Master Your Health: Take Better Care of Your Brain

Do you ever wonder how to take better care of your brain?

Ever wonder how the heck it’s holding up under the pressure? Of life? Of 2020?

Do you sometimes feel like it’s filled to capacity? No more room in the Inn?

Why Better Care of Your Brain

Since I’ve been sick, my brain health or lack has been at the forefront of my thoughts. Our brain is the central hub of our body’s coordinated conscious and unconscious actions. As I got sick, my brain’s management of my pain levels and speech went haywire. The regulation of aural and visual input went offline. My ability to hold on to written or verbal ideas and conversations almost disappeared.

It’s through this experience that I awakened to the incredible role our brains play in shaping our lives and behaviors; our struggles and successes. I realized how much I had been taking it for granted. After all, we only get one of these master machines, so taking good care of it is critical. As a consequence, I started to take better care of my brain. What does this look like? 

My Brain Care Strategy

Take Your Medicine

Honestly, medicine plays a major role in improving my brain health. It is only through medicine that I have found any relief from the pain, speech issues and hypersensitivity to sight and sound. The medicine I take is prescribed by qualified doctors to assist. This is not medical advice about what to take or when. Rather consult a trusted physician if you be,I’ve that may help.

Modify Your Lifestyle

AND medicine is only one prong of my brain health strategy. Another prong is making dramatic changes to my lifestyle. I modified behaviors to accommodate my challenges such as memory issues and disorientation in large groups due to sensory issues. In some ways, I fixed reoccurring problems with tweaks. For example, I bought a purse with easy pockets for my wallet, keys and phone which I kept losing in stores when I carried them by hand. In others ways, I retreated from the world; limiting my interactions and turning inward. Most of us are now doing these latter bits because of Covid, but at the time it was a very solitary behavior change. All the same, these changes relieved stress on my brain.

Reduce Bad Stress on the Brain

Have any of you seen the ad where an egg is cracked onto a hot frying pan? The ad is about how your brain reacts to being on street drugs. The same analogy can be applied to your brain under stress; it sizzles and crackles. In an injured brain, stress amplifies the misfiring neurons; the yoke runs amok. Reducing the stress in my life helps my brain to function better and to heal. Some of the ways that I did this was through the lifestyles modifications above. Other ways included letting go of the last and future expectations. Time and time again, I have been reminded of the gift in the present.

An egg on a hot frying pan like stree on the brain
Photo Credit: SHOT on Unsplash

Increase Good Stress on the Brain

Some of you may be saying, “Wait a second! Stress can be a good thing.” This is true; healthy stress is necessary to keep the brain active and growing. One of the scariest phrases my doctors implored early on as I struggled with almost everything was ‘use it or lose it.’ Neurons, the brain’s messengers, need to be stimulated to stay alive. Healthy stress includes activities that exercise the neurons. So I had to learn to stimulate the neurons without overdoing it. I had to learn how to stay active and engaged without causing severe exhaustion or increasing pain. Consequently, my awareness of how my brain is feeling has increased 100 fold. I check in with myself much more than I used to. And I need to continue raising this awareness.

Take Care of Your Brainwaves

Another prong of my strategy for taking better care of my brain is healing my brainwave patterns through neurofeedback. We have five major types of brainwaves; alpha, theta, delta, high beta, and low beta. A healthy brain harmonizes these waves in specific patterns studied using Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG). My QEEG brain mapping revealed that my brainwaves had been disrupted and the patterns had gone wonky. As a result, I am now spending 45 minutes twice a week undergoing neurofeedback.

During a neurofeedback session, I sit quietly with 4-6 electrodes on my head that send impulses into my brain. These impulses are used to train the neurons to create new pathways around damaged areas of my brain. As these new pathways form, the brainwaves start to re-harmonize. This process takes time and patience. I have been going for four months and have another four to six months to go. And soon, I will begin neuro-conditioning to improve such things as processing speed.

Learn More About Brain Health

Finally, I am exploring other ways of taking better care of my brain by listening to educational audios. Learning still challenges me AND I am finding ways to test my limits. For me, quietly listening to audio allows easier comprehension and retention than reading. There are some amazing recordings out by Dr. Amen and other proponents of brain health. As part of my plan to master my health, I am challenging myself to listen piece by piece to these audios.

Better Brain Care Recap

After almost 2 years of dealing with this illness, I take better care of my brain health by staying on top of my medicine, reducing bad stress, and adding good stress. I keep a pulse on how my brain is feeling throughout the day. Also, I am committed to the neurofeedback protocols and learning news ways to support my brain health. Other critical components of brain health are how you fuel the brain, move the body and good sleep. I’ll talk about those in separate posts.

So, how does your brain feel?

Are you taking care of it as best you can?

What one tweak can you make today for a happier brain?

Authors signature, Love & Light, Carrie
A woman with earbuds face to the sky with a smile as she learns how to toad better care of her brain
Photo Credit: Jackson Simmer