How do you nourish a brain? What you need to know before you start making resolutions
Ah, the infamous New Year’s resolutions. The time of year when information on diet and weight loss overwhelm every form of media. Yes nutrition is incredibly important, but let’s bring a new perspective to your goals for the year ahead.
Consider the question of how exactly you nourish a brain. The food you eat is clearly vital, but is that really all you need for good cognitive function and mental health? For happiness? No, it is not enough, or I would content myself with writing this entire post on omega 3 fatty acids, iron status or protein intake!
This year, take some time to consider the six areas below when making your goals. Many things can impact your health and happiness, and these are a few that can really make a difference. I challenge you to make yourself a goal related to one of these categories, and then create the changes you need to set yourself up for success.
After all, nourishment is also about movement, play, connection to others and to the world around you, appropriate stressors, rest and growing in ways that help you to be your very best self.
Movement and Play
To be honest, exercise is kind of an ugly word. It has all these associations with pain, sweat, tears, weight management, body image and “not being good enough”. People generally dislike the word and being told “you need to exercise” sounds more like a punishment than encouragement.
Movement is a much better word. Movement is freedom. It’s not running on a treadmill until your knees beg for mercy. It’s training hard towards a goal, like running a marathon or being able to lift a certain amount of weight. It’s dancing in your kitchen while you wait for supper to cook. It’s stepping away from your desk to do a few body weight squats before your next phone call. It can even be running around the house playing games with your kids.
Your body needs movement in order to stay strong. Your brain needs movement too. For example, when you move, you increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which improves mood and cognition.
Social Connection
It’s funny how other people can be both your greatest source of stress and your greatest joy. Some of your favourite memories likely involve other people. Our connections provide an important source of support, information and resources.
If you haven’t already, this might be a good time to check out my talk on the importance of social connection.
If you’re wanting to build up your connections this year, look around for ways to get involved in your community. This can be a great way to make new friends, especially when you are new to an area.
If you want to strengthen your existing connections this year, take a moment to think about what each person means to you and how you can better support them in their own goals for the year. Really give this some thought. Write it down. Ask them. Then follow through.
Thermal Stress
In the winter it’s “too cold” and in the summer it’s “too hot” so we micromanage our environment so we are constantly sitting in the Goldilocks temperature of “just right”. But did you know that your body uses temperature stressors (within reason of course) to your benefit?
Sauna plays a role in helping you to detoxify from the various pollutants you are exposed to, and has been shown to have a number of benefits, including a decreased risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Cold stress also has benefits, although there appears to be less research on this side of the temperature spectrum. Depending on the conditions where you live and what you are used to, you can get this cold stress by heading outside, but you can also achieve this using an adapted cold shower.
If incorporating a little more thermal stress is a goal for your new year, check in with your doctor on how to do this safely.
Sunshine and Nature
It may be a few more months before you see a whole lot of sunshine but getting exposure to outdoor light is still important! Your body uses information from the light it receives to help maintain your circadian rhythm, which then has effects on how well you sleep and how awake you feel during the day. How can you incorporate “snacks” of outdoor light in your day?
If you haven’t already, this could be a good time to download f.lux for your computer, so that if you are working at night you aren’t exposed to the blue light that will make it harder for you to fall asleep.
An additional benefit to getting outside is nature exposure. Being around nature is a powerful factor in how well you respond to stress. Could one goal be to add in a 20-minute date with nature once per week?
Sleep
You know sleep is important, but how much do you really value your sleep? Where does it sit on your priority list for the day? I used to value reading books over sleep until I realized two things: not sleeping is a very unsustainable way to live life and prioritizing sleep gives you superpowers. Well not really but compared to the majority of the people around you, who are functioning on an impairing 5 hours of sleep or less, getting enough sleep may as well be a superpower.
Sleeping consistently is also important. Setting a specific bed time and wake time (for weekdays and weekends!) is a great place to start with your sleep goals.
Developing Character Strengths
From the creation of positive psychology came the identification of 24 character strengths. These character strengths are grouped into the six categories of courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence and wisdom. You can thank Seligman and Peterson for bringing light to our strengths, and bringing research to what makes things go “right” instead of always focusing on what makes things go “wrong”.
The 24 strengths include bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest, love, kindness, social intelligence, teamwork, fairness, leadership, forgiveness, humility, prudence, self regulation, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality, creativity, curiosity, judgment, learning, and perspective.
Kind of reminds me of elementary school assemblies, where we would get called up to receive stickers for leadership, good attendance and reading books – look at the strengths list and give yourself some stickers!
On a more serious note, these strengths are about more than just getting a pat on the back. They actually help you to be resilient. Developing strengths has helped people to grow and heal, even after trauma.
What strength did you really shine in over the past year? What strength do you want to cultivate this year?
Final Thoughts
You can accomplish a lot in a year. Make this your year! Set meaningful goals and partner with people who can keep you accountable and provide the support or resources to help you reach them. Make your goals about more than what you can’t eat. Make it about what matters most to you, and what being healthy will allow you to accomplish. If you’re feeling stuck, download the Bringing Health Goals to Life handout below. Best wishes to you in your new year!