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Six Tips To Build Mental Resilience, Prevent Brain-Damaging Stress, And Improve Brain Health

Rather than sim­ply liv­ing with stress, learn­ing how to effec­tively mas­ter our stress lev­els and build emo­tional resilience as part of our brain fitness read more here efforts can not only help you feel and per­form bet­ter on a daily basis, but also pro­tect your brain from the long-term dam­ag­ing effects of stress. Here's how to do it:

1- GET SOME EXERCISE: Stud­ies show that aer­o­bic exer­cise helps build new neu­rons and con­nec­tions in the brain to coun­ter­act the effects of stress. In fact, a 2012 study found that peo­ple who exer­cised very lit­tle showed greater stress-related atro­phy of the hip­pocam­pus (the part of the brain that stores mem­o­ries) com­pared to those who exer­cised more. Reg­u­lar exer­cise also pro­motes good sleep, reduces depres­sion and boosts self-confidence through the pro­duc­tion of endor­phins, the "feel-good" hormones.

2- RELAX: Eas­ier than it sounds, right? But relax­ation -- through med­i­ta­tion, tai chi, yoga, a walk on the beach, or what­ever helps to quiet your mind and make you feel more at ease -- can decrease blood pres­sure, res­pi­ra­tion rate, metab­o­lism and mus­cle ten­sion. Med­i­ta­tion, in par­tic­u­lar, is tremen­dously ben­e­fi­cial for man­ag­ing stress and build­ing men­tal resilience. Stud­ies also show that get­ting out into nature can have a pos­i­tive, restora­tive effect on reduc­ing stress and improv­ing cog­ni­tive func­tion. So move your yoga mat out into the yard, or turn off that tread­mill and take a walk in the park. Your brain will thank you for it.

3- SOCIALIZE: When your plate is run­ning over and stress takes over, it's easy to let per­sonal con­nec­tions and social oppor­tu­ni­ties fall off the plate first. But ample evi­dence shows that main­tain­ing stim­u­lat­ing social rela­tion­ships is crit­i­cal for both men­tal and phys­i­cal health. Cre­ate a healthy envi­ron­ment, invit­ing friends, fam­ily and even pets to com­bat stress and exer­cise all your brains.

4- TAKE CONTROL: Stud­ies show a direct cor­re­la­tion between feel­ings of psy­cho­log­i­cal empow­er­ment and stress resiliency. Empow­er­ing your­self with a feel­ing of con­trol over your own sit­u­a­tion can help reduce chronic stress and give you the con­fi­dence to take con­trol over your brain health. Some videogames and apps based on heart rate vari­abil­ity can be a great way to be proac­tive and take con­trol of our stress levels.

5- HAVE A LAUGH: We all know from per­sonal expe­ri­ence that a good laugh can make us feel bet­ter, and this is increas­ingly backed by stud­ies show­ing that laugh­ter can reduce stress and lower the accom­pa­ny­ing cor­ti­sol and adren­a­line lev­els that result. Hav­ing fun with friends is one way to prac­tice to two good brain health habits at once. Even just think­ing about some­thing funny can have a pos­i­tive effect on reduc­ing stress and the dam­age it causes to your brain.

6- THINK POSITIVE: How you think about what stresses you can actu­ally make a dif­fer­ence. In one study at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity, stu­dents were coached into believ­ing that the stress they feel before a test could actu­ally improve per­for­mance on grad­u­ate school entrance exams. Com­pared with stu­dents who were not coached, those stu­dents earned higher scores on both the prac­tice test and the actual exam. Sim­ply chang­ing the way you look at cer­tain sit­u­a­tions, tak­ing stock of the pos­i­tive things in your life and learn­ing to live with grat­i­tude can improve your abil­ity to man­age stress and build brain resilience. Trying a variety of challenging brain teasers is another great way to develop mental resilience.