You Should Avoid These 6 Brain-Damaging Habits
86 billion. That is the number of neurons in your brain. Without a doubt, the sticky mass between your ears controls your body like nothing else.
It only seems logical to devote the majority of our efforts on its maintenance. But we don't. In reality, most people do not believe the brain requires attention. Experts have found that our contemporary lifestyle is eroding our neurological networks, making us slower, dumber, and less creative.
There are hundreds of explanations for this. To correct this, we must first become conscious of the harmful behaviors we have developed. These behaviors may come as a surprise to some, as they have no idea how much harm they are doing to themselves via their indulgence.
Let's have a look at them.
The Devastating Effects of Inactivity
Since remote work has become the norm, many people have found themselves not leaving their bedrooms. I know folks who eat, drink, sleep, and work in the same area all day.
The only activity they get is going grocery shopping, which, owing to technology, can easily be delivered.
Whether they understand it or not, it has serious repercussions. Too much sitting has been related to heart disease, obesity, depression, dementia, and cancer. More than that, it alters particular neurons in the brain for the worse.
It's past time for all of us to recognize a basic fact: movement is beneficial. It releases endorphins, which make us feel better, keep our hearts healthy, and help our brains perform better.
Excessive sitting at work causes us to hold our breath while we type on our computers. You can see this for yourself. As a result, the body's oxygen levels drop, resulting in muddled thinking, weariness, and poor attention.
What to do about it
Now, I'm not advising you to go to the gym or get a personal trainer.
You only need 20–30 minutes of movement. The famed 10,000-step rule is also a fantastic target to shoot for. If you tell yourself, "I don't have time," you're lying to yourself.
Everyone enjoys walking, from famous inventors like Nikola Tesla and Charles Darwin to the busiest CEOs like Jobs, Zuckerberg, Jeff Weiner, and Jack Dorsey.
A easy method is to walk and talk at the same time. Take a stroll once you've completed all of your calls. You'll simply reach your objective and waste no time doing so before you realize it. Another option is to have a standing/walking desk, which allows you to move more and burn more calories.
I'm sure you're aware of the advantages. All you have to do now is put it into practice. And with these basic methods, there's no excuse not to.
Concentration's No. 1 Killer
On a typical day, we are bombarded with information. According to a survey from the University of California, San Diego, the average American uses over 34 gigabytes of data and information every day, an increase of approximately 350 percent over nearly three decades.
It's no surprise that our number one attention killer is continual sensory input.
This includes emails, social media, chatting to people, alerts, meetings, and much more. If we don't control our intake effectively, it's easy to get overwhelmed and overburdened with information.
Some individuals are proud of the fact that they can read a book at 3x speed on the way to work and listen to two podcasts while also checking emails, books, and the news. But that's nothing to be proud of.
Even a minor bit of information can disrupt concentration. For example, if you're attempting to concentrate on a task and you know an email is lying unread in your inbox, it can drop your effective IQ by 10 points.
Reduce the quantity of material you consume on a daily basis by using tools and practices. Spend less time reading short-form stuff and more time reading long-form content. Instead of hopping from one tweet to the next, they keep your attention and help you increase focus.
Get rid of pointless items like social media, news, gossip, and other things you can't control or that have nothing to do with you.
Learn to spend as much time as you can in silence. Stillness and stillness are soothing to the mind, body, and spirit. Regular times of stillness are the only way to counteract our overabundance of material.
Playing Loud Music
We all need some good music whether we're working out, strolling, or doing a dull chore like answering emails. And, in order to fully immerse ourselves in our favorite music, we always pump up the volume.
However, you should consider twice before doing so. Noise-cancelling headphones, which are widely used, can quickly harm your hearing. When your hearing become used to a specific loudness, you must exert greater effort to hear the regular noises of individuals around you. As a result, you can't store items in your memory quickly enough.
According to Headphonesty, when listening, remove your headphones and hold them at arm's length. If you can still hear the song, lower the volume and try again. This is an useful check to ensure that your ears are protected. Also, if you must listen to music, take regular breaks to give your brain and ears a much-needed rest.
