2024-01-01 11:00:17
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – With the end of 2023, it may be difficult to choose which New Year’s resolutions you want to focus on.
You can start with what makes you feel anxious, which is your brain, as it dictates our actions, our feelings, and processes all the information around us.
What happens in the brain affects the body as well.
Season 8 of the Chasing Life podcast with CNN Chief Medical Analyst Dr. Sanjay Gupta focused on the brain and its many conditions, including the dysregulated brain, the postmenopausal brain, and the depressed brain.
Here are 5 of the most important tips provided by the program’s guests to help maintain attention and focus in 2024.
Prioritize brain peace
Getting enough rest is essential for overall good health, and good for brain health too, but what is considered enough?
“A person should sleep for between 7 and 9 hours per night on average,” Victoria Garfield, senior research fellow at the Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging and professor at University College London, told Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Taking a short nap during the day can boost your brain, as one Garfield study showed that people who take regular naps have a larger brain size, on average, compared to people who don’t.
Feed your brain
Your brain needs food to function well, but it’s important to consider where that fuel comes from.
Dr. Uma Naidu, a nutritional psychiatrist and director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, noted that increasing scientific evidence shows that certain foods may improve a person’s mood.
Naidu said: “You can eat a lot of green leafy vegetables, and consume between 3 and 5 cups of them a day.”
She added: “Vegetables such as arugula and spinach contain folic acid. Low folic acid is associated with low mood.”
There are many other meals that improve the mood, and dark chocolate is considered one of the favorite snacks to stimulate it.
Naidu also recommended eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel, anchovies, and sardines.
Consume caffeine in moderation
“Caffeine, or caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea, provide a lot of very positive health effects,” said science writer and author, Michael Pollan.
These drinks are beneficial when it comes to cardiovascular diseases, and they are also linked to lower rates of Parkinson’s disease.
But caffeine also prevents the buildup of the chemical adenosine throughout the day, which can cause some people to have trouble sleeping.
Breathe to reduce stress
Thanks to 24-hour news channels and social media, it is difficult to stay informed regarding all the events around the world without falling into a spiral of negative emotions.
“At least in the world we live in now, I’m concerned that we’re not prioritizing “For example, for mental health rather than access to these things.”
Saltz’s advice can be applied to any category of negative news.
Saltz does not call for refraining from checking the news, but for example, she recommends not browsing social media pages that do not provide warning regarding scenes that may be disturbing to some people.
Saltz recommended deep breathing to relax the body and activate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) response, which is the counterpart of the sympathetic response (fight or flight).
Think regarding forgiving someone
Forgiving someone, whether a friend, a stranger, or even yourself, can provide a range of physical and mental benefits, including reduced anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure, and improved sleep.
But doing so is not always easy.
Robert Enright, a pioneer in the field of tolerance and professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “Forgiveness is essentially a moral virtue, which is a merciful response towards those who have not done good to us, without justifying (the actions of) people, and the inability to forget and reconcile. necessarily”.
But forgiveness is a practice in itself, and often times, it takes a long time to achieve, said Enright, co-founder of the nonprofit International Institute for Tolerance, which offers a blueprint for beginning the forgiveness process.
Enright believed that forgiveness may help you when you feel stuck and distressed by a situation.
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