• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Move, Nourish, Connect, Be: Four daily habits to protect our mental well-being while sheltering in place

April 1, 2020 by Greater Good Science Center

__

It’s a crazy time. Here in the Cal­i­for­nia, we are shel­ter­ing-in-place, leav­ing the house only for essen­tials like gro­ceries and med­ical care. And while we’re all (appro­pri­ate­ly) focused on car­ing for the phys­i­cal health of our­selves, our fam­i­lies, our com­mu­ni­ties, and soci­ety at large, our men­tal, emo­tion­al, and social health needs are quick­ly emerg­ing as pro­found­ly impor­tant, as well.

I’m exec­u­tive direc­tor of Open Source Well­ness, which brings peo­ple togeth­er to learn and prac­tice the behav­iors that gen­er­ate human health and well-being. Our core idea is that com­mu­ni­ty is a form of med­i­cine. And while we aren’t phys­i­cal­ly gath­er­ing right now, I’m hap­py to share some of what we have learned for your reflec­tion and per­son­al prac­tice dur­ing this time.

First, our every­day social struc­tures have been altered, and some have even evap­o­rat­ed. These struc­tures nor­mal­ly cre­ate connection—in meet­ings and at the water cool­er at work, in class and at the play­ground at school, at the gym and the cof­fee shop. They also cre­ate dis­tance: We say good­bye to our part­ners and kids in the morn­ing, and we greet them again in the evening. All of this hap­pens auto­mat­i­cal­ly, with­out much effort on our parts. It’s built in to the struc­ture of our soci­ety! And while we like to rail against these struc­tures (“Same old, same old, every day”), when they are sud­den­ly removed, peo­ple respond in inter­est­ing ways.

Some may ini­tial­ly delight in new­found freedom—the removal of con­straint. “I can do what­ev­er I want to! Net­flix, paja­mas, and choco­late all day!” It’s delicious—for a moment.

Oth­ers might be ini­tial­ly ter­ri­fied by new­ly imposed con­straints. Chil­dren home all day every day. Spous­es sud­den­ly inhab­it­ing the same space 24/7. No more trips to the gym, the café, or your friend’s house. “I got­ta get out of here. I can’t breathe!”

Still oth­ers are feel­ing anx­i­ety, or even ter­ror, about the sud­den, yawn­ing hori­zon of soli­tude. No social events, no class­es, no sports…aloneness. “Is any­body out there?”

It’s nor­mal to stag­ger when the old struc­tures are swept away—but we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty (and the imper­a­tive) to cre­ate our own. Inten­tion­al­ly. For our well-being, and the well-being of our fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties, we are called upon to design sus­tain­able struc­tures that pro­duce san­i­ty, safe­ty, and human thriving.

Whether you’re in gen­er­al­ly good health or strug­gling with chron­ic phys­i­cal or psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tions, we believe that every per­son needs these four things, every day!

1. Move. Our bod­ies need to move. They need to stretch, reach, twist, bend, step, sweat, to what­ev­er degree works for our unique shapes and con­sti­tu­tions. They don’t care if it’s at the gym, out in the neigh­bor­hood, or in your liv­ing room—they just need activ­i­ty. It’s not just about “stay­ing in shape.” It’s about your immune health and your men­tal health, as well! Build move­ment in your struc­ture, at least 20 min­utes per day! YouTube exer­cise videos range from three-minute work­outs to more than an hour, and many of them are fam­i­ly-friend­ly, too.

2. Nour­ish. You might have a sense of what foods make you feel live­ly, focused, resourced, and sane, right? And there are cer­tain­ly those that are just for fun (hel­looo, choco­late). At Open Source Well­ness, we sug­gest not ban­ning or out­law­ing the small treats that bring you joy, but rather set­ting up a dai­ly struc­ture that (most­ly) fills you with nour­ish­ing, healthy foods. Always want­ed to make a dietary change, learn to meal prep, teach your kids to cook, or sam­ple a new cui­sine? Now’s the time! Struc­ture one or two 30-minute chunks of cook­ing into your days.

3. Con­nect. This one, more than ever, is key. Humans need to feel con­nect­ed. We need to feel seen, heard, and under­stood by anoth­er human—and to extend the same in return. And since it won’t “just hap­pen” through­out your day, you’re going to need to sched­ule it. More to the point, you’ll need to ask for it. To get vul­ner­a­ble enough to say, “I real­ly want to con­nect with you. Can we talk?” Tell the truth about how you’re feel­ing, what you’re expe­ri­enc­ing. Invite them to do the same. Lis­ten with kind­ness. Offer your sup­port with gen­eros­i­ty. High-qual­i­ty human atten­tion may feel like a scarce resource right now, but you can gen­er­ate an infi­nite sup­ply of it.

