8 principles to achieve optimum mental health | Dan Banos | TEDxRockhampton
Summary
TLDRThe speaker introduces the concept of neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt, and outlines eight evidence-based principles for optimal mental health. These include a plant-based diet, regular exercise, hydration, exposure to sunlight, temperance in lifestyle, spending time outdoors, adequate rest, and trust in a higher power. The talk encourages personal practice of these principles to reduce reliance on mental health professionals and enhance overall well-being.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to adapt and change its structure and processes based on behavior and activities.
- 🥗 The first principle for optimal mental health is nutrition, emphasizing a plant-based diet, similar to the diets found in 'Blue Zones' where people tend to live longer and healthier lives.
- 🏃♂️ Exercise is vital for mental health as it helps reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety by generating endorphins and neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.
- 💧 Water is crucial for mental health, as it aids in the transportation of essential nutrients like tryptophan to the brain, which is necessary for serotonin production.
- ☀️ Sunlight is important for better sleep, reduced pain levels, and overall mental well-being.
- 🍷 Temperance involves creating a balanced lifestyle that includes abstaining from harmful substances like alcohol and caffeine, which can impair decision-making and increase symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- 🌳 Spending time outdoors is beneficial for mental health due to the fresh air and natural light, which contribute to the production of positive neurotransmitters.
- 💤 Adequate rest and sleep are essential for mental clarity, memory, creativity, and overall cognitive function.
- 🤝 Trust and social connections, including family, like-minded individuals, and those sharing a common faith, are key to a longer, happier life.
- 🌟 Developing a sense of purpose and trust in a higher power can decrease anxiety, increase motivation, and contribute to a happier life.
- 📝 The challenge is to integrate these principles—nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, rest, and trust—into daily life to achieve and maintain optimal mental health.
Q & A
What is neuroplasticity and why is it significant for mental health?
-Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to adapt and change its structure and processes based on activities and experiences. It's significant for mental health because it forms the basis for achieving optimal mental health, allowing individuals to improve their cognitive functions and emotional well-being.
What are the eight principles or habits mentioned in the script for achieving optimal mental health?
-The eight principles are nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, spending time outdoors, rest, and trust in a higher power or divine purpose.
Why is nutrition considered the first principle for optimal mental health?
-Nutrition is crucial because it directly affects the brain's health. A plant-based diet, rich in beans and limited in meat consumption, is associated with longevity and better physical and mental health, as observed in centenarian cultures.
How does exercise contribute to mental health?
-Exercise contributes to mental health by generating endorphins, which are 'feel-good' chemicals, and by promoting the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, which are linked to mood regulation and can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
What role does water play in achieving optimal mental health?
-Water is essential because it helps transport nutrients, like tryptophan, to the brain, which is necessary for the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that contributes to happiness and well-being. Adequate water intake also enhances mental clarity and reduces frustration.
Can you explain the importance of sunshine for mental health?
-Sunshine is important for mental health as it helps regulate sleep patterns, making sleep more sound and refreshing. It can also decrease physical pain levels and improve mood and cognitive functions.
What does the principle of temperance entail?
-Temperance refers to creating a balanced lifestyle that avoids excesses and harmful habits. It includes abstaining from substances like alcohol and caffeine that can impair decision-making and increase symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Why is spending time outdoors beneficial for mental health?
-Spending time outdoors is beneficial because it allows exposure to fresh air and sunlight, which are essential for physical health and the production of mood-enhancing neurotransmitters. It also encourages physical activity and connection with nature.
How does rest and sleep affect mental health?
-Rest and sleep are vital for mental health as they provide the brain with the downtime it needs to consolidate memories, process information, and recover from daily stressors. Adequate sleep enhances cognitive functions like critical thinking and creativity.
What is the significance of trust in achieving optimal mental health?
-Trust, particularly in a higher power or a sense of purpose, is significant for mental health because it can decrease anxiety, increase motivation, and contribute to a happier, more meaningful life.
What is the challenge presented at the end of the script for the audience?
-The challenge is for the audience to pick three of the eight principles and start practicing them, such as consulting a GP for an exercise program, ensuring adequate sleep, and building strong relationships and commitments with loved ones.
