What you DON’T do, matters.

Do you know that your body is a machine?

I have said this before, but it bears repeating. We often forget.

Your body lifts. It lunges. It computes. It flexes, darts, dashes, drives… Your body is a beautiful machine –  a multitalented, multifunctional tool that allows you to do everything you’ve ever done. Every happy memory, every photo-worthy smile, your brain and body made possible.

What makes us different from other machines, though, is that we choose what we put inside ourselves. Cars run on gasoline, coffee makers consume electricity, and calculators need lithium batteries, but at least for a time, human beings can get by on whatever they choose to fuel themselves.

We should not, but we can. The choice is ours. However, there is another thing that makes us different from other machines…

Unlike cars, coffee makers, and calculators, humans are not replaceable. Each of us only gets one body and one brain. When they stop functioning because we’ve been improperly fueling them, we’ve spent our whole lot.

In my last few emails, I have been going through my 7 cheap, simple strategies for boosting your brain performance. So far, we have covered…

• Being intentional about what you eat.
• Exercising to increase blood flow. 
• Getting enough quality sleep.
• Staying well hydrated.
• Engaging autophagy and metabolic switching through fasting.
• Staying positive and being aware of your thoughts.

Now, we are not just bodies, brains, or minds – all three are working together to make us who we are. This list aims to look at them all. But there is one thing each of these strategies has in common: they are all prescriptive, or proactive. They are each a step you can take to improve your brain function. (I suppose it wouldn’t be much of a strategy otherwise!)

But when it comes to your brain function, what you omit is just as important as what you include. Many of today’s common habits are harmful to the brain, such as…

The consumption of addictive substances like sugar, alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. 

Sugar increases inflammation and lowers cognitive ability. Tobacco diminishes memory and overall cognition. And other drugs have the potential to permanently injure the brain.

Not only do these substances directly impact your most vital organ, but their chemical makeup makes them irresistible to our brains. They fit perfectly in the middle of our brains’ reward systems, making us crave them – and receive their damage – over and over again.

Excessive loneliness and isolation.

This was one reason the COVID-19 caused such a mental health crisis. Even if you are an introvert, you are still a human being – and human beings are social by their biological makeup.

Prolonged isolation can cause as much as a 50% increase in risk of dementia.

Caffeine. 

Last week I wrote to you about the body’s stress response and how negative thoughts can keep the stress hormone – cortisol – pumping through your veins, and why you wouldn’t want that (cortisol exposure increases weight gain and risk of heart health issues, reduces immune system efficiency, and causes a host of other problems).

Caffeine is also known to add cortisol to your system – so drinking caffeinated coffees and soft drinks may work against your positive psychology.

My intent is not to scare you. My body and brain make a wonderful machine, but I am not. I still have cake on special occasions. Moderation is the best friend of the discerning.

I only mean to remind you that you’ve got one brain – one body – one life – and what you do, and don’t do, today, matters. Listen to your body when it tells you how it feels after you partake.

Make today your masterpiece!

Florina