We focus a lot of time and energy on physical fitness but almost no one ever talks about mental fitness which is very important as it determines how we think, feel, and act. So here are some tips to follow in order to optimize your brain health.
- Sleep
Scientists have known for years that sleep is extremely important for our brain health and it plays a crucial role in memory formation and a study shows that simply getting a good sleep improved memory by about 20%. More, getting good sleep also reduces stress hormones.
- Diet
The saying goes, “You are what you eat” and that’s not only true for our body but also for our mind as well. There is one food that should be completely avoided especially if we want good mental health and that is added sugars. Now sugars inherently isn’t a bad thing our brains do run on glucose which is basically sugar but the problem is the added sugars that are added on top of the sugar that already exists in the foods we eat.
Excess sugar consumption reduces the production of a special protein called BDNF and research shows lack of this protein can leads to memory problems, stress, depression, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
- Learning
Earlier it was believed that our brain stopped developing in our mid-20s but now studies have shown that our brain can create new neurons and connections until we die. So, try to learn something new to engage the brain and it will help in creating new neurons which will, in turn, boost our mental health.
- Exercise
Exercise is one of the most important things as it actually does a lot of things that in turn will improve our mental health.
Regular exercise helps to improve sleep quality which as we now know is pretty important for mental health. Additionally, exercise also causes the release of BDNF protein which again will help you from dementia, etc and it has been shown that this protein also slows down the natural deterioration of the brain. Apart from that, if we regularly exercise it improves our mood as it releases a variety of feel-good hormones.
- Meditation
One of the most important things to optimize your mental health is meditation as it has a lot of benefits. Meditation drastically reduces the amount of activity in the amygdala part of the brain and this part of the brain is basically responsible for negative emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, and even sadness. It means meditation can improve our ability to control negative thoughts.
There are many more benefits of meditation but one of the other main reasons is that it leads to significant growth in three very important regions of the brain which plays a huge role in our learning ability and memory etc.
