I turned inward and became one with my world.
Spirituality is another critical area that promotes brain health, and at first you may be skeptical, but in this chapter, I will show you how spirituality is directly connected to a healthier brain. When I talk about spirituality, I’m not necessarily addressing religion but rather engagement in deep introspection or meditation as part of the human condition. Although spirituality can be both formal, religiously inspired, as well as informal, using modes of introspection gained from such things as meditation, spirituality in the context of a brain health lifestyle is broadly defined as action or behavior that helps us slow down, turn inward, and rid our bodies of toxic stress.
Since the beginning of time, humans have engaged in behaviors we refer to as religion or spirituality or a belief in a higher power. For many years this reality has been resisted, wars continue to be fought over such matters, and deep intrapersonal conflict revolves around spirituality. I believe that we should not deny this reality but rather embrace it as part of our DNA and ask questions about whether and how spirituality can enhance our human condition and, in the case of this book, our brain health.
I am not the only one who is interested in spirituality and the human brain, as an entire new field called “neurotheology” has developed to study this exact topic. To date, scientists have reported that prayer, which can be considered a form of meditation, on a daily basis enhances the immune system. The brains of monks in deep meditation as measured by PET (positron-emission tomography) scans, which measure levels of glucose metabolism, evince change as if there is no distinction between processing of what is going on outside the human brain from inside. This has potential significance as our brain typically differentiates processing information and activity that occurs inside versus outside of our brain. It appears from the PET scans that deep meditation removes the internal versus external processing and instead integrates the internal and external into a unified existence. Perhaps this is why those who meditate describe a peaceful existence. Persons who attend formalized religious service report happier lives and have healthier lives, and over 90 percent of American physicians report that prayer is important to the well-being of their patients. This is certainly a good start on trying to understand the relationship between our spirituality and health. With continued research, we will learn more and perhaps even have the courage to prescribe spiritual behaviors as part of our overall treatment regimen for patients in need.
Other research within the field of neurotheology has focused on the structural and functional relationship between our recognition of God and the human brain. I have seen reports that suggest our temporal and parietal lobes are primary sites for the relationship, but this is not conclusive. We know that temporal lobe epilepsy, in which a person will experience abnormal electrical activity within the cells of the temporal lobe, is associated with hyperreligiosity and even delusions of grandeur in which one may believe he or she is God. Research is ongoing to understand this relationship between God and brain so we can better explain why and how humans seek a higher being and how that impacts the function of the brain and our overall condition.
I have noticed that most people are a bit timid when talking about spirituality, but as I mentioned earlier, spirituality does not necessarily always go hand in hand with religious beliefs. Spirituality has many meanings, and it may mean something different to you than me. This section refers to spirituality as one means of turning inward to foster a peaceful existence and to remove oneself from the hurried society. Sometimes spirituality takes the form of engaging in prayer, meditation, and other relaxation procedures.
Why is it so important for humans and for the human brain to not be hurried, overwhelmed, rushed, or stressed? We all know how bad it feels when we’re hurried or stressed, which also negatively affects us emotionally or behaviorally; what’s also important to realize is this kind of anxiety affects our brain health as well. When our body and brain are at ease, we can achieve a relaxed state of being, one that enables our brain and body to perform at their most efficient level. Ridding our body and brain of the daily bombardment of stress and reaching a type of inner homeostasis is important, but difficult to achieve.
Homeostasis is a term that refers to balance, symmetry, and smoothness that exists within our body. Our brains also experience homeostasis, which is a blissful state without anxiety, stress, or feeling rushed or troubled. We all feel this bliss at times, though it may be fleeting and temporary. More often, we experience a lack of homeostasis, and there can be significant negative consequences to our health and even our longevity if this imbalance becomes chronic. Disorders such as hypertension, obesity, addiction, depression, anxiety, somatic conditions, interpersonal tension, impulsivity, and even criminal behavior can relate to or even be caused by chronic stress and lack of balance in our minds.
We need to seek this homeostatic state by engaging in relaxation techniques such as prayer or meditation to reduce stress and achieve a balanced mind. This is as true for everybody from the person who works at home to the typical business professional all the way to an executive of a powerful company. Often we ignore this effort because we live in a fast-paced and demanding world that limits our ability to achieve such balance. It is important to first recognize the importance of balance, the fact that you are often in too big a hurry and too stressed, and to respect the negative health consequences of losing balance and homeostasis. Once you understand this, you can begin to make a conscious effort to identify behaviors in your own lifestyle that reduce your balance and to make the necessary changes for your health and brain health.
Animal research has found that rodents raised in an environment that is too stimulating demonstrate slowed brain development. In addition, animals exposed to environments that are highly stressful, where they have little control, demonstrate structural damage in their hippocampus and evince memory problems.
