Your brain on sleep
Finally, it’s 10 PM. The last few customers are filing out of the restaurant and when they’re outside, you lock up the front door. It’s closing time. Then, you turn around and look at the whole dining room. After a full, bustling day of serving customers, the dining room is looking run-down and needs to be prepared for tomorrow. Even though the restaurant is closed, the work is far from over. Now, this scenario may not be familiar to you. But whether or not you have ever worked in a dining...
How All-or-Nothing thinking cripples so many’s brains and mental health. Do you think like this?
Does a small mistake ruin your whole day? Do you feel best about yourself when you’ve been making all the right choices? Would you call yourself a perfectionist, obsessing over tiny details to get them all, each and every one, just right? This kind of thinking is called “all or nothing thinking.” And it is the enemy of progress. “Perfectionism” is a word we hear thrown around a lot – we think it just means that someone has high standards for themselves. But believe it or not, all or nothing...
“Why” matters more than “what”
Let’s do a quick exercise that will offer you some important insight… Take a pencil and a piece of paper and write down everything you’ve eaten today – meals, snacks, and even beverages, too – from the time you woke up to now. If you’re reading this in the morning, try writing down what you ate yesterday. Don’t leave anything out. Then, next to each item, write down why you ate that thing. Now, you might be tempted to write down, “I was hungry,” or, “It was lunchtime.” But that’s not what I...
Better Brain Performance – You can start today!
If there are two things I want to communicate to you with these emails, it’s these… Your brain is at the center of everything you do and everything you are. How you take care of your brain is how it takes care of you.This all-important world-driving supercomputer can only serve you if you serve it the way it needs to be served. These two facts are not just the reason I write to you each week – they are the reason I chose my career as a healthcare provider. They are the reason I go to work...
Brain aging IS optional!
Unfortunately, we live in a world that time is not kind to… Time changes everything it touches. Food goes bad. Pavement cracks. Paint chips and gets bleached by the sun. Entropy enters systems and breaks things apart. We get older; our bodies start to slow and our brains begin to shut down. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Well… I guess that’s not totally true. Time does change everything. But it doesn’t have to change things so much. If you keep food safe, it stays good to eat longer. You...
In psychiatry, there is no one answer…
I know I say it often, but it warrants repeating: your body is a beautiful and complex machine! Trillions of specialized cells working together to make up tissues, to compose organs, to collaborate as systems, to support your daily doings… it is a work of art. But given how complex it is, one symptom could mean a dozen or more different causes. When you are talking to a friend and they say, “Oh, my stomach hurts,” you do not rush to tell them to have a snack. They could be in pain for many...
The supercomputer that is your brain
Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the brain… Its central role in your life and the world – the importance of meeting its needs – how you should treat it, and how you should not treat it, if you want to live a life of less trouble… And today, I want to take you behind the curtain and give you a closer look at the supercomputer that is your brain. You see, your brain is a beautiful, complex, and magnificent machine – a mechanism composed of ten times more neurons than there are...
9 things you can do today to help your brain
Last week, I asked you a question: would you rather fill your car with water, juice, or laundry detergent? Of course, this is a ridiculous question. Your car was not built to run on any of these things, so they would do nothing to get you home… and worse yet, they would probably damage your vehicle permanently. But what happens when your car gets exactly the kind of fuel it needs? It becomes an invaluable tool – something that functions just as it is built to and takes you wherever you need to...
Don’t find yourself stranded!
Imagine that you are driving when out of nowhere, the calming hum of your car is interrupted with a sputtering noise. Your car slows to a stop in the middle of the road. You ran out of fuel! You get out of your car to take stock of what you have with you. You find an old water bottle, half-full an unopened juice box that your child dropped under the seat, and a container of laundry detergent that you are bringing home from the store. Which of these things should you use to refuel your...
Have you ever been this hungry?
Have you ever been so hungry that you ate enough food for one thousand people? Don’t laugh! I know it’s a ridiculous question. Maybe you’ve joked about it, but surely, no one could eat food set aside for a thousand people. Yet, that is a great illustration of how much fuel your brain consumes every single day! In my last few emails, I have established two things… 1) Your brain is at the center of everything you are and everything you do. 2) Your brain has needs, and the quality of your life...
Getting out of the woods
Imagine for a moment that you are in the middle of the woods… It is a dark and overcast night. You are surrounded on all sides by walls of trees covered in foliage. You have no hope of seeing the stars, and you are very, very lost. You know which way the road is, but you do not know which direction to go if you didn’t have a compass! But you do have a compass, so you begin walking toward the road. You walk and walk and walk for what feels like hours, checking your compass all the while–yes,...
Your word of the day: sonder
Today, I want to teach you a new word: sonder. Maybe you have heard of it before and it’s not new to you. Either way, it’s not a very common word, but it is necessary. It is a relatively new word, too, only first coined ten years ago to describe a realization that you may have had before… …a realization that can change the way you relate to everyone you meet. You know that your life is complicated. You feel the cloudy nature of your own “busyness;” you see your own schedule, feel your own...
“It’s all in your head”
Last week, I promised I would start showing you how to change your life by changing your brain. But in order to do that, I must first explain one crucial fact… Your brain impacts everything you do and everything you are. Let me explain. You have a body, but you know you are not your body. You are not your arms or your legs. Your heart pumps your blood and your lungs filter the air you breathe, but those physical things do not make you who you are. You do not become a different person after...
12 facts about your brain
Today, I want to introduce you to three people who can help you change your life. One of them you may have heard of is Dr. Daniel Amen. He is not only a brain specialist and passionate advocate of brain health, having studied the brain for more than 30 years, but he is also my mentor and associate. He and his team of medical experts have spent years developing solutions for his patients to live their lives “at maximum.” Another person I want to introduce you to is myself. Now, of course, you...
If you only do ONE thing today, do this…
Are you hydrated? You might hear this question at work or at home and you may think to yourself, “Well, sure, I had some coffee earlier,” or, “Sure, I had a protein shake after my workout.” But that’s not the question they are asking. Really, they are asking, “Have you had enough water today?” Water is plain and simple, so it gets a bad wrap. There are more exciting beverage options out there - we might have juice with breakfast or coffee on the way to work. Maybe we get electrolytes from...
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