Healthy Brain, Happy Brain

How do you keep your brain healthy even when your body is not? The relation between your body and your mind is an unbreakable connection, but keeping both in good condition does require a different approach. The first and best way to keep both in good condition is to exercise and be active. Listen to this podcast to find out how.

Transcript

Healthy brain is a happy brain.

How do you keep your brain healthy even when your body is not?

The relation between your body and your mind is an unbreakable connection,

But keeping both in a good condition does require a different approach.

The first and best way to keep both in a good condition is to exercise and be active.

Activity does not need to be a sport,

As for most people you need specific training motivation,

Organization and often also a proper social communication ability.

To be active is a matter of walking,

Cycling or just moving around,

Walking the stairs.

Many disabled people are in a good physical condition for the parts that are able to function.

They keep these parts as active as possible.

To understand the word health better we should look at the current definition of it from the WHO.

Health is a state of complete physical,

Mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

With this you understand it is very possible to have a healthy brain in a not perfectly functioning body.

Stefan Halkins did prove this statement for once and for all.

The brain is our leading part of our body and to keep it active it is needed in every way.

But we also have to be realistic and understand that keeping the brain healthy is not as easy as it sounds.

Before we move on it is good to understand what I mean with this statement.

Many people encounter negative thoughts experiences by observations and feelings.

These negative thoughts are able to shut down large parts of the brain and throw the person in a depressive state of mind,

Where tunnel vision and darkness are the normal.

Coming out of this darkness is never an easy matter and to do this we do have to look at the depression as a real physical brain problem and not just as a mental one.

In this podcast I will try to give you some new guidance to create a better mental health and improve it where it is possible.

Most people start practice meditation with clearing the mind,

Controlling the thoughts and focus on breathing.

It's very good.

It's a very good workout for the brain but does not give the body any action or space so let me turn the schedule and use it at the end of our series as a close down of the program.

Our first exercise is thought hunting.

Just walk,

Get outside.

Walk on the path that you know well,

If possible accompanied by another person who is willing to share this experience with you.

The best way is to walk hand in hand.

This is for balance and connection.

With open eyes you let thoughts run through your head and hunt each of them for a second and let them go.

You do not catch the thought.

You just hand it,

Scare it and then let it go.

Do this exercise as long as you like as in the beginning it seems difficult but you will get the hang of it and you will fastly enjoy it too.

For the second exercise you should sit down as we are going to wrestle with our brain.

Thoughts are competitive in many ways and you are probably not aware of that.

All these thoughts running around in your brain compete for your attention.

Make them fight with each other for your attention.

Encourage the competition and challenge them to fight with each other.

Most people will not like the idea of struggle in their head but what we do is in fact that we make clear that this is a process what is happening every second of the day in your brain.

We create awareness of this process.

Try to visualize rattling thoughts in your head.

Close your eyes and see them battling for your attention.

Do not try to force a winner as there is a constant chains of winners and losers.

Your function is to see the fight going on and not to see the decision made.

After this it is time to open your eyes and observe the environment.

See what is going on around you.

Just try to observe and not to judge.

It is time to walk a little again and you keep observing the environment without any judgment.

That is not easy as you will see things that forces you,

Certain thinking but keep trying to avoid that.

After around a thousand plus meters try to find another fit and we will start with a new exercise.

One that stimulates your thought digestion.

When you sit start to imagine a toilet.

Throw all your thoughts inside them and flush them right away.

Are they all gone and is your head empty?

That seems impossible as the more you throw in the toilet the more thoughts keep coming and what you floss seem to hang on to come out of the toilet right again.

As a last exercise for this podcast I would like you to do something humming.

Yes humming is a way to create a physical vibration which can resonate in your head and brain.

Each person has a specific tone height at which you feel comfortable and are able to overrule all thoughts to create a moment of brain silence.

The humming can be considered a form of chanting which you know from most religions.

Humming and walking do influence each other in a very interesting way.

Try to create a melody when humming in a very low tone and at the same time try to walk a little fast.

When walking faster you discover that the height of your tongue will change.

Faster walking gives a higher tone like your brain is telling you that faster walking is lighter and more pleasant.

The lower your tone the lower your speed.

Higher tones deliver more speed and create a more open posture in your body.

All these exercises target your thoughts and brain activity as a preparation to the next exercises.

We have to separate the next part in two.

The first part is brain over body and the part after that is the puzzle brain.

The brain over body exercise start with something simple and you may make it more complicated over time.

It is a challenge for body and mind.

To do this exercise well you choose a movement that you rarely do and seems complicated and you have hardly tried it before or lost the ability of it.

In my case it is stretching my leg muscles to bring my leg high.

These stretching exercises are no fun for me and I did try to avoid doing it for years to replace them with active movement training.

But we must use passive and slow movements to overcome a physical border.

Each yoga like exercise should be combined with breathing control,

Mental relaxation of the body and a mental pressure to the body to perform.

Use any kind of exercise that is useful to measure your brain over body power but never put such a high force that you get injured.

Go to the border,

Stretch it but never cross it.

You stretch to improve not to break.

Do this every day.

It is never easy but slowly your brain will bring your body to results.

That is why you need to choose a challenging exercise that will be different for everybody and every physical ability.

Then we go to the puzzle exercise.

It can be fun when you are interested in it.

Most people can use standard available crossword or other games for exercises and use the brain to solve regular or fun to do questions.

It is important that you choose something you have fun doing.

Boring or disturbing games will make you anxious and have a negative effect.

Now we have tried many exercises as brain gymnastics to stimulate the activity and create a brain over body awareness.

When you do all these exercises spread over the week you will have good results within a couple of weeks and more positive mind within two months.

As advised in the beginning when you are able to share your exercises please do so as united power is always stronger.

If you do exercises alone be aware of the safety first and then action second.

In general I can say that overall physical activity makes a person feel better and often it influence the mood in a positive way.

During my study of people of over 100 years old I found that all of them kept physical and mentally active in every possible way.

You have most of your life in your own hands.

So please move on try to control it and try to keep influence it.

If you like to be more active and interact with me directly please leave a note here,

Send an email or send me a whatsapp message I give you the number 31628096907 it is only for whatsapp.

Thank you for listening and have a nice day with a warm greetings of Arnott.

Reviews

Another amazing study find ! Thank you ☺️

Dear Arnaud ...... I learned so much from this wonderful podcast today. You are my favorite teacher on Insight Timer because ...... your voice makes me so happy. Your transformative music restores my soul. The knowledge you share is easily understandable. And, your shining spirit brightens my day with
“ wild enthusiasm “. Could you share your email with me please ? I have a inquiry for you, kind sir ⭐️

In kindness .....
Hope

I am very interested in interacting and learning from you directly if you are willing that's actually what I've been seeking . Thank you so much , get back to me if you can. My name is merryjayne.

I will listen again and practice 😊