In current times, looking after not only your physical, but mental health is equally important. And it has now been suggested that in order to keep the brain healthy and highly productive, one should avoid confusion and indecision. It has been advised to make quicker decisions rather than complicating issues.
According to the latest video uploaded by 26-year-old neuroscientist from Kansas City, Missouri, Cody Isabel, keeping the brain healthy is possible if delay in decision-making is done away with. If a decision is made instantly, the brain’s focus is maintained and it functions properly. This also leads to the reduction of anxiety and stress.
With more than 13 lakh views, Isabel’s video also contains tips and tricks to maintain and improve mental health. He suggests that meditating for merely 10 minutes a day, sleeping properly, and staying active will make one observe healthy differences in the mind and the body in the time period of 30 days, by ‘healing the brain’.
Labelling these tips as things everyone should prioritize and nobody should ignore, Cody, in the video, said, “Less sleep equals less life”, and noted that sleep decreases inflammation in the brain, which is caused from ‘daily living trauma’.
Research suggests that continuous sleep deficits can take a considerable toll on the brain, and studies have shown that sleep deprivation can hinder learning, impair cognitive performance and slow reaction time.
Emphasizing on the importance of meditation, he said, “Meditation is an easy way to calm your mind, decrease anxiety, decrease depression and lower inflammation in your brain”.
Another suggestion given by Cody was not binge-drinking alcohol as it inflames one’s brain directly and causes depression and both short term and long-term heavy drinking can have adverse effects on your brain. Heavy, long-term alcohol can result in learning and memory issues and even lead to the development of mental health conditions.
Focusing on staying active, he added that he would never stay so busy that he can’t work out or not get a workout in, and that working out or remaining active releases BDNF, or Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, which is a protein related to the canonical nerve growth factor, which decreases brain fog and increases one’s ability to learn.
Talking about getting rid of indecision, Cody said towards the end of his video that our brains are made to decide things, act on them, and we learn through failure. He added that he learns through ‘act, access and adjust’.
Cody Isabel is a neuroscientist and the co-founder of ‘Rewrite and Rise’, a coaching service that uses neuroscience and behavioral science to help adults and children overcome mental-health related challenges.
