You can be productive and have proper lifestyle if you have well functioning brain. If you want to live well, you should know how to have improved thinking. There are various lifestyle choices that can help to improve your mood and cognition. In reality, what you eat will influence your thinking pattern. Your focus, memory retention and ability to learn depend on what you eat as well. If you are working in a competitive environment, you should maximize your brain performance. Unfortunately, we need to process too much information, but there’s too little time to do that. School children, college students and business professionals need to keep up with significant quantity of information. Here are some of the lifestyle changes that you need to do:
- Eat properly: If you want your brain to perform well, make sure that you eat the right kind of fat. You need to increase the intake of essential fatty acids or EFA. It is believed that about 95 percent of people don’t have enough of these important fats. Instead, we often consume saturated and trans fats that could potentially clog our blood vessels. Nerve cells in our brains, called neurons, need EFA to work properly. If we consume enough EFA in our daily diets, neurons could talk to one another more easily. Axons in our brain must be properly myelinated to allow for proper transmission between neurons. EFA could be found in high quantity in mackerel, salmons, herring, cod liver oil, oyster and anchovies. You should also choose the right type of carbohydrate for your brain. Today, we often consume improper type of carbohydrate from baked products made of highly refined flour. Simple carbohydrate from these baked products could cause your blood glucose to quickly rise. Although simple sugar may result in quick spurts of energy, your thought process could be affected negatively. You should choose complex carbohydrate, which allows for slow release of glucose for your brain. Baked products made from whole grain flour may taste somewhat gritty, but they are much better for your body.
- Take a deep breath: Stress could destroy your neurons and affect various body functions negatively. So, it’s important to look for ways to manage your stress level. Breathing exercise could easily deal with rampant stress. When you are experiencing stress, your body will release specific hormones, especially cortisol. Other than having proper breathing pattern, meditation is also a great way to manage stress in your lives. This way, you can learn to switch off any kind of stress that affects your body. You should be able to experience true serenity and peace. You will feel calmer and it’s easier to handle stress.
- Perform mental stimulation: Mental stimulation exercises could help your brain to stay flexible and agile. You can take up a new hobby, learn a new language and play Sodoku on smartphone. If you keep your brain busy, it will perform better for a longer period of time. For maximum benefits, you should combine mental and physical exercises.