This is part two of our blog on starting the new year strong and staying strong. In this article I am focusing on your brain health. How to keep it firing on all cylinders even as we age. This and my part 1 article are based on a study done by Harvard Medical School. The steps to accomplish this seem very common sense and basic. This being the case, why don’t more people do them when the benefits are so great? The reasons can be many from just being lazy, bad habits, lack of knowledge, lack of urgency because everything seems fine for now. Overall I think we can blame human nature. Most people don’t change unless there is a motivational crisis in their life, myself included. 

Let’s see if I can help motivate you for some positive change before there is a crisis. Since these steps to keeping a sound mind are relatively simple, with a proper mental outlook it won’t be that difficult to make the necessary changes. Especially when you consider the benefit to your quality of life over time. Here is a quick review of the first three steps we already looked at: 

1. Eat a plant based or at least a clean healthy diet based on whole living foods rather than processed food. 
2. Exercise regularly. You don’t have to train for the Olympics. Keep it simple and something you would enjoy doing consistently. It can be walking for 30 minutes a day. Just keep yourself moving. 
3. Get enough sleep. We usually need 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep to cleanse and repair our brain and body. Develop a habit of good sleep hygiene. 

Challenge Your Brain 

Now moving forward here is number four, challenge your brain. Like I said before we are made to move both physically and mentally. The old adage is true – use it or lose it. Muscles unused will quickly atrophy. The same is true with my brain. The brain has what we call neuroplasticity. This just means that every new thing I do with my brain changes it. As I process new ideas and thoughts I develop new neurons and new neuro pathways. 

As we age and allow our brain to become stagnant neurons will die off and parts of my brain will shrink. This affects not only my memory but other functions of my body. We will lose brain power and that isn’t good. We assume that aging will automatically cause my brain to become weaker but this doesn’t have to become true. As I age if I work out my muscles with resistance training I can maintain the strength I need for daily life functions. The same is true for the brain. 

Commit to being a life long learner, learn and experience new things in life. Read, listen to podcasts, learn a new skill from youtube, audit a college class, learn a new language, learn to play a musical instrument, travel more and see new things. These are just a few ideas to keep your brain active. We are creatures of habit and usually don’t like change so we stay stuck in ruts. You know what they say about a rut, it’s just a grave with both ends knocked out. Don’t quit living before you die. 

Nurture Social Contacts

Some people are introverts and some people are extroverts but none of us like being lonely. Introverts recharge their mental batteries with alone time, the extroverts recharge by being around a lot of people. But we all are designed to have some people in our life. Scripture says,” It is not good for man to be alone.” Studies show people live longer and healthier when they have friends and some social relationships in their life. You can decide who and how many but don’t live in isolation. 

People isolate for different reasons, they got hurt by someone, they don’t think anyone would want to be their friend, they lost friends through death or moves, they don’t know how to make friends or where to go to make friends are just a few reasons. To start with you have to decide you don’t like being alone and would like to have a friend. Then you have to place yourself where there are people. Again the bible says, “A man who wants friends has to show himself friendly.” How would you do that? 

You don’t make friends by trying to make friends. You focus on serving or helping others. Volunteer somewhere that helps people, go to church and get into some type of smaller group. Smile and act friendly around people. Ask people questions and get them to talk about themselves. This is how you will discover anything you have in common. Don’t expect everyone to reach out or come to you. You be the one who reaches out. As you work and serve with others, help someone one on one, have patience and consistently do these types of things over time you will make a friend along the way. 

Don’t be afraid to accept an invitation to an event or reach out in some way to others. There are always risks. Someone may reject you, don’t take it personal. Everyone has their own issues. As you make a couple of friends work at developing the relationship. Give people space, don’t smother them, allow them to have other friends. That is why you want to have more than just one friend. Focus on others and eventually the friendships will come. You have to water and feed a flower for it to grow and blossom. Friendships are the same. 

Manage Your Stress 

All of these steps we have looked at so far are how to protect your cognitive functions as you age. Intellectual and challenging activities keep your brain agile. This keeps you thinking young. But one major enemy of both our physical and mental health is stress. Stress is a fact of life. We can have health, financial, relational, vocational, family and societal stressors just to name a few. Stress isn’t so much the event that is happening but rather how I respond to the event. There are so many stressors that happen to you that are out of your control. But you can control how you respond to them. 

There are many unhealthy ways to respond to stress. I can get angry, anxious, depressed by fixating and ruminating on the event in a negative way. This will only create more emotional and eventually physical problems in my life. None of this will help with the stressor. I can take my negative emotions out on those who are the closest to me and damage those relationships. 

I can turn to a substances like alcohol or drugs to cope with the stress. I can practice any kind of addictive or unhealthy behavior like eating, gambling, shopping, sex, work, etc. to cope. These things may help temporarily but in the long run they just create more stressful situations. We all need to develop some healthy stress coping mechanisms since we will all have to deal with stress in this life.

Chronic stress can have damaging effects on areas of the brian. This will usually also affect our sleep, setting up a negative cycle. What are some better ways to deal with stress? Exercise is one good tool to de-stress. It is a natural antidepressant. Learning to control what you allow your brain to think and focus on is another. Ask yourself what can I control and want can I not control in this situation. What you can’t control, hand over to God and focus your energies on what you can control. We are always talking to ourselves on an unconscious level. We need to become aware of what we are thinking. When it is negative or not helpful we need to reject and change out those thoughts. Replace them with positive, helpful, encouraging thoughts. You might need a therapist to help you in this process. 

Prayer, meditation, learning how to relax and taking a break from our normal routine to do something you enjoy that helps distract and push the reset button on your mind will help the brain with stress. These things are not automatic at first but when practiced can become so. Especially as you find them working to de-stress you. Six simple steps to protect your brain health and keep it functioning strong. Why not give them a try.