Increasing Brain Power by Decreasing Stress Levels

We all know that when we’re stressed, we’re not at our best.  We don’t perform as well in our work or in our schooling, we rash out irrationally at our friends and relatives, our sleep (or lack thereof) suffers, and our ability to think clearly becomes clouded by thoughts of regret, trepidation, worry and frustration.

We know all this intuitively, because we’ve all experienced moments when we’re calm, settled, and content—rare though they may be.  And nine times out of 10, calmness enables us to perform at our best:  emotionally, physically and mentally.

But for far too many people, knowing this rarely enables them to keep their cool when the pressure’s on.

It’s too bad, too, because according to researchers from the California Institute of Technology, de-stressing our lives (i.e. doing everything it takes to relax) improves our brainpower, especially when it comes to forming memories.

Memories are everything.  We all have bad memories, of course, but we’ve all had experiences that we probably would have enjoyed a whole heck of a lot more had we not been so darn stressed at the time.  So for someone who can get stressed with the best of them—i.e. me—this news is music to my ears.  And speaking of music, that’s a great way to reduce stress.  But I’ll get to de-stressing techniques in a minute.  First, the study…

Now, as I said previously, all of us know that we think better when we’re not stressed, so how does this study tell us anything we didn’t already know?

Because before this study, researchers weren’t sure what mechanism in the brain influenced our ability to remember things.  And that mechanism is something called synchronization.

Our brains are made up of hemispheres, and when neurons in each hemisphere send out waves simultaneously, it allows the brain to focus on specific tasks and ignore the minutiae.  Synchronization is influenced by theta waves, which is influenced by how we relaxed we are.

But as the researchers found, theta waves also affect our ability to remember and to learn things.

They discovered this after showing eight volunteers approximately 100 photos over a very short period of time (i.e. about one picture every second).  Half an hour later, they were shown 100 more photographs, only this time half of the photos were ones that they had already seen.

Through electrical equipment that tracked the volunteers’ brainwave activity, they found that people whose brain waves were most “in sync” were better able to remember which pictures they’d been shown before.

The full findings are published in the journal Nature.

The more relaxed we are, the greater the synchronicity in our brain, and the greater our ability to think clearly and remember things that mean a lot to us.

This begs the question, then:  How do we de-stress our lives?

Well, you probably already know the answer; you just haven’t put that answer into effect because you think it won’t work.

For starters, don’t sweat the small stuff.  It’s easy to stress over small things—i.e., that wet towel left on the bed spread, the kitchen that never seems to stay clean, or the nincompoop who ate the leftovers you had your heart set on for lunch—especially on those days when we’re at our wits end.  Recognize the things that really shouldn’t affect our state of happiness or our level of contentment.

Second, try taking a “break” from your problems.  It sounds simplistic, but it works: take a day’s vacation from your problems by occupying your mind with things that are entirely “fluff.”   Shop.  Go to a matinee at the movie theatre by yourself.  Go out to eat with a friend and pepper him or her with questions.  Do whatever it takes to get your mind off of the problem that’s got you stressed.  That mini-vacation can help gain a new perspective on the nature of the problem and what you can do to resolve it.

Another great way to de-stress is by listening to music.  Researchers say listening to slow rather than fast-paced music is best for de-stressing, but if heavy metal or funk enables you to relax better than listening to a classical sonata or requiem, go for it.

Finally, breathe.  As the Institute of Breathing and Health notes, when we’re stressed, we breathe in and out differently.  We take shallower breaths that are mainly in the lungs, leaving our diaphragms out of the equation.  Shallow breaths such as these leads to an increased incidence of hyperventilation and the exacerbation of anxiety-related symptoms like stress headaches, fatigue, heart palpitations and light-headedness.

Concentrated breaths—where you’re focusing entirely on how your abdomen expands when you inhale and contracts when you exhale—increases feelings of calm, lowers blood pressure, and balances out the oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio of air in the blood (i.e., stress tends to increase carbon dioxide levels in the body).

De-stressing your life won’t happen all at once, but with consistency and patience, you’ll be well on your way to increasing brain function by decreasing the tension that’s holding you back.

Sources
msnbc.msn.com
wired.com
butterhealth.vic.gov.au