Our research suggests that there are at least 15 pillars, lifestyle strategies, that are key to maximizing your brain health and all the other benefits that can flow from that.
We can help you use these pillars, all of them or just a handful, to build your own personal brain health program.
—————————————–
Get With The program!
As a member, you’ll receive weekly or daily reminders and tips on how to maximize your brain health, and all based on our 15 Pillars. You’ll need to enroll (just an email address) and you can unsubscribe at any time.Key to managing and maximizing brain and mental health is understanding how your brain works.
What it wants and needs, what harms and hurts it, and the impact your thinking can have on your brain health.
Friendships and social connections are vital to brain and mental health, but sometimes they need a little work.
Social connections help with everything from triggering oxytocin, to a sense of tribe, to helping with loneliness;
Not only is gratitude great for brain and mental health, it could be one of the secrets for the best possible life.
But in order for it to work, you need to practice it, and ideally daily. Even better, try it in different ways.
More than 4,000 studies over seventy years support the belief that mindfulness and mediation are essential for brain, mental, and physical health.
And you could see benefits in as little as 5 minutes.
Just like your body, your brain health relies on certain foods, thrives on some, and is hurt by others.
It’s easy to create a nutrition plan that both you and your brain will just adore.
Exercise is great for mental health, and some types more than others. And there’s great evolving science around what type, how often, and how intense.
And there’s also one exercise known to encourage your brain to grow more of itself.
Learning isn’t just about making you smarter, although that’s great for your mental health too. But it’s also known to increase the health and resilience of the brain.
And learning is also a major contributor to the health of the essential synapses that keep your brain working at its optimum.
Did you know that kindness is not just great for brain and mental health, but it can permanently rewire your brain for the better?
Not only that, it’s absolutely free and you can tap into it as many times as you like.
If you want to be the most successful in life, get the most out of it, science says to focus on happiness and kindness.
And not just key to a more content life, but essential for long term mental and physical health too.
In brain and mental health, metacognition is about learning to think more about your thoughts and how you process and react to them.
Yet that simple process can be essential to good brain and mental health.
We humans take more than 20,000 breaths every single day, and yet most of them are wrong.
Correct breathing is central to brain health, mental health, and even physical health, and it’s so easy to get started.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a particularly religious person, any kind of spirituality can be great for mental health.
Spiritual and religious beliefs are known to improve mental and brain health in more than a dozen different ways.
Ever wondered why a simple walk in nature can be so calming and refreshing? It’s not a coincidence, it’s just good neuroscience.
Getting out in nature can also improve brain and mental health in more than a dozen different ways.
Some studies have suggested that having a meaning and purpose in life can add seven quality years to that life.
Which is why in some cultures, purpose is considered central to a happy and long life.
Volunteering, giving your time to help others, isn’t just great for the planet, it’s also great for your mind.
We’ve identified more than 20 different ways that the simple act of volunteering can be the best mental health program you can ever try.
Are there really just 15 pillars?
Probably not. There are probably more. But these are the ones I’ve identified as being the most important
When I first start researching this field a few years ago, I saw headlines with “The 5 Pillars of Brain Health”, “The 8 Pillars”, “The 6 Pillars.” And yet, none of them seemed to tell the full story.
The more I looked, the more obvious it became that not only are there many things, lifestyle choices, that can help maximize brain and mental health, some work better than others.
You might want to include a little of everything (that’s my approach), get much better at a handful of things, or simply find practices that fit a busy lifestyle or a specific goal.