July 12, 2006

How to Have a Better Brain

I’ve been doing a lot of looking lately at what people can do to improve their brains. Does that sound strange? Perhaps…but think about it. We spend tons of time and money as a culture on improving all sorts of other parts of ourselves. Think how much money is spent on skin care or on making our bodies more asthetically appealing (the plastic surgery industry is HUGE). Yet, what affects our mood and happiness more than our brain?

I think most people feel that there isn’t much you can to improve your brain. From what I’ve been learning lately I beg to differ. I tihnk there is actually a ton of stuff that people can do to improve brain chemistry and mood. Unfortunately the vast majority of our culture turns to chemicals to do this. Either prescription drugs (“improving” brain chemistry is basically what anti-depressant drugs do), legal drugs (like alcohol or nicotine) or illegal drugs (I heard recently that cocaine is a $100 billion industry in the U.S. alone!!!).

What are some non-chemical ways to improve brain chemistry? I’ve listened a couple of Dr. Daniel Amen’s audiobooks recently and there are some good suggestions in there. Currently I’m listening to Making a Good Brain Great and while I haven’t gotten to the part that talks about improving the brain yet there are some pretty strong warnings about what not to do. For instance, while football and soccer are great sports, the number of head injuries that are incurred can lead to major psychological problems later in life due to the brain damage that can occur. That’s something I’ve never thought of. Anyway, for a free preview of Amen’s stuff check out this speech he gave on IT Conversations.

One practice that has been shown to improve brain function is meditation (see a couple of stories related to this here and here). I’ve been experimenting with different types of meditation and contemplative practice lately. One of the best ways to introduce yourself to meditation is through guided meditation audio. A couple of titles that I’ve tried recently include some of Bodhipaksa’s stuff and Andrew Cohen’s Meditation audiobook. Meditation requires a lot of patience but based on everything I’ve been reading lately the benefits are tough to deny.

Of course another common sense way to improve brain function is to make sure the brain is getting plenty of oxygen. In fact, the brain loses consciousness after being deprived of oxygen for just 8-10 seconds. There are a couple of things that you can do to ensure that you are getting plenty of oxygen to your brain. The first is deep, diaphragmatic breathing. This is pretty simple to do (just take deep breaths and make sure that it’s your abdomen and not your chest that is moving). However, one tool that I’ve found that helps with this is a bio-feedback device called Wild Divine. It’ll help you monitor and regulate your breathing patterns. I’ll often hook this up when I’m reading or watching a movie (yup, I’m a dork) and it’s interesting to see times when I’m breathing free and easy and other times when I’m breathing more shallow or even holding my breath.

Of course another way to ensure good blood flow to the brain is through exercise. There are dozens of ways to exercise but one of the best I’ve found for this purpose is yoga. The combination of cardio work and deep breathing can produce an “oxygen high” of sorts that feels pretty damn cool. I’m fortunate enough to have one of the world’s best yoga studios in my backyard but for those who don’t the audio versions of yoga courses can be a great substitute.

So those are a few ways to “have a better brain.” No doubt there are many more. If you have any suggestions feel free to post in the forums. I’m a junkie for anything I can do to improve the most valuable part of my body. 🙂