Your brain is important – it’s the only one you get. Look after it.
I’m one of those annoying people who hates to follow the crowd. To my own detriment. It’s not nice to admit, but it’s true. If everyone is jumping on the latest trend, even if it’s a great one… I’ll run in the other direction.
Hand on heart, I’ve felt a little bit like that about personal wellbeing and resilience (over the last few years, and certainly the last year or so). Everyone seems to be into the latest Yoga class, or practicing self-love, taking up running, or doing an online art class to clear their minds.
I know it’s all good. All of it. Believe me, I know! I just can’t help railing against it a little… as I said, I’m just that annoying guy!
However, there’s one thing that I will always be a passionate defender of… whether it’s a trend, a fad, or maybe (just maybe) the most important element of ourselves we can focus on. Our brains. I find them fascinating, often misunderstood, abused, and the forgotten constant in all of our existences.
Brain Care
It’s from this angle of caring for the brain that I have become a huge fan and apostle of wellbeing and resilience. If we understand the damage that stress can have on our brains, for example how it can put all the hormone release out of balance and even make them shrink (that’s right, shrink our brains!), then it brings it right up my agenda.
Doing the right things to keep ourselves in good mental order is exactly what keeps us resilient. Looking after your body is important and boosting our emotional state is great, but from my experience, ensuring our brains are in as optimal working order as possible is what lies beneath all of the other health, wellbeing, and resilience tips.
It’s often the same daily practices at play. Exercise, mental stimulation, rest, looking after others ahead of ourselves and all of the things we all know are good things to do. However, it’s deeper than a surface ‘wellbeing band-aid’. It’s goes to the neuroscientific core of us all. The forgotten part of self-care. The brain that’s the only one we get.