Early research on the human brain exposed to life-threatening stressors indicates there is a similar effect on the hippocampus. Also, humans with chronic anxiety often have memory problems, which supports the theory that stress and uncontrolled anxiety have a negative effect on brain function. Research has even shown that chronic stress that can emerge from poverty in childhood has been related to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease later in life. In other words, stress can have both an acute and long-term effect on the body and brain. The point of this research, human and animal, is that we humans should take pause and examine how fast we are moving on a daily basis and decide if we need to slow down.
With chronic stress, some organisms undergo a type of sustained hormonal explosion; a proliferation of steroid hormones will infiltrate the brain of animals and perhaps humans. These steroid hormones are thought to be primarily responsible for the structural damage to the hippocampus and the negative consequence of memory loss and forgetfulness. Humans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience a therapeutic benefit from ongoing psychotherapy, and their cognition can return to near normal or even normal with successful therapy. This indicates that the potential damage from chronic stress can be reversed and further highlights the power of neural plasticity and brain health.
The goal of stress reduction can be accomplished, but it is not easy. We do need to be educated on the effects of stress on our body and brain, identify our own behaviors that contribute to increased stress and loss of balance, and then make changes in our lifestyle to promote balance. This is a lifelong battle, and it can be difficult, particularly in any culture that teaches “the quick fix.” Three good behaviors to learn and to implement for achieving a healthier spirituality include prayer, meditation, and deep relaxation. Each of these three behaviors involves turning inward from the chaotic outside pressures and stress and reaching a type of internal peace. This can help to achieve the homeostasis and balance necessary for brain health described earlier.
Research and surveys have reported the following positive effects of prayer on health:
1. Prayer on a daily basis relates to an enhanced immune system, the system that helps you defend against colds, flu, and other illnesses.
2. Those who attend a formalized place of worship live longer and report happier and healthier lives than those who do not. Unfortunately, surveys suggest only 30 percent of people in the United States attend a formalized place of worship weekly.
3. Prayer (or meditation) as part of the daily routine while in the hospital relates to an earlier discharge. I would think the health care payer system would find this interesting!
BRAIN HEALTH TIP
Consider incorporating meditation, other relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises, or even prayer into your daily health routine.
Meditation, relaxation procedures that include deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation are important to brain health. Unfortunately, we tend to use Band-Aid approaches, and we really do not fix the underlying problems or struggles of our lives. It is fair to say that a high number of “conditions” suffered by humans are stress-related and can probably be cured by changing certain lifestyle behaviors and by discovering the underlying cause of the stress and remedying it through spiritual introspection.
Meditation. Meditation can help you to slow down and turn inward for balance and symmetry. Your brain can adapt to a chaotic world, but it will function more efficiently over a longer period of time if you provide moments of inward reflection and rest. Meditation offers one technique to achieve such inner peace, and Western cultures are now more accepting of meditation and yoga.
Part of your brain health program can include a lesson or two on meditation so you can engage in this behavior on a daily basis. Fortunately, other cultures have already embraced the power of meditation and the benefits derived from deep introspection. The growing popularity of meditation makes it easier to find various kinds of guided meditation techniques online like how-to-meditate.org.
Breathing Exercises. Similarly, you may not know how to breathe correctly or to use breathing techniques to rid your body of stress. You are encouraged to engage in proper relaxation breathing exercises two to three times daily. Taking a deep inhalation through your nose using your stomach muscles and holding the breath for several seconds will result in your feeling some tension in your stomach and chest. Now, slowly release the air using your stomach and pushing the air out of your mouth in a rhythmic way. Doing this exercise several times for a few minutes throughout the day can help you to slow down and gain a sense of calm as you rid yourself of toxic stress.
Listen to Your Body’s Stress Indicators. It is important not only to identify the stressors in your life but also to understand and locate what part of your body is vulnerable to stress. You may experience stress in your neck, lower back, head, or stomach. By identifying what part of your body stress targets, you can then engage in progressive muscle relaxation procedures to alleviate the stress from your target site. For example, squeeze your right hand into a fist as hard as you can. Hold the fist and pay attention to how uncomfortable the tension is in your fist. Now, slowly release your fingers, extending them, and notice how the tension leaves your fingers. The more relaxed feeling achieved by letting the fist go and extending your fingers is an example of how you can focus on any muscle group in your body to release stress. Tightening and releasing muscles all over your body (head to toe) two to three times a day will provide much-needed relief from tension. At the end of the exercise, you will notice that energy in the form of stress has left you, and you will feel better!
BRAIN HEALTH TIP
Practice progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing exercises two to three times daily. Turning inward will help your brain escape temporarily the stress-filled and unenriched environments of life.