Outlines
🧠 Embracing Neuroplasticity for Optimal Mental Health
The speaker introduces the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and change its structure and processes based on activities. They emphasize the importance of this concept for achieving optimal mental health and outline eight evidence-based principles or habits that can be adopted to improve mental well-being. The speaker encourages the audience to practice these principles to potentially reduce the need for professional mental health services.
🥗 Nutrition and Blue Zones: The Role of Diet in Longevity
The speaker discusses the significance of nutrition in mental health, referencing the 'Blue Zones' concept where centenarians have common dietary habits, such as a plant-based diet with a focus on beans and limited meat consumption. They mention the recent update to the Australian dietary pyramid, which emphasizes plant-based eating, and suggest that adopting these dietary principles can contribute to better physical and mental health.
💧 Water: The Essential Component for Mental Clarity
The speaker highlights the importance of water in maintaining mental health, noting that the human body and brain are largely composed of water. They explain that water aids in the transportation of nutrients like tryptophan to the brain, which is essential for serotonin production and mood regulation. The speaker warns against the negative effects of dehydration on mental clarity and happiness, advocating for adequate water intake.
☀️ Sunshine and Temperance: Balancing Life for Mental Well-being
The speaker discusses the benefits of sunlight exposure for sleep quality, pain reduction, and overall mental health. They introduce the principle of temperance, which involves creating a balanced lifestyle to avoid the extremes of harmful behaviors like excessive alcohol consumption. The speaker also touches on the historical context of societal habits and their impact on health, urging the audience to embrace balance for better mental performance.
🏞️ Outdoor Exposure and the Healing Power of Nature
The speaker shares a historical anecdote about the flu epidemic in Eureka, California, where patients treated outdoors with hot water bottles had lower mortality rates. They suggest that spending time outdoors, exercising in fresh air, and allowing natural elements to cleanse the body can improve mental health by providing oxygen and creating a healthier environment for the brain.
💤 The Importance of Rest and Sleep for Mental Performance
The speaker emphasizes the importance of rest and adequate sleep for mental clarity, memory, creativity, and critical thinking. They debunk the myth that staying up late leads to better productivity, citing research that shows sleep-deprived individuals perform worse in cognitive tests despite feeling more confident in their abilities. The speaker advocates for a society that values rest as a key component of mental health.
🤝 Trust and Community: The Power of Connection and Faith
The speaker discusses the role of trust in achieving a long, happy life, referencing research that shows people with strong social connections, shared faith, and a sense of purpose tend to live longer. They suggest that trust in a higher power or a community can reduce anxiety, increase motivation, and contribute to a happier life, urging the audience to consider the benefits of trust and connection.
🚴♂️ New Start: A Challenge to Improve Mental Health
In the concluding paragraph, the speaker challenges the audience to adopt three of the eight principles discussed: exercise, sleep, and building trust through social connections. They encourage the audience to seek professional advice on safe exercise, prioritize sleep, and make commitments to loved ones and communities to enhance mental health without necessarily relying on mental health professionals.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Neuroplasticity
💡Optimal Mental Health
💡Blue Zones
💡Nutrition
💡Exercise
💡Water
💡Sunshine
💡Temperance
💡Rest
💡Trust
Highlights
Introduction of the concept of neuroplasticity as the brain's ability to adapt based on actions taken.
Eight principles or habits are proposed for achieving optimal mental health.
Nutrition as the first principle, emphasizing the importance of a plant-based diet.
The Blue Zones study and the diet of centenarians, particularly the consumption of beans.
Exercise as a key factor in diminishing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Generation of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine through regular exercise for mental health.
The significance of water in the body and brain for optimal mental health.
Tryptophan's role in serotonin production and the importance of water for nutrient transport to the brain.
Sunshine's impact on sleep quality, learning capacity, and pain reduction.
The concept of temperance and its role in maintaining a balanced lifestyle for mental health.
The negative effects of alcohol and caffeine on decision-making and mental health.
The benefits of spending time outdoors for physical and mental well-being.
The importance of rest and its effects on mental clarity, memory, and creativity.
The impact of societal expectations on rest and the myth of the all-nighter's productivity.
Trust as a principle for reducing anxiety, increasing motivation, and living a happier life.
The challenge to practice the New Start principles for optimal mental health without needing a psychiatrist or psychologist.
