Natalie Lamb and the mental resilience: Getting the best from your brain

I recently went on a Institute of Water training course on “Mental Resilience: Getting the best from your brain” delivered by John Sunderland-Wright. These are some tips I learned.

There are 100 billion neurons in the brain with an average of 40,000 connections. You have more neural connections than stars in the visible universe. Repetition and practice strengthens neural connections while those connections that are not used become week. New skills and experiences create new neural connections but the connections also decrease as we age.



Cognitive resilience is your ability to overcome the negative effects of stress on cognitive function (e.g. identifying you are stressed, putting strategies in place to relive stress) where mental toughness is the vales/attitudes/behaviours/emotions that keep you going even when stress is encountered (e.g. motivation, confidence, composure, resilience, focus). One of the best ways to strengthen cognitive resilience is to improve the brain’s overall fitness, which can be done using the SENSE (Stress Management, Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep, and Experience) Model.


Stress Management 

• Chronic stress can result in brain cell degeneration and neurotransmmision, resulting in impaired memory and reduced emotional control
• There is no such thing as multitasking, only switchtaking, which results in increased stress for the brain and decreased quality of the tasks being performed
• Manage acute stress by focusing on your breathing
• Manage chronic stress by doing a weekly brain dump, scheduling time for yourself, practicing meditation
• A brain dump is where you spend 5 minutes writing down everything (both work and personal) that is currently on your mind)
• Some apps that can help you meditate: Calm (basic mindfulness practices with 25 free meditations from 3-30 minutes), Stop Breathe & Think (34 free mostly 15 minute meditations with a meditation guide). More apps and reviews can be found here
• A day of managed chronic stress could look like: beginning the day with a quiet brisk walk, chatting with someone over breakfast or coffee about the day ahead, starting the day with some planning of the day ahead rather than with a meeting, disconnecting from work during lunch, getting immersed in something other than work at the end of the day

Exercise

• Physical exercise helps build resilience, performance, and learning capacity. It can increase the blood flow to your brain, increasing oxygen and glucose levels
• Moderate intensity exercise should be done at an intensity of 5 x 30 minutes/week
• Strength training should be done 2 x 30 minutes/week
• Some way to ensure you get enough exercise: use Fitbit to get notifications every hour if you haven't done 250 steps (a free app but a wearable you have to pay for). Google Fit can be used as an alternative to Fitbit for step tracking but you have to have your phone on your person

Nutrition

• Healthy brain function requires certain nutrients and vitamins such as vitamin B12 and omega 3 fatty acids 
• Try to eat a healthy and varied diet with plenty of fresh vegetables
• Excess sugar and fat decrease the hippocampus function 
• Stay hydrated as dehydration can lead to impaired physical performance, slower response times and mental confusion
• There are numerous apps as well as Fitbit that can help you increase your water intake. Some can be found here. Water bottles with time increments can be helpful too. Or don't allow yourself to have another cup of tea until you have drank your bottle of water

Sleep

• Sleep is critical to brain health and function and particularly for short term performance and long term health
• The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index can be used to determine your sleep quality
• Keep regular sleep hours rather than having a lie in on the weekends
• Avoid stimulants and stimulation 1h30 before bed
• The best sleeping condition is a cooler temperature with low light
• Napping is OK
• 2-3 or 5-6 are the best times to nap
• Nap for 10-20mins or 90mins 

Experience

• Mental effort and novelty are needed to stimulate the brain
• Brain training should be: repeated, challenging, novel, require your attention, motivating
• Some brain training apps: Fit Brains Trainer (more than 35 games, grouped into different workout sessions), Lumosity (a daily programme of mini-games with stat-tracking to show your improvement over time) and more can be found here.
• Brain training can also be done with puzzles e.g. suduku