Your brain continues developing until age 25. You continue building brain health through your adult years, your entire life. You can do this mindfully with intention and carve your path of choice or you can do it unconsciously and build in obstacles.
Listen to this brief video summarizing seven highlights for building your brain’s health throughout your life including the adult years from the Global Council on Brain Health, who says brain health does not happen by chance alone.
You may have noticed they didn’t mention nutrition and eating healthy, or getting enough sleep, or de-stressing regularly, or physical exercise, together considered to be one’s lifestyle choices. It seems to me here the Council is focused squarely on keeping your brain growing, going, and rejuvenating by stimulating it more or less directly via your natural cognitive and learning systems. That said, they intend to discuss the effects of nutrition, supplements and cognitive stimulating activities in future report.
The lifestyle aspect is crucial in keeping your mind, body and I’d add spirit, fit and healthy. Relationships are an important piece to both brain and lifestyle healthiness. Having a strong emotional bond with a person, people or pet, one where you feel supported, known and cared about, is essential. It’s a matter of quality over quantity. FB and social media “friends” don’t usually count here. Being a loner most of the time isn’t helpful, yet spending some time alone is helpful to overall health and adds to your ability to bounce back from life stressors. Meditation and other contemplative practices benefit maintaining and rebuilding reslilience.
If you’re reading this and older, don’t be discouraged. The Global Council says making changes in your 60’s and 70’s is beneficial to be sure. If your younger, how you develop your brain now through mid-life will matter throughout your lifespan and help determine how healthy your brain functions in the later years.
Staying Sharp is a website that gives you an assessment of your current brain health and a plan to help you work it!
I’d love to hear what you think about this. What questions come to mind? Please leave comments below or connect with me through my website kimberlywulfert.com
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Kimberly Wulfert, PhD, Licensed Psychologist & Coach in Ventura & Ojai California, virtually
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Thank you for sharing great information about brain health. Many people are ignoring their brain health. Also, due to the lack of information about what is the food for their brain, people tend to eat what is bad for the brain.