A call to action for the audience to adopt three of the eight principles for immediate implementation.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you kindly
you are right
um
i would like to thank you first of all
for allowing me to introduce to you a
passion that i have
and um
and allow me to introduce a concept that
we call and you might have heard before
called neuroplasticity neuroplasticity
is nothing but the capacity the brain
has
to be able to adapt based on what we do
so you and i have the ability to change
some of the
structures that bring has and also to
change some of the processes
and i'm excited about this concept
because the reality is that this concept
is the basis for achieving an optimal
mental health and these eight principles
or habits that i'm going to encourage
you to do
will be challenging
will be out of the ordinary but i
believe will provoke
you
and it will allow you to visit the
people
and and share these concepts but it will
also do something very important which
is what was mentioned just earlier it
will allow you to visit people like me
less
and that is something good believe it or
not um so
these eight principles
i don't only
believe in them and practice them but
they're evidence-based
and so i would like you to if you can
pay attention to this so that maybe take
one or two or three and practice them
when you get out of here
principle number one it's a very simple
one it's a principle of nutrition
nutrition is an important thing and
allow me to share with you something
that some of you might know some of you
might not know
but a member the name of dan
batna he
teamed up
with people from national geographic
and the mission was to find out
a group of people or peoples around the
world who can
demonstrate that they can live healthier
physically and mentally these are people
who the norm was to achieve 100 years or
older
so as soon as they found them they named
these zones around the world blue zones
and they found nine characteristics i
won't share them with you but i would
like to share one which is related to
this concept
one characteristic was that centenarian
cultures and centenarian groups of
people
have the basis of their diet
as beans
crazy isn't it
i have an advantage in there i'm
originally from mexico and mexicans have
a lot of beans
i'm not 100 sure i will live to 100 but
uh i'm hoping i will because like i said
i believe this and i practice it
what they have found is that people who
live more than 100 physically and who
are physically and mentally able above
the average also only consume uh flesh
or meat products only five times a month
and it shouldn't be a surprise because
even just recently maybe a couple of
weeks ago
the national council of australia who
talks about dieting has remodified the
pyramid i don't know how many of you saw
it but at the bottom the greatest amount
of it is it's plant-based so the message
is goal plant-based and that's what they
found these societies have embraced so
the principle number one is nutrition
principle number two shouldn't be
surprising
principle number two is exercise
now what we have found is that exercise
is a matter of life we cannot achieve an
optimal capacity if we don't become
active
there is a lot of research that i could
share with you but allow me and perhaps
believe
get out of here perhaps research it that
exercise alone can have a great
contribution on the
diminishing of symptoms of depression
and anxiety it's very simple you
exercise and you generate endorphins
good happy chemicals you exercise
regularly and you will also generate the
production of a neurotransmitter in your
brain called serotonin neuropathy and
dopamine
all of these are related to depression
parkinson's disease and also alzheimer's
disease
so
to
actively participate in exercise will
definitely contribute to achieving an
optimal mental health that will set you
and the community above the average and
will reduce
visits to people like me
principle number three
that will be water
water is so important
seventy percent of our bodies are made
out of water
eighty percent of our brains are made of
components that are water that's a lot
of that's a high percentage
so it shouldn't be surprising again that
to achieve an optimal mental health we
need water
perhaps more than what we utilize
now
let me share with you something there is
certain chemicals that we can only
achieve by eating foods certain types of
food we already talked about food we
didn't go in specifics but there are
certain foods that we can consume one of
the certain types of food produces
something or gives you something called
tryptophan
tryptophan is a substance that if it
reaches the brain to good proportions
will allow you to secrete more endo
serotonin
so
tryptophan is the raw material that the
brain needs
to produce serotonin and you might be
thinking well what does that have to do
with water you're talking about food now
and i'm confused what allow me to share
with you why water is so important the
reason why it's so important is because
water is one of the elements that allow
these things that you consume and these
nutrients to travel to the brain the the
key is simple the the formula is simple
more the more water the more tryptophan
goes to the brain the more raw material
we have to generate serotonin and the
happier you become
some of the things that water can give
you is a great clarity in your mind
but some of the things that it could
give you if you lack intake of water is
a reduced ability to be happier people
who do not consume enough water become
more frustrated
they have less clarity of mind
and then it will affect as a default
your mental health performance
the next principle is sunshine
i will keep this one simple we need the
sun and that is basically it and there