You will benefit from slowing down, relaxation, and developing inner balance, and practicing at home would probably be your best bet. Like everyone else, you and your family are hurried and many times neglect to take a moment of reflection. Make your home an escape where you can engage with reflective meditation and spirituality. Chronic stress builds up from a hurried environment and can do structural and functional damage to our brains. Spirituality offers some practical methods to slow down. Here are some ways you can explore spirituality at home to promote brain health:
• Create a space for yourself at home, either designating a specific room or a specific area of your home office or living room as a place to meditate, pray, or practice breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Allotting a specific area makes you more likely to practice reflective meditation and spirituality on a daily basis.
• Create a special time, whether it’s for ten or fifteen minutes a day, to just sit in silence, away from technology, with the goal of slowing down. You can take this block of time to meditate, pray, or reflect. You could even take a walk in the park or around the block, go on a short bike ride, or do some other quiet activity that puts your mind at ease—encourage your family to do the same.
• Attend a formalized place of worship on a regular basis, as this has been shown to be connected to happiness and longevity. If this is not an activity that is possible for you or your family, consider the other methods of spirituality described in this chapter.
• Keep a box of cards that have meditative reflections around the house. The moment you begin to feel anxious or stressed, stop and take a moment to relax and go through some of the meditative reflections.
Chronic stress can be damaging to the body and to the brain, particularly to functions such as memory and mood. We know that animals that are exposed to environments that are too stimulating experience slowed brain development. We also know that relaxation, slowing down, enjoying the moment, gaining homeostasis, and engaging in formal and informal spirituality can lead to better general health and to brain health. Now that you have some ideas for how you and your family can be spiritual at home, it is important to also apply some of these tips at work.
Every day you’re encouraged to do more to meet deadlines, produce more, be more innovative—to be better, faster, and stronger. It’s no wonder that the workforce is stressed and burned out. This chronic stress, as I’ve mentioned earlier, is detrimental to brain health, which is why now, more than ever, we need to cultivate and create a brain-health-conscious culture at work. You need to slow down and achieve inner balance— even at work. Here are some practical ways to boost spirituality at work:
• Engage in a quiet moment of daily prayer, meditation, and simply closing your eyes when you’re commuting on your way to work.
• Consider your lunch break as a time for you to either meditate or focus on reflective spirituality—find a quiet place away from your desk and away from distractions. Giving yourself thirty minutes each day to slow down and turn to a spiritual activity will help rid your body of stress and enable more efficient brain function.
• Ask your human resources department if there are wellness programs available, such as yoga or meditation classes that offer corporate discounts.
• Engage in two or three five-minute periods throughout the day to engage in breathing exercises or muscle relaxation techniques.
It is really important for us to achieve homeostasis and balance, particularly when we are confronted by such a rapid pace in daily life. We have already discussed why spirituality is important to general and brain health and how we can express our spirituality at home and in the workplace. We can now consider how we might apply spiritual behaviors in other settings that we encounter as part of our normal lives. Spirituality provides all of us techniques to slow down, turn inward, reduce the negative physiological effects of chronic stress on our brain and body, and help us to generate a more pleasing sense of balance and homeostasis. Consider these additional tips and ideas for you to express formal and informal spirituality in your daily life:
• Visit your favorite setting two to three times a week. This might be a community park, lake, beach, mountain base, river, or anywhere you feel at peace. Enjoy the beauty of your environment—taking in the beauty of your surroundings can also be considered spiritual.
• Get outside or simply remove your body and mind from the tasks that are in front of you. Everything else will be waiting for you when you return.
• Sometimes music helps when you retreat to your spiritual place. I like to download sounds of the ocean and waves and listen to soothing music while I pray or meditate.
It is both important for us to change our lifestyles and learn to slow down to promote brain health. Engaging in spirituality is a great way to stop, reflect, meditate, and relax to take a respite from our hurried lifestyles. While that is easily said and understood, it is also very difficult to change behavior. In order for you to achieve success with the spiritual domain as part of the brain health lifestyle, you must first identify the stress in your life, where you experience stress in your body, and how you deal with this stress now. To deal with your stress effectively, consider the tips provided you in this chapter and encourage your family do the same.
TIPS TO PROMOTE BRAIN HEALTH: QUICK REVIEW
• Learn relaxation procedures that include rhythmic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.
• Forms of spirituality such as meditation, relaxation procedures, enjoying nature, yoga, and tai chi can help you turn inward and remove stress from your body.
• Give yourself thirty minutes a day every day for your own quiet time to be reflective.
• Keep guided meditation cards or prayers at your fingertips for moments when you feel entirely overwhelmed. Keep a deck of these cards at home or in your office.
• Create a special area for yourself at home specifically for meditation or prayer.
• Get a good night’s sleep so that you feel rested in the morning.