build new neural pathways over time. According to her research, this rewiring process takes about 63 days. 

Leaf’s work is a compelling reminder that our reactions are not fixed. With the right tools and a bit of practice, we can move from automatic, reactive habits into more thoughtful, empowered responses.

It all starts with acknowledging that you don’t need to be okay all the time. In fact, it’s often the act of pausing, especially in moments of discomfort, that leads to the greatest breakthroughs in peace, clarity, and control.