is three reasons that i can share with
you why we need the sun or at least a
couple one is if we allow ourselves to
intake sunshine on a regular bay on a
regular basis
you can actually achieve a greater level
of
sleep your sleep will be increased it
will be sounder and you will feel
refreshed next time
that by default will increase your
capacity to learn to memorize and to
concentrate it's very simple
sunshine as well believe it or not can
also have an impact on
the level of pain that you might have
physically if anybody here or if anybody
in the community has some pain sunshine
can decrease the level of pain that
someone has
it's amazing what sunshine can do if
take it in the right amounts
let me share the next principle
this is a principle that is very
important temperance i don't know you
ever heard these words uh not many
people have but allow me to share what
this means
temperance implies
that
we are to create
and practice in our lifestyle schedule a
balance
a balance that will set you up above the
average
what that implies is we need to make
sure that we allow ourselves to
introduce certain habits and behaviors
that will provoke and will allow you to
have
a better mental health performance
you might be thinking well can you
explain a little bit more let me share
with you something our societies are run
in such a way that we tend to take
something that is bad and make it good
and sometimes unfortunately we take
something that is
good and make it bad
one example is it's something that
happened in the 1950s in the 1950s
sometimes someone realized i think i
think smoking is related to lung cancer
so what people did in the 1950s is they
introduced what we call the filter in
the cigarette
because the tower of the cigarette was
related to lung cancer
today we continue to know that
smoking is one of the greatest causes of
disease and death
in our societies
so it didn't fix it
another thing that we know that is
harmful and we tend to embrace it is the
use of alcoholic beverages australia
reported in 2011 to 2012 that
19.7.7 that's a reasonable percentage
19.7 of relationship breakups
of interpersonal relationship breakups
occur as a result of an alcohol related
problem and that doesn't account for a
psychiatric condition
that's a high percentage
what alcohol can do to us is it can
impair the frontal lobe cortex that
allows us to make good and sound
decisions research has shown us that
consuming
such substance
increases our likelihood of cheating
between 30 to 50 percent
funny that because a lot of the times
when we do business there is always
something like this involved so we kind
of need to prepare a set of ourselves to
go to to break a good deal but i'm not
saying that everybody who does that is
cheating but the the research and the
numbers that's what they indicate
another health harmful substance that
decreases our mental capacity and our
ability to deal with things such as
depression and anxieties is coffee
caffeinated drinks caffeinated drinks
that stress our nervous system
and they stress it so much that can
increase the level of depression or
depressive symptoms and also the level
of anxiety
so
what basically temperance this is we
need to learn how to abstain from
certain things that might be harmful and
perhaps utilize certain things that are
good for us within measure it's creating
a balance and i think the picture
describes that it's creating a balance
in our life it's not only about what you
drink or it's it's also about what we do
in general if we work too much or too
little can perturb our performance
or if we play too much in too little can
also have an impact on our performance
another one is a
i would like to share with you a story
which is a perhaps an incredible story
in the 1990s
no that was wrong 1919
that's a year in eureka california
a hospital was facing a great
epidemic of flu
and it was getting out of control
so much that the chief physician said i
think we need to call the army i don't
know we don't have a space so the army
came and in turn they brought tents
coats and some blankets and so the
overflowing hospital all those patients
that were getting the infection were
placed in these tents and the only thing
that they had a part of the blankets
were hot water bottles to keep the feet
warm
what they found is that the people who
were in the tents were not dying
as compared to the people that were in
the hospital once someone realized
what was happening they turned down the
heaters in the hospital they opened the
windows up and they put heavy underwear
on the patients
and the death rate diminished
the key today is spend time outdoors
when you think about it many of these
things are interrelated with each other
if you exercise unless you go to the gym
and that is okay too but if you exercise
outside you get that
air that you need to have
scientifically it just makes sense
you get oxygen and oxygen cleanses your
blood the blood is the same blood that
will come to your brain and we want to
create the best environment that we can
have in our brain in our systems to be
able to create those happy feeling neuro
neurotransmitters
the challenge is spend time
outside and open our homes open the
windows let the sunshine and let the air
do what it's intended to do do what it
was created to
to do now the next one
is rest i would like to emphasize
something here
we live in a society that
is
very outcome driven
unfortunately we
live in a society that
indicates that for us to be able to
succeed we have to
achieve the greater goal of whatever
position you might be having it's a
society that says i have to put the top
level man or woman down so that i can be
that person eventually
and that creates a lot of stress we live
in a society when we expect many many
people many children to succeed to the
