(This article is a follow-up from last week's post, and more episodes will be published in the upcoming weeks)
I'm sure we have all experienced this at some point: no matter how top-notch and ultramodern our phone is, it becomes useless if we forget to charge its battery. A mobile phone with little battery has more limited functionality, and if it gets to the point of running out of power, it just stops working.
Similarly, we as humans also need energy to be able to function properly, even if the kind of energy we use and the way we "recharge our batteries" are quite different.
This may seem silly, but in reality, it's not. It is surprising how often we neglect our most basic needs, probably because we don't realize how that carelessness is robbing us of our energy and interfering with our performance. And even though we don't have an automatic gauge that tells us the percentage of battery left, our body does send us signals to let us know what it needs, but we can only notice those signals if we are paying attention.
So, before we proceed to start the reprogramming work, I propose that we go through the essential care required by your device (that is, your body), with special emphasis on your central processing unit (your brain), and make the necessary adjustments so that they can maintain an optimal level of energy.
Rest
Just as a mobile phone needs to be charged every now and then, a person needs to sleep and rest every dayfor a variety of reasons.
Leaving aside the general fact that our body needs to sleep for several hours every night to recover from the day and regain strength, sleep time is especially important for our brain. This is because some of the processes that happen during sleep help us to assimilate what we learned during the day, while others perform cleaning and brain cell regeneration tasks. We could say that our brain takes advantage of the quiet time and uses it to perform maintenance tasks, just like old computers used to perform hard disk "defragmentation".
But to allow this to happen, we must achieve deep sleep, high-quality sleep. There´s no point in sleeping very little one night and then "making up for it" later on; that´s not how it works... The best thing we can do is give rest the priority it deserves and establish routines that favour deep restorative sleep, remembering that resting is not a waste of time but rather the opposite: it´s fundamental for our health.
Diet
Our body also needs to receive nutrients from the external world, to transform them and produce its own energy:
- Foods: a healthy and varied diet, as natural as possible, nurtures us and provides us with plenty of energy while eating carelessly can bring about all kinds of health problems, some of them more obvious and immediate than others.
- Water: there´s a high percentage of water in our body´s composition; some of that water is lost over time and needs to be restored. Dehydration is not always easy to detect, and it can affect us in a big way, both physically and emotionally.
- Air: oxygen is also a vital element for our body to function. By breathing consciously more often, we achieve better oxygenation of our cells and gain the ability to calm down and connect with ourselves at a deeper level.
All this applies in general to our body and in particular to our brain, which is the most advanced and complex of all our organs, and has very specific needs. Even though the brain accounts for just 2% of a person´s body weight, it consumes approximately 20% of the available glucose, about 50% of the oxygen, and big amounts of water (in fact, the brain is 80% water). So, to help it to perform at its best, let´s ensure it has everything it needs.
Exercise
Human beings are designed to move around, not to sit down all day. There are many benefits of exercising regularly:
- Physically – hacer ejercicio nos proporciona energía y vitalidad, fortalece el sistema inmunológico, y nos ayuda a mantenernos en forma y a descansar mejor.
- Mentally – se ha comprobado que el ejercicio físico influye positivamente en la actividad cerebral, por ejemplo en áreas como el aprendizaje, la memoria, las funciones cognitivas y la toma de decisiones.
- Emotionally – el ejercicio diario es nuestro mejor aliado para combatir la ansiedad y la depresión, reducir el estrés y gozar de mejor humor en general, ya que libera endorfinas que nos generan bienestar, además de otras hormonas como la dopamina, la serotonina y la noradrenalina, que nos ayudan a regularnos emocionalmente.
Choose a type of exercise you like and feel motivated to do; that way, it will be easier for you to keep it as a habit: it could be your favourite sport, swimming, running, dancing, doing yoga... The important thing is to get moving and to do it often.
Connection
Nowadays, there´s not much point in having a phone or computer without an internet connection, right? We can do some things offline, but not many, only a handful, and the list is getting shorter.
We as humans also need connection: we are social beings by nature and are programmed to connect with others. Our brain has adapted to live in society, cooperate with others, and empathize with their emotions.
Sometimes we forget the importance of staying in contact with our loved ones, sharing, doing our bit for society, and ultimately, feeling part of something bigger than ourselves. That connection with others, that sense of belonging to a family, a group of friends or a community, gives us a solid foundation from which we can face the challenges that life puts in front of us.
But equally important, or even more, is knowing how to also connect with ourselves, set aside distractions and truly listen to our inner selves, get to know us deeply, and discover who we are. It´s worth investing in becoming our own best friend, as we are the only person we know who will be our companion for the rest of our lives.
(Hasta aquí la clave número 1, la semana que viene, más…)