A more gentle approach to life can reduce chronic mental stress, which floods your brain with chemicals that damage neurons.
How do you do that if you are a hard-driving, goal-oriented, high achiever? Can you still win while reducing stress? You can by increasing feelings of satisfaction, gratitude and happiness. In fact, you can’t win in the great Game of Life without developing the capacity to generate such feelings.
When you put yourself into stress mode, your cells are flooded with adrenaline and other stress-activated chemicals that damage neurons. Stress mode is voluntary. At some point, you make a decision to go into over-drive and allow the adrenaline to surge.
Admittedly, some high performers are addicted to the adrenaline rush. Some people actually provoke stress and competitive situations in order to get that adrenaline pumping. (You know who you are...)
What if there were ways to live your life without the damage caused by stress hormones and still be a winner? Here are some things you would need to do to keep the competitive edge.
1. Physical exercise improves blood flow to the brain and even perks up mental activity in specific parts of the brain, new research shows. Keeping your blood vessels free of clogging and damage is essential to preserving brain function. That means controlling blood pressure, bad cholesterol and toxins that promote strokes and disease.
2. Stimulating your brain by doing new things including new games. Mental gymnastics actually encourage growth of new brain cell connections, enlarging memory and learning capacity. Using your creativity is a good way to do this.
3. Whenever you stop and reflect with gratitude about the positive things in your life, you are sending a message to your cells to produce certain chemicals in your brain. These chemicals are experienced as pleasant feelings throughout your body. It is impossible for the brain to experience pleasant emotions and negativity at the same time. Your good feelings calm you, and decrease the presence of stress hormones and chemicals in your brain.
4. You can learn to relax. You can learn to replace addictive stimulation with true happiness and gratitude. Meditation, yoga, stretching, massage, self-hypnosis and just being still will regenerate energy for your body and brain and reduce the effects of stress.
The most important thing to remember is that your brain is growing and changing every instant. You have more control over it than previously thought. You can create a healthy environment for your brain cells to repair themselves, to flourish, and even to regenerate.
Your brain thrives on stimulation, creativity, exercise, education and the right diet and supplements. It also needs relaxation time to rejuvenate. It is never too late or too early to influence your own brain’s destiny.
A more gentle approach to life can reduce chronic mental stress, which floods your brain with chemicals that damage neurons.
How do you do that if you are a hard-driving, goal-oriented, high achiever? Can you still win while reducing stress? You can by increasing feelings of satisfaction, gratitude and happiness. In fact, you can’t win in the great Game of Life without developing the capacity to generate such feelings.
When you put yourself into stress mode, your cells are flooded with adrenaline and other stress-activated chemicals that damage neurons. Stress mode is voluntary. At some point, you make a decision to go into over-drive and allow the adrenaline to surge.
Admittedly, some high performers are addicted to the adrenaline rush. Some people actually provoke stress and competitive situations in order to get that adrenaline pumping. (You know who you are...)
What if there were ways to live your life without the damage caused by stress hormones and still be a winner? Here are some things you would need to do to keep the competitive edge.
1. Physical exercise improves blood flow to the brain and even perks up mental activity in specific parts of the brain, new research shows. Keeping your blood vessels free of clogging and damage is essential to preserving brain function. That means controlling blood pressure, bad cholesterol and toxins that promote strokes and disease.
2. Stimulating your brain by doing new things including new games. Mental gymnastics actually encourage growth of new brain cell connections, enlarging memory and learning capacity. Using your creativity is a good way to do this.
3. Whenever you stop and reflect with gratitude about the positive things in your life, you are sending a message to your cells to produce certain chemicals in your brain. These chemicals are experienced as pleasant feelings throughout your body. It is impossible for the brain to experience pleasant emotions and negativity at the same time. Your good feelings calm you, and decrease the presence of stress hormones and chemicals in your brain.
4. You can learn to relax. You can learn to replace addictive stimulation with true happiness and gratitude. Meditation, yoga, stretching, massage, self-hypnosis and just being still will regenerate energy for your body and brain and reduce the effects of stress.
The most important thing to remember is that your brain is growing and changing every instant. You have more control over it than previously thought. You can create a healthy environment for your brain cells to repair themselves, to flourish, and even to regenerate.
Your brain thrives on stimulation, creativity, exercise, education and the right diet and supplements. It also needs relaxation time to rejuvenate. It is never too late or too early to influence your own brain’s destiny.