Your Low-Stress Guide to Leveling-Up Your Bedtime Routine
Are You Burnt Out or Depressed?
I call it survivor brain, and we want to be in the thriving brain.'
After a year a chronic stress, what your brain needs is a reboot of sorts.
There are two types of stress: good and bad.
Bad stress has no direction, or clear path forward and out.
The pandemic has brought on plenty of the bad kind of stress.
neurologist and co-director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University
Fortunately, this is not actually all that difficult to do, according to Dr. Sherzai.
There is no magic needed, he says.
How to reboot your brain
1.
Its easy tension reliefa blunt cleansing of your psychology and physiology.
You dont have to commit to an hour at the gym, either.
And it should be done daily.
Dr. Porter offers one caveat to this recommendation, however.
You have to rest afterwards, he says.
You cant just be stressing out [your brain] by working out.
neurologist and co-director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University
Start with this 10-minute workout to renew your spirit:
2.
Rethink your diet
Bad food, says Dr. Sherzai, creates tension in the brain.
As for what qualifies as bad food, Dr. Sherzai offers a pretty extensive list.
It might be easier to focus on the good foods, too, of which there are also many.
To differentiate between the good and the bad, Dr. Sherzai recommends using the SMART framework.
Then, break them down into small goals you could achieve regularly to make your brain feel its best.
Next, he says, youll want to identify your bad stressors.
Then, start picking them off, one at a time, he says.
See how it’s possible for you to delegate, reduce, and/or eliminate them.
Dr. Sherzai offers an example to help you visualize what eradicating or reducing bad stressors might look like.
They can become very toxic over time.
With regular practice, this becomes quicker and more effective over time.
That will shift your brain function, he says.
Its very catharticpeople will get a release of stress doing that.
Much stress, he posits, is created by uncertainty; humans are not fond of the unpredictable.
The best way to predict the future is to create it, he says.
Connect with others
Of course, talking to someone can helpwhether thats a friend or aprofessional.
We all need community, says Porter.
Our brains are wired for it.
Such hyperbolic thinking isnt necessarily productive.
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