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50 Brain Dos and Brain Don’ts A Summary of Ways to Optimize Brain Function and Break Bad Brain HabitsBased
on Dr. Daniel Amen’s research and the research of many other neuroscientists here is a list of brain Dos and Don’ts
to optimize your own brain function. Brain Dos:- Wear a helmet in high risk situations
- Drink
lots of water
- Eat healthy
- Take ginkgo biloba, Vitamin E and ibuprofen everyday
- Think positive healthy
thoughts
- Love, feed and exercise your internal anteater to rid yourself of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts)
- Everyday
focus on the things you are grateful for in your life
- Watch the Disney movie Pollyanna
- Spend time with positive,
uplifting people
- Spend time with people you want to be like (you are more likely to become like them)
- Work
on your people skills to become more connected to enhance limbic bonds
- Talk to others in loving, helpful ways
- Surround
yourself with great smells
- Build a library of wonderful experiences
- Be nice to others
- Exercise
- Eat in ways specifically tailored to your brain
- Learn diaphragmatic breathing
- Learn and use self-hypnosis
and meditation on a daily basis
- Remember the 18/40/60 rule
- Effectively confront and deal with conflictual
situations
- Develop clear goals for your life (relationships, work, money and self) and look at them everyday.
- Focus
on what you like a lot more than what you don’t like
- Collect penguins, or at least send them to me
- Have
meaning, purpose, excitement and stimulation in your life
- Do not be another person’s stimulant
- Use
brainwave biofeedback or audio-visual stimulation when needed
- Notice when you’re stuck, distract yourself and
come back to the problem later
- Think through answers before automatically saying no
- Write out options and
solutions when you feel stuck
- Seek the counsel of others when you feel stuck (often just talking about feeling stuck
will open new options)
- Memorize and recite the Serenity Prayer daily and whenever bothered by repetitive thoughts
(God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference.)
- Don’t try to convince someone else who is stuck, take a break and come back to them later
- Use paradoxical requests in dealing with cingulate people
- Make naturally oppositional children mind you
the first time (through a firm, kind, authoritative stance)
- Strive for wonderful experiences
- Enhance your
memory skills
- Sing and hum whenever you can
- Make beautiful music a part of your life
- Make beautiful
smells a part of your life
- Touch others often (appropriately)
- Make love with your partner
- Move
in rhythms
- Use a skilled psychotherapist when needed
- Use an EMDR therapist to deal with trauma
- Take
head injuries seriously, even minor ones
- Take medications when needed
- Take herbal remedies when needed to
optimize brain function
- Look for underlying brain problems in substance abusers
- Do full brain evaluations
for people who do terrible things
Brain Don’ts- Isolate a developing baby
- Use alcohol,
tobacco or drugs or much caffeine when pregnant
- Ignore erratic behavior
- Lie around the house and never exercise
- Ignore concussions
- Smoke
- Drink much caffeine
- Drink much alcohol
- Do drugs (NO
heroin, inhalants, mushrooms, PCP, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines (unless in prescribed doses for ADD)
- Eat
without forethought on what foods are best for your brain
- Drive without wearing a seatbelt
- Ride a motorcycle
without a helmet
- Ride a bicycle, skateboard, roller blade, snowboard, etc. without a helmet
- Hit a soccer
ball with your head
- Bang your head when you’re frustrated (protect the head of children who are head bangers)
- Bunje jump
- Hang out with people who do drugs, fight, or are involved in other dangerous activities (unless
you are looking for brain damage)
- Allow your breathing to get out of control
- Think in black-or-white terms
- Think in words like always, never, every time, every one
- Focus on the negative things in your life
- Predict
the worst
- Think only with your feelings
- Read other people’s minds
- Blame other people for
your problems
- Label yourself or others with negative terms
- Beat yourself or others with guilt (very ineffective)
- Personalize situations that have little to do with you
- Feed your ANTs
- Use sex as a weapon with
your partner
- Talk to others in a hateful way
- Push people away
- Be around toxic smells
- Be
around toxic people
- Focus too much on what other people think of you (odds are they aren’t thinking about you
at all)
- Allow your life to just happen without you directing and planning it
- Take the “stimulant bait”
from other people
- Allow thoughts to go over and over in your head
- Automatically say no to others, think
first if what they want fits with your goals
- Automatically say yes to others, think first if what they want fits
with your goals
- Argue with someone who is stuck
- Isolate yourself when you feel worried, depressed or panicky
- Allow naturally oppositional children to be oppositional
- Listen to toxic music
- Blame substance
abusers as morally defective
- Refuse to take medications when needed
- Self-medicate, when there are problems
get help from professionals
- Deny you have problems
- Refuse to listen to the people you love who are trying
to tell you to get help
- Withhold love, touch and companionship to those you love as a way to express anger
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