Brain Health

I follow @the_brain_doctor on Instagram and I love her advice.

Definition of Brain Health: The state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioural and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders – WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

I am in awe of the human body/brain and how each of us function. Although we are all unique we all function in a certain way and our behaviour is often affected by so many variables. DNA, culture, family, demographics, to mention a few. We are all interlinked and yet we are so different.

But what makes us “tick”? What makes us behave the way we do? Things often seem so simple and yet our brain can be our worst enemy.

I for example have been trying to get into a healthier lifestyle routine and I am finding it super difficult. Why? Because the brain is ingenious it will find every single excuse, reason, justification as to why I should start next week, or why I deserve to have that chocolate biscuit. It is unbelievable how it seems to overpower me over and over again. I am actually laughing out loud as I write this! It sounds ridiculous when I type it. The power of the brain…

It’s the same with whatever we choose to do. We are our own worst enemy / obstacle. What starts off as a slightly untidy drawer expands into a disaster room which we find too overwhelming to deal with, so we leave it till next week, or next month, or when we move into a new home, or whatever other reason we can come up with to delay.

How do we change that? It’s different for each person. For me, I need to lower my expectations and my goals. Instead of starting out by only eating healthy food and training for an hour a day, I will be more realistic with my expectations of myself. First I will reduce the unhealthy food choices a little bit at a time, and then introduce physical training with a walk in the morning, etc. In that way we won’t set myself up for failure. We should choose something we can attain and then work on the feeling and satisfaction that comes with that small victory. Then we work onwards from that. Slowly and steadily.

My first go-to resource is lists. I write lists of what I want to achieve and why, and then I break them down into mini goals. This can be fun and instead of it becoming a chore it can become a “game” which you are in control of. The more healthy choices you make the easier it is for the brain to settle into a new way of thinking, and so the easier the healthy choices become.

It’s the same with anything in life (in my experience). Wake up in the morning and MAKE YOUR BED. Don’t just chuck the duvet over, take time and make the effort to make your bed look neat and tidy. That sets the pace for the day in your home environment, work environment, personal relationship environment. It sets the tone. Prioritise consistency over intensity. This will build up your neural networks and intensity will come later.

I am about to embark on a healthier lifestyle and I am going to get motivation from experts. Choose one part of your life that you feel you would like to change or improve and be consistent. If it’s 10 minutes you can commit to then do 10 minutes. You will be amazed at how easily those 10 minutes will become 15 , 20, 25. You get the picture.

Often we need to be accountable in order to maintain consistency. So I am now making myself accountable to whoever reads this post. Contact me and share your story with me. I would love to hear all about it.

Love xx

me