Imagine our communities learning how to start healthy conversations about the brain, in the same way, as we would talk about where we went on vacation.
The stigmatization of mental health and illness left the brain being outsourced to a few people. We have tended to focus our efforts on all the things that have gone wrong. The main problem, we cannot change the past. One thing for certain, we can learn a few tricks today and going forward. The first thing to start thinking about, is the brain has untapped potential.
Because in the past the brain has been viewed as weak, we have been afraid to talk about the brain to our family and friends. This is changing. We have entered the decade where brain imaging technology has allowed the brain to be displayed for us to see inside it. Try experimenting with the brain's plasticity, and attempt to train it, in a similar way to training other muscles in the body.
Try a new type of conversation, rather than focus on stress and your worries and problems, reframe the conversation to an exciting healthy brain conversation. It may be as simple as:
Guess what I did this morning when I woke up? And lead with something like:
I looked out the window, into nature, and thought about 3 things I am grateful for, then I did 2 minutes of deep breathing exercises. I noticed that when I directed my attention in this way. I felt a lot better compared to the previous week. I have come to see that I can control what my brain is paying attention to. Before this, I would reach for the alarm on my phone, and then immediately turn my attention to the latest bad news, and then social media. I did not realize that a simple activity like thinking about where my brain is paying attention, can have either a major positive or negative impact on the rest of the day.
Learning how to train my brain, with a simple change in my morning routine, was simple but not easy to do. It took me a few weeks for it to become my new normal routine.
This change to brain health and fitness in our conversations, focusses on the power of the brain and the control we have over it. Everyone has the opportunity to learn how to become the boss of their brain.
Try it and see.
Let's make brain health become everyone's business