The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann
Today countless are suffering from stress, depression, anxiety, fear and loneliness. Throughout the world, the pain runs deep.
Unless we transform our pain, we transmit it.
~ Richard Rohr
Recognizing that hurt people, hurt people, I set the intention to help in some way.
Service to others increases feel-good chemicals in the brain.
Fortunately, an opportunity presented itself. I volunteered to do a presentation on how to nourish the mind to improve mood and well-being.
We teach what we need to learn.
Monday I pulled up one of my old presentations on the topic to customize and update.
The inner critic came out. Not good enough! Way too complicated! Imposter syndrome was setting in.
Fortunately, I remembered a quote my highly industrious children have shared.
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.
~ Reid Hoffman
Okay. It is a work in progress. How do I simplify it without dumbing it down? I started with a story.
Did you know that elite chess players can lose up to 6000 calories a day while competing? Not only is the brain a fuel guzzler, but it can crank up our metabolism when being challenged physically or, in this case, mentally.
Pausing in contemplation, I began to wonder if I should be focusing on the mind or the brain? And what is the difference?
The brain is matter inside the skull. But where is the mind and how do we nourish it?
I created a slide with some facts about the mind and brain.
The, often used, computer metaphor, comparing the mind to software and the brain to hardware, troubled me. Current science shows that our thoughts, feelings and habits (the mind) can change the brain and body. What? The software changes the hardware. Computer programs do not alter the hardware. At least not yet.
If thoughts, feelings and habits change the brain, clearly I had to focus on non-food sources of nourishment.
Thoughts are the language of the brain, and feelings are the language of the body.
~Joe Dispenza
Should I focus on the body? After all, we embody feelings, trauma and emotion.
The gut is now often referred to as the second brain. What happens in the gut affects the brain and the mind. Bacteria and yeast in the gut alter brain chemistry, cause cravings and change our behaviour.
Okay. This topic is not easy to simplify or present concisely. The task seems daunting. But I am learning.
I start to think about how psychiatrists treat mood disorders. Depression medications target chemical messengers in the brain (neurotransmitters). These neurotransmitters are composed of the building blocks of proteins - amino acids.
It is both compelling and daunting to consider that dietary intervention at an individual or population level could reduce rates of psychiatric disorders.
~ The American of Psychiatry 2010
A 2015 Australian study found that unhealthy diets shrink the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a brain region associated with emotional regulation, memory and mental health. Other researchers have replicated these findings.
I thought about the amino acids, composing the neurotransmitters targeted by anti-depressants: serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, and experienced an aha moment.
Tryptophan, tyrosine and phenylalanine are their amino acid building blocks, referred to as aromatic amino acids. The heavily used herbicide in industrial food production, glyphosate, wreaks havoc in our ability to produce them.
Anti-anxiety medications target the GABA pathways in the brain. Good bacteria in the gut are capable of producing GABA.
Telling people to eat a colourful array of vegetables and fruit, healthy fats and proteins including extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, pasture-fed butter or ghee, nuts, legumes, pasture-raised eggs, wild fish, grass-fed meat, is not enough. I would have to emphasize clean eating and living.
Simple enough. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Dirty dozen, Clean fifteen and Healthy Living Tips infographics are a great resource.
Growing some of our food provides a sense of agency and self-sufficiency, especially during times of quarantine. A window box garden may be all some can do. Regenerating our nutrient-depleted soils with regenerative agriculture should become a public health mandate.
To create a healthy ecology of microbes in the gut, foods rich in probiotics like yoghurt, Kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles and prebiotic fibrous foods like dandelion greens, chicory root, asparagus, onion, garlic, unripe banana - help.
Safe exposure to sunlight, honouring light-dark cycles, breathing less and through the nose, reframing stress, meditation, active daily living, sound sleep, gratitude, meaningful work, life-long learning and social connection, compose some of the non-food sources of nourishment.
So much left unsaid. Yet perhaps too much information.
Someday, when science has mastered the topic and we have improved public health organization priorities, the unnecessary will be eliminated. Sound bites may be enough. Till then, simplifying how to nourish the mind to improve mood and well-being will remain a work-in-progress.
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