Strength of brain | Brain Power

Strength of brain

Brain is the most complex organ of our human body. It handles every tiniest action occurring in the body. To keep our body healthy and strong it is very much necessary to keep the brain strong.

Brain needs to be functioning all times. So we might think it doesn’t really need exercise or rest, but to keep the working in best conditions brain needs to be maintained consciously by us. Let’s see what we can do to recharge and strengthen CPU of our system.

When it comes to maintain any organ of the body more than anything, resting is the most essential part.

For resting of body, sleep is the best way, but our brain can’t afford to rest in that time. So the best way to give relaxation to our brain is meditation. This is an age-old yet scientifically proven way to calm the mind down. Studies have shown that meditation can stop the working of areas where stress is generated.

Meditation can be done by many methods. Just sit with crossed legs and closed eyes. Play calming music or guided meditation sound. For beginners, keep your focus on the breath and let all your thoughts pass without focusing on them. Do this every day for how much ever time you can sit. Welcome to the world of calmness!!

Our brain gets overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of our daily monotonous life. This can give stress at long run. So once in a while try to connect with nature. Go to that park nearby you, walk barefoot on the grass, hug a tree or two, do some gardening, get your hands muddy. Hugging trees relaxes tensions and sends soothing signals to mind. The green tone of the grass can relax eye tension as well as it gives boost to our brain working capacity. Gardening and muddy hands sends good signal through nerves. This has been found under a research that this practice helps reduce the risk of dementia to 50%.

Have you ever felt like you’re in a different zone, when you’re listening to your favorite music? Music therapy is a widely used technique to calm down. Music has been used to help patients with mental problems such as depression, anxiety etc. Moreover researchers have also found music to be therapeutic for sever brain condition such as schizophrenia.

Musical notes, pitches, tempo etc. helps mind to unwind from the ongoing stressful practices. Moreover classical music has been found out to be reducing the activation of certain neuro-degenerative neurons!! Listening to music helps declutter your mind and focus better. So next time you’re trying to stress down or focus better, turn on that music and chill!..

You know you have to hit the gym if you want to strengthen your body muscles, similarly to build the strength of your brain, exercises are a must!

There are plenty of brain exercises available that you can follow. But the best ones are the one that you can do without any investment, right?? Let’s see some

• Solve a simple math problem. 458×87=? Looks easy?! Skip using calculator…now you’re giving good exercise to your brain.

• This one is very easy! Write 5 lines using a pen and paper. Actually using your hands to write is a great motor skill and hence is an Amazing exercise for brain.

But now is the fun part: write these same lines using your non-dominant hand. You must be feeling burn after this workout Voila!! Now I can call you ambidextrous!! This exercise stimulates the certain part of brain and can strengthen it!

• Try to remember phone number of your spouse or close friend. Sounds silly, right? I mean who in this modern age of technology remembers phone numbers. But let me tell you, this is an excellent activity for brain cell activation.

Memory is a quiet big part of the brain. Whatever we do/feel is based on the memory of similar incidents, isn’t it? So to keep the brain strength bar high, memorizing is a good technique. Memory exercises like this help in managing Alzheimer’s as well as dementia.

Physical activities also help to engage brain activities. Yoga has been a proven method that aids physical strength as well as brain strength. Yoga when done with consciousness of breath, can ignite many non-working neurons of your brain. Hatha yoga is also found to be empowering our mental strength.

Pranayama is a part of yoga. Where you work with your breath rhythmically. Neuroscientists are showing high interest in yoga and Pranayama. Their researches have suggested that this practices alleviate the age-related and neuro-degenerative atrophy in brain.

Dopamine is an amazing neuro-chemical released by our brain when it gets a feeling of ‘high’. This is actually a reward-based pathway of brain function. It works something like this *you do something you -> brain releases dopamine -> you feel satisfied and happy -> you do that activity again*. This chemical acts as anti-depressant. There are certain common activities that seem to be producing dopamine in human body.

Who doesn’t love a good Laughter session? Actually laughing helps release dopamine. You feel relaxed and all the stress looks like it has vanished. So whenever you feel a lil low, get on a gossip call with your besties, and have a good laughing time. And trust me, it works like magic every single time.

•  Dance is another dopamine producing activity. This helps in coping with depressed state of mind. That’s because dance is an art form where you are focused on your moves and rhythm. You express the hidden emotions through dance. This helps in alleviation of depressed state.

Studies have shown that dancing boosts nerve growth, and hence it delays aging process of brain cells. A study has shown that dancing can decrease the risk of dementia to 76%!! Also dance is now added to the psychotherapy and called as Dance movement therapy aka DMT. Dance helps in building new neural connection, so the neuroplasticity is increased. So patients of neurological diseases like stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy have been showing improvement after using DMT.

Recently there’s been an extensive study ongoing on gut. This has shown potential link between gut and brain. Studies have found out that gut health has an exclusive role in brain health. So narrowing down it to layman’s language, our food habits play key role for brain health. Let’s see how and what can we do by our diet to strengthen our brain.

First let’s talk about intermittent fasting. This has been a part of lifestyle of saints and spiritual practitioners. In this type of fasting, you avoid eating for a certain length of time. But the basic concept of this is you need to have empty stomach, for promotion of controlled cell growth. Apart from that, staying away from food can keep us away from our habit of compulsive eating. This can strengthen your brain power and you can get rid of many compulsive behavior of yours. So if you want any of this benefits, begin with 12 hours fasting and increase it up to 14 or 16 hours. The results on your brain will be astonishing.

We’ve seen many things that we should do for brain strengthening. But what not to do is also important, right?

• Multitasking is something we adore as pride badge, but this action actually take away your brain health. Focusing on one task at a time is more effective than multitasking. So next time you’re about to multitask, take a pause, think about your brain health and start another task after completing one. Deal?

• Next on the list is a big no-no for brain health, procrastination. When you postpone something you had planned to do, actually your sending signals to your brain that you’re not capable of doing that. This in long run reduces confidence. Your brain will not take any of your decisions seriously, because it doesn’t trust you anymore </3. So please be resilient for your plans, don’t postpone them. Make a to-do list, tick them all off. Just do it. You can do it.

Know that brain strength is as important as physical strength. So along with hitting the gym, do consider all the topics above. Keep check on your mental health, too. A healthy mind will bring the happy man forward and vise versa. More power to you and your brain *hoots* !!

Stay happy and healthy!

Keep reading!

URVI BHANUSHALI

M.Sc,Microbiology