Even if you don't have headphones, avoid places with loud music, such as clubs, studios, or concerts. After headbanging at a heavy music event, a 50-year-old man complained of a severe headache. A blood clot on the right side of his brain was discovered via CT scan.
This isn't to suggest that the same thing will happen to you. However, loud music is harmful to our brains in more ways than we may think. It's preferable to turn down the level – you may still enjoy your favorite music without harming your brain.
Watching Reality Shows
Reality television is popular in India, as it is in most other nations, I believe. People are naturally drawn to drama (often fake).
When I warn others (including myself) about viewing such shows, they respond, "It's harmless!" "Well, certainly, eating a burger every morning also appears innocent, but it has devastating repercussions over time," I explain.
According to psychiatrist Dr. Marcia Sirota, "Reality TV is junk food for our brain, and in the same way that junk food rots our teeth and makes us ill, poor reality TV rots our brain and makes us unpleasant."
What we watch has a strong subliminal influence on us. You naturally feel virtuous, unselfish, and even patriotic as you walk out of a cinema after seeing Captain America. Consider training your brain with rubbish stuff from reality programs.
We internalize the same feelings and attributes that we see on television over time. The type of stuff you watch might tell me a lot about you. Because it has a profound impact on our consciousness, feelings, and behaviors.
Just like a steadily dripping faucet may waste gallons of water in a day, watching the incorrect sort of information can squander a lot of brain potential.
Doing twice as much as you should, but just half as well as you could
Do you have any idea what I'm on about? It's multitasking.
Multitasking eats away at your attention one interruption at a time. In recent years, multitasking has been pushed as a desirable attribute in people, and it is frequently included in the job descriptions of various positions.
However, humans are not designed to multitask. We can't do two things at the same time and give them equal attention. Only computers are capable of such feats.
A juggler appears to be juggling three balls at once. He appears to be paying equal attention to all of them at the same time. However, he is constantly flipping between the balls, giving us the impression that he is multitasking.
According to Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford University, today's incessant multitasking wastes more time than it saves — and there's evidence it's also harming our focus and creativity.
He was first captivated by persons who claimed to be able to accomplish more than one thing at a time. These folks must be quite bright, he reasoned.
When he researched them, however, he discovered the reality to be the polar opposite. They were outperformed by their classmates on a variety of cognitive activities and are a "sucker for irrelevancy." He also added,
“People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. And even — they’re even terrible at multitasking.
When we ask them to multitask, they’re actually worse at it. So they’re pretty much mental wrecks. (laughter)”
People who multitask have less density in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved for empathy and cognitive and emotional regulation, according to research.
In essence, the more you multitask, the more you harm your brain.
To break free from this cycle, identify your ONE Thing. Prioritize your life as ruthlessly as possible, focusing exclusively on the necessities. The dread of not finishing our to-do list is the driving force behind our multitasking behavior.
The solution is not to work harder. The approach is to whittle down the list and maintain only what is essential. Once you've done that, you won't feel pressed to accomplish ten things at once.
When the strain is relieved, your attention and creativity improve, resulting in more production in less time.
Sugarfree — "Is it sugar-free or sugar-free?"
We live in a world where sugar is everywhere. Sugar is present in all processed foods because it is addicting and helps food manufacturers sell more units.
As customers, we must be cautious of this reality. Sugar intake can cause blood sugar levels to increase and irregular blood flow patterns in the brain. Excess sugar consumption can also cause oxidative stress, which can result in mood swings, sadness, impaired memory, poor focus, and slower thinking.
Essentially, your brain will underperform and you will have no idea why.
I'd recommend keeping a meal log for a day or two to help you reduce your sugar consumption. Sugar is so prevalent that it may end up in your mouth before you realize it. You'll be off to a good start if you're especially cautious, check labels, and avoid processed foods.
Final Thoughts
These are some of the little-noticed habits that are wreaking havoc on your brain in the long term. I was probably doing all of the above at one point. But now that I've reduced back, I'm more productive, less grumpy, and more happy.
Along with them, don't forget the fundamentals of brain health – a decent diet, proper sleep, plenty of water, and so on.
It is our obligation to take care of our minds. If we spend our life according to our whims and fancies, it will not miraculously take care of itself.