4. Be. Amid all the “doing”—the prepar­ing, pro­tect­ing, adjust­ing, cop­ing, respond­ing, pro­vid­ing, procuring—humans need moments to sim­ply BE. It’s not nec­es­sar­i­ly about seren­i­ty, or warm fuzzy feel­ings. It’s about paus­ing long enough to let your ner­vous sys­tem come back to base­line after pro­longed acti­va­tion. Exper­i­ment with what works for you. If med­i­ta­tion or guid­ed relax­ation works for you, great! If watch­ing a crap­py TV show while snug­gled into the couch helps you to just BE, that’s good, too. And if painful emo­tions get too loud or over­whelm­ing when you try to slow down, that’s OK, too.

Of the four aspects of this “Uni­ver­sal Pre­scrip­tion,” which ones are you strongest in? Which ones do you incor­po­rate effort­less­ly, as a part of your rou­tine? Which ones might need a bit more atten­tion, more prac­tice, more cul­ti­va­tion? Then, pick one to focus on first: How might you struc­ture it into your days?

This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get real­ly inten­tion­al. To choose rather than to drift. In the absence of every­thing that nor­mal­ly dic­tates our days, we are called on to cre­ate the struc­tures that will sup­port our health, phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly, in a time of pro­found uncer­tain­ty. Try out weav­ing Move, Nour­ish, Con­nect, and Be time into your days.

 

– Eliz­a­beth Markle, Ph.D., is a licensed psy­chol­o­gist, researcher, and chair of com­mu­ni­ty men­tal health at Cal­i­for­nia Insti­tute of Inte­gral Stud­ies. She is the cofounder of Open Source Well­ness, a non­prof­it ini­tia­tive offer­ing expe­ri­en­tial behav­ioral health and well­ness via a “behav­ioral phar­ma­cy” approach in col­lab­o­ra­tion with health care providers and insur­ers. Based at UC-Berke­ley, Greater Good high­lights ground break­ing sci­en­tif­ic research into the roots of com­pas­sion and altru­ism. Copy­right Greater Good.

To Learn More:

  • Four tips to prac­tice good men­tal hygiene dur­ing the coro­n­avirus outbreak
  • Study finds a key ingre­di­ent in mind­ful­ness train­ing: Accep­tance (not acquiescence)
  • Pos­i­tive soli­tude, Feel­ing active and Future-mind­ednes: Three Keys to Well-being
  • New study rein­forces the impor­tance of walk­ing through forests for men­tal and gen­er­al health
  • Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress
  • The Ten Habits of High­ly Effec­tive Brains

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: behavioral pharmacy, coronavirus outbreak, emotional, mental, mental health, mental hygiene, mental well being, physical-health, psychologist, shelter in place, social health, well-being

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. George Dunham says

    April 3, 2020 at 4:39

    I real­ly res­onat­ed with the nour­ish and be rec­om­men­da­tions above. Over the last two years I suf­fered from a lot of stress as a result of my busi­ness near­ly going bank­rupt mul­ti­ple times. I did­n’t take my health seri­ous­ly and start­ed doing some real­ly bad behav­iors as a result. One of my girl­friends got me into smok­ing pot and that made things worse for my sleep and my busi­ness and my whole life. It’s so crit­i­cal that peo­ple take stress seri­ous­ly and don’t try to hide it with drugs. I replaced pot with hot baths. I start­ed notic­ing when I was not con­trol­ling my anger very well and forced myself to take long walks, some­times even hours a day if nec­es­sary. I replaced lit­er­al­ly 100 pounds of fried bacon each year with lots of soy and oth­er beans. And con­nec­tions, so impor­tant. I’m a cat lover — I have 14 believe it or not — and I joined a DFW based cat club called Fort Worth Feline Fans (FFF) and just get­ting to meet peo­ple who weren’t from my busi­ness and that world of fail­ure and stress made an enor­mous improve­ment. I’m not per­fect but I’m doing the best I can.

    • Alvaro Fernandez says

      April 6, 2020 at 11:22

      Dear George, thank you for shar­ing your expe­ri­ence and your lessons learned 🙂 We’re hop­ing that arti­cles like these help inspire and inform read­ers to fol­low pos­i­tive exam­ples such as yours. Best regards!

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,514 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2023 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy