AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- An estimated
80 to 90 percent of patients visit their doctors because of health
issues that are traceable to chronic, unmanaged stress. Given
recent advances in engineering and medical technology, we now know
that the brain is affected by every experience, thought, emotion,
and every second of stress. However, there is no magic prescription
that works across the board for brain fitness. NATIONAL TRAIN THE
BRAIN DAY is observed annually on October
13. What will you do TODAY to Train Your BRAIN?
"There are many different ways to train your brain and improve
your cognitive skills such as mindful reading, writing, brain
teasers, —along with getting enough sleep, physical activity and of
course a few minutes of meditation," says Carter, co-author with
his wife, Dr. Kirti Salwe Carter, of
The Morning Mind: Use Your Brain to Master Your Day and Supercharge
Your Life, Amazon Bestseller & Forbes Best Self-Help.
(http://www.themorningmind.com).
Carter offers 4 ways to train your brain and supercharge your
life
1. Reflect On What Makes You Happy To Be Alive. "The
subconscious responds very powerfully to feeling, and the more of a
sensory experience you can make your ref, the more effective it
will be," says Carter "Utilize all your senses, can you see, hear,
smell, touch, and taste that happy memory?"
2. Get enough shut-eye. "Sleep is an essential part of physical
health," says Carter "when we sleep, the body performs a vast array
of therapeutic and healing functions that detox, repair, and heal
the body and brain."
3. Exercise your body as well as mind. "Take a 15 to 30 minute
walk each morning, — or yoga, swimming, dance or do yard work if
you prefer," Carter. " Exercise stimulates the brain plasticity by
stimulating-growth of new connections between cells in a wide array
of important cortical areas of the brain." Carter says, "From a
behavioral perspective, the same antidepressant-like effects
associated with "runner's high" found in humans is associated with
a drop in stress hormones."
4. Take control and train your brain with meditation."Meditation
trains the brain to be in the present moment, and to return to that
focus when negative thinking and emotions intrude," says Carter.
"Meditation is the 'bench press' equivalent for your brain," says
Carter "meditation helps breakdown the neural connections in the
brain that induce feelings of fear or anxiety."
How much of your life do you spend in the present moment? How
much time do you spend daydreaming, ruminating about the past, or
worrying about the future?
Carter says offers 8 simple steps to happiness and achieving a
relaxed state of mind in only five to eight minutes. 1) Sit
comfortably, 2) Perform a shoulder roll, 3) Gently close your eyes,
4) Breathe in through your nose and count to four, 5) Exhale
through your nose and count to four, 6) Be aware of the sensation
of the breath entering the nostrils, 7. Keep attention on the
breathing and when you become distracted by thoughts, do not try to
stop thinking, just observe the loss of presence and return your
attention to breathing, and 8) continue this exercise for five to
ten minutes or until you experience a calm mind, and practice
daily.
About Dr. Rob Carter III and Dr.
Kirti Salwe Carter
Dr. Rob Carter III and Dr.
Kirti Salwe Carter are co-authors of
The Morning Mind: Use Your Brain to Master Your Day and Supercharge
Your Life (http://www.themorningmind.com). Rob Carter is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S.
Army, an expert in human performance, and has academic appointments
in emergency medicine at the University of
Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio, in public health at Azusa
Pacific University, and in nutrition at the University of Maryland. He holds a PhD in
biomedical sciences, is a Gates Scholar, and completed postgraduate
studies at Harvard School of Public
Health.
Kirti Carter was born in
Pune, India, and received her
medical education in India, where
she practiced as an intensive-care physician at Breach Candy
Hospital before moving to Texas to
complete postgraduate training in public health. She is a Fellow of
the American Institute of Stress (FAIS), has more than 18 years of
experience in meditation and breathing techniques, and has been
facilitating wellness seminars for the past decade.
SOURCE The Morning Mind