#16 Basics of Brain Fitness – Part 2

Welcome, I'm Arnold Beekes and I enable you to have a better life between the ears because your inner state creates your outer reality. Today we're going to continue with the last set of basics of brain fitness. The first one is your body.

Now you might say that's strange, I thought you were talking about the brain. Well opposite to what most people think and what a lot of people tell you is that your body and brain are totally interconnected. Things that happen in your brain have an impact in your body and things that happen in your body have an impact on your brain.

There's a, well they call it a blood brain barrier between your brain and your body, but basically everything floods, well if you could say top down and bottom up. So your body is something, it's not like oh I'm working on my body so I can neglect my brain and the other way around. No, of course they collaborate.

Think about the simple thing as right now raising your hand above your head. Is that something your arm does or your hand does by itself? No, of course not. It's decided in your brain, your head brain in this case, and then you raise your arm or your hand.

So taking care of your body means taking care of your brain and as I mentioned before we have three brains, the gut brain, the heart brain, which are typically in your body, and the head brain, which is in your head. So and what is the basic is that you need to take care of your body in the sense of movement, exercise, and movement doesn't mean that you have to go running every day. It can be just as fine if you go cycling or if you walk your dog a couple of times per day or go swimming, play tennis, football.

So movement is really crucial for your body but at the same time crucial for your brain. The same is true for sleep. Well, we will talk in detail more about sleep because it's so important, but sleep is sleep.

Basically what your brain does is it cleans the waste which you build up during the day and it removes that waste. So if you sleep less or hardly or very limited, your sleep gets impacted, but not only your sleep, it's also your brain. The same is true for food, the nutrition, what you drink, what you eat has a huge impact on your brain.

There's been a recent study globally about mental health and one of the top three impacts on your mental health is ultra processed food. Think about it, ultra processed food is not only like, I know it's not healthy for me, but it tastes good and it's easy because I can just order it from the shop and then some guy brings it and it's easy. No, it destroys your brain.

The last thing which is important for your body is to engage in arts. Yes, that's what I said, engage in arts. So it means write, paint, sculpt, dance.

All these things are really important. It's where you use your body or parts of your body that impact your brain. So don't think like, hey, I take care of my body.

I think I mentioned the example of a young man who for a couple of times per week has a personal trainer in the gym and then when he finished the sessions and he worked very hard at home, he drinks a couple of beers. That doesn't help. So your body is really crucial also for your mental and emotional health and well-being.

The next item is social. The social aspects of your life have also a very huge impact on your life. The relationships you have, your friends, it might be your significant other or a business partner or your parents or noisy neighbors.

All of these things have an impact on your brain fitness. So it's mostly, there's a lot of study about narcissistic and toxic people who have a huge impact on your brain fitness. So carefully choose who you allow into your inner circle and at the same time, meet new people, connect with new people, wave to people on the street when you're walking.

So that's the second one, social. The third one which has an impact on your brain fitness is the environment in which you are. Is there light? Is there enough light? I see these days people are sometimes working or sitting all day in rooms where there's no light from the outside.

Everything is artificial light, LED lights, terrible for your brain. So is there enough light? Is there enough fresh air? The radiation, the radiation of your wi-fi and not only your wi-fi, also that of your neighbors and the people in your apartment building or in the street have an impact on you. Pollution, not only noise pollution, but also think about if you're, well, if you're living close to a very polluting factory.

In the Netherlands, there are legal cases now because of some very famous steel company which for years has been, well, burning their ovens with very polluting stuff and most people who live there have cancer. So your environment is very crucial as well. However, the last thing I would like to add is that a lot of people think, well, they already know about their lives and their work and everything and they don't need to learn anymore, even if it was just for fun.

But know that there is so much that you don't know. We should show everyone some humility because there is so much that we don't know. It's like every day I experience like, holy moly, oh, I didn't know that or I should learn about this or should read a book about that or watch that video.

So be humble and know that you can and will learn a lot. And by being humble and knowing and having that beginner's mind, like I said, is really crucial. And having that beginner's mind makes it fun because there's so much more to know.

So in combination here we had these eight basics out of the last episode and now this one, the body, social, the environment and know that there's so much that you don't know. At this point, I would like to mention to you what my mission is. Why am I doing this? My mission is to enable better brains and better innovation for better living.

That's why I'm focused on these topics. And if you want to find out more about what I'm doing, I invite you to go to the website called bio.link slash bakers. Bakers is my last name.

B-E-E-K-E-S. So bio.link slash bakers to find my sites for brain fitness, brain athletes and innovation athletes, as well as a link to our brain health community on school. You can all find that on bio.link slash bakers.

Everyday beauty. We conclude each session with some examples of everyday beauty because beauty and especially moral beauty, kindness, courage, compassion has a very positive influence on your inner state. This week, it's about an American man in Kansas, which is a state in the U.S. and Mike Salarez's name.

He was on a boat trip up the Kansas River when he passed an old railroad bridge and thought something to be done with it. And 10 years later, he founded a company and he spent years pitching and begging and brainstorming and eventually assembled what he calls a P6 approach. I never heard about it, but it's an interesting name because P6 stands for public, private, philanthropy, people, purpose and process.

And certified local businesses donated materials and labor, including a legal firm that worked pro bono for seven years. And it resulted in the Rock Island Bridge, a fully renovated 120-year-old railroad crossing that opened in April as a restaurant, event space and public walkway above the Kansas River. Please remember, we need your uniqueness.

Be a better maker for yourself, for others, for the world.