top they can and we should expect such
thing but sometimes we push so much that
we lack the in the amount of rest that
we should have
one of the things that we know is that
the idea that a staying later at night
it's better because i achieved better is
a fallacy it's nothing else but
a self-deception
some of you and i had lived that too uh
before i got to know about these
principles and practices and some of you
will know that or would have thought of
i stayed late at night because i seem to
achieve a lot more in the middle of the
night it's like amazing
but research shows otherwise
a group of people
have been taken and they have been
exposed to an overnight
an all-nighter party kind of thing no
alcohol no substances the key was the
only key isolated factor was keep them
awake for as long as you can
and then the next day do a critical test
a critical thinking test
were compared to to a group a controlled
group of people who had slept eight
hours in the night
the results will be quite interesting
for you to know and i'll share them with
you now
you will be expecting this the eighth
night control group the eight hours of
sleep control group perform better in
the test of critical thinking
but the next thing you might not be
thinking of the all-nighter group
perform worse but they have a perception
that they did better
and then another test self-reported test
reflective showed that they not only had
a perception that they performed better
but they were more confident in their
work
was the other people that slept nicely
the night before they performed better
they were less confident but the results
spoke for themselves
rest can give you mental clarity can
help you to remember and memorize things
clearly can enhance your ability to be
creative to think objectively and
analytically rest is an important thing
that we must not forget if we want to
achieve optimal mental health and go
above the average
the last one
is trust
there is an author
in the 1900s who said that the greatest
need
of this world is that of people
who
stand for the truth
as the needle of a compass to the pole
it is the need
of the world to have people
who extend
strong to principle
even though the heavens fall
it's quite an interesting concept might
be a bit poetic as well
but today it's very hard to develop
trust in many things
when you think about it i talk about
rest and we have that tendency to be to
be wanting to achieve the latter of
success and for that sometimes we have
to put someone else down
so it's hard to trust many people but
what we found what they have found what
these investigators at the beginning
that of my conversations they found in
terms of the people who live long
healthier and happier is that they have
three things in their lives
one
they have people they love
clothes and they invest in that number
two
they also have
a
an amount of time that they spend
with
people who are like-minded
people like you who mean here to talk
about like-minded things and perhaps
different ideas to enhance our community
and number three
i lost it maybe i didn't sleep too well
last night
i'm kidding number three was they also
they also
showed
they also showed that they met
with regularity with those people that
they that they resonate with
so number one
they got the parents grandparents and
children close by
number two they met together as a matter
of fact uh the research goes deeper and
they found that people who have some
kind of faith and gather together at
least four times a month
reach or or have a likelihood of
reaching a higher expense expectancy of
life of 14 years
in simple words people who gather and
have some similarities in faith four
times a month they can expect to live 14
times uh 14 years longer
that's just research uh i appreciate the
presentation of before that talks about
the meaning of life and just having a
meaningful life and knowing what your
life is knowing why you wake up every
morning can give you seven years
seven years extra
i would like you to think about this
because today even though it's hard to
believe in in
people and society we need to achieve a
sense of trust
this new strategy goes beyond and
declares or rather and emphasizes the
idea that we can
achieve a level of trust in a superior
power
you can call it god or you can call it
whatever you desire
something that gives you a sense of
purpose what we have found is that it
decreases anxiety increases motivation
and gives you a happier life
and let us just summarize because you
might forget what these are
news start
nutrition exercise water
sunshine
temperance a
rest
and trust
in divine power
today my challenge for you is to pick
three of these
you can do it even today and tomorrow
one go to your gp
your friendly gp in town and say gp what
can i do to exercise safely
do i have any conditions that will
impede my exercises and if you don't and
if he can give you some a hand to be
able to develop a good exercise program
with the limits and the capacity that
you currently have exercise
number two don't wait too long let's
network after here but don't wait too
long to go to bed
try to do eight to nine hours of sleep
she liked that she wants to go
and number three
make
commitments
get those people you love those people
that you embrace
get a sense of purpose
and make a commitment
today new start is something that i
challenge you to practice
and if you want to practice and achieve
a higher an optimal mental health a
higher capacity this can be yours today
you don't have to go to the psychiatrist
you don't have to go to a psychologist
unless you have a condition that needs
that professional input but otherwise
you can achieve a higher capacity that
will set you above the average thank you
[Music]
you
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