How ARE you!?
Things have been pretty crazy, all over the world, these days, right? Or is it just in our neck of the woods?
…..just in case you don’t have time to read ALL of this right now, scroll to the bottom and enjoy a quick, 15 second guided breath meditation to balance your nervous system
I try to keep in mind and remember that life has been difficult for thousands of years and will continue to be. The difference, in our lifetime, is that we’re constantly being bombarded with the most up-to-date and minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow of whatever kind of ‘bad’ news you can imagine.
In the past, we were really only impacted by our immediate surroundings and our brains were able to process that information and assimilate it much more easily.
Now, it’s so overwhelming for our brains because it’s not used to having to process so much at once. And then the nervous system gets involved, usually because we go into fight, flight, faun, or freeze mode, all of which causes a cortisol and adrenaline reaction in your body.
And then we get overwhelmed by all of it coming in and when our brains can’t process the information, it gets pushed down somewhere into our nervous system to deal with at a later time, or maybe not at all. And then it just sits there, causing stress, tension and strain in some unkown area of our body.
I’d like to invite you to decide how and if and you’re going to engage with everything coming at you. And it’s really, really important that you selectively choose what you allow into your brain, because it really does impact your brain and body health….which segues into this week’s health tip…..
I was really excited when I listened to the Mel Robbins podcast (one of my favorites!) and she had Dr. Daniel Amen speak about brain health and longevity. I took a lot of notes on this podcast, and I want to share this with you, as well, so that you can start today on your brain health, which affects your body health, which affects your brain health, which affects….you get the picture.
There’s a few take-aways that I want to share with you, just in case you want to forgo listening to the whole thing:
1. “Today is going to be a great day!“. Your brain wires itself to match your words and thoughts, so if you can start your day on this note, your brain will wire itself to create a great perception of your day.
2. End your day with noting the good things that happened for you and around you. Even in the most seemingly mundane days, I find that there’s ALWAYS one or more things to find delightful.
Sometimes for me, it’s that my daughter actually smiled at me. Or, I watched a cat hunt a hummingbird and actually caught it (yes, I looooove hummingbirds and I was both fascinated and saddened). This week I loved that I was able to ride my bike to the tennis court and play for 20 minutes, which I haven’t been able to do in over a year. It’s usually the small things that make me smile. When we end the day on this note, it retrains our brain to look for the good stuff and will look for more the next day.
3. Take a high-quality, daily multivitamin. Studies have shown that a daily intake of quality supplements improves memory within 2 months! That’s amazing to me. If you need help on getting good quality multi-vitamins, I can steer you in the right direction.
4. Take Omega-3 oils everyday.
5. Exercise everyday. Vigorous exercise helps oxygenate your brain and sends nervous impulses to different areas of your brain to stimulate those centers, thereby activating them and keeping them from atrophying…..think of that timeless phrase ‘Use it or lose it’.
6. For some reason, he didn’t mention Chiropractic adjustments (not sure why, because it’s UBER important for brain health). Stay adjusted and come in for your Craniosacral therapy….this hasn’t hit mainstream, but it’s one of the best things you can do for brain health!
Your brain and body are so entertwined and one affects the other on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis. Getting adjusted, breathing, what you eat, and what you think all make a HUGE difference in your health. Keep up, it’s worth the effort!
You’ve got this!
Always, in healing,
Dr. Arjan
Free photo courtesy of Tim Goedhart nofilter_noglory