10 ways you can optimize
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7/27/2019 10 Ways You Can Optimize
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The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine
www.nicabm.com
10 Ways You Can Optimize
Your Brain Today
The hippocampus is important to learning. Anything we
can do to support the hippocampus can be helpful in
countless areas of life. But the corollary is also true its
important to avoid anything that makes the hippocampus
shrink. Keep this in mind as we go along.
The amygdala is constantly on the alert for danger. Were
hard wired this way but . . . this hyper-reactivity can
be very harmful it affects our blood pressure and our
interpersonal relationships. But it also affects our brains.
Aerobic exercise increases BDNF, which stands for
brain-derived neurotrophic factor. When BDNF
is released into the system, brain growth and neural
connections are enhanced its like miracle grow for
the brain. Research indicates that for approximately 24
hours after exercise, its easier to grow new neurons and tomake new neural connections.
Weight training not only builds muscles and contributes
to bone health, but it also improves cognitive functioning.
Improvements are in areas such as a heightened ability to
make decisions, resolve conict and improve focus.
Meditation quiets the amygdala and activates the
hippocampus. (Keep in mind take-away number ten,
anything that supports the hippocampus is good for you.)
The cerebral cortex thins with various brain diseases. Well,
unfortunately, it also thins with age. But researchers are
nding that mindfulness practices help to thicken cell
walls in the brain.
All the brain science in the world wont help unless its got a good dose of application to go along with it.
Thats why we created this video. These are the top ten actions to take care of your brain today.
Use this document to take notes on your action plan as you listen to the video.
Your Action Plan:
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The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine
www.nicabm.com
Too much stress can be harmful, not just to the
cardiovascular system, but also to your brain. As we
reported in the blog last year in studies with rats, it
was shown that when corticosteroids were increased,
neurogenesis decreased.
Corticosteroids are hormones released from the adrenals in
response to stress. So, when stress went up, brain growth,
or whats known as neurogenesis, went down.
In fact, chronic stress can shrink the brain making it hard
to learn new information or to even simply retain the
information you already have.
The sweet spot for neuroplasticity. New learning is most
likely to take place when the brain has an optimal
amount of arousal. Too much arousal and the brain shuts
down, not enough and it gets distracted and lazy. Its
important to keep this in mind during psychotherapy . . .but really during all our interventions.
Teachers, parents, managers - this is useful information.
The harmful side of neuroplasticity. We normally think
of the possibility of the brain growing and changing as
a positive thing, but there can also be a dark side to
neuroplasticity. When you are experiencing trauma, you
are also in learning mode but this time, your brain is laying
down neural connections that include vivid memories and
sensations of terrifying experiences.
All people are neuroscientists! And change is only possible
with neuroplasticity.
Heres a way to think about it and this is key: You want
to bias your brain in favor of hippocampal learning
rather than amygdala learning.
We shared a lot of specics about what goes into an optimal
experience in the transcript of the call with Lou Cozolino,
PhD last year. If you havent read that yet, be sure to take
a moment to go back and check it out. Youll nd a link to
it below.
http://www.nicabm.com/optimize-your-brain/conrmed
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