Keep in mind that peers who do well at work ...are often no brighter than you... but they are likely better prepared mentally to grab onto
new skills... and they stay on track when barriers or stressors hit. I like to call it a mental calm… and it’s almost always determined by hormone levels which move the synapses that either energize or deplete the brain.
Roles that serotonin take to influence your workday include:
1). Create a mentally calm state which helps you to find fresh solutions … and to ward off frustrations that come from stressors we all face in any work day... where others with lower serotonin levels see only problems
2). Enhance your staying power – even on a rough day. Einstein put it this way: I am not that smart but I stay with problems longer than most people. Any genius who makes it … learns to work effectively with serotonin that firee the human brain for staying power.
4. Act as neurotransmitters … that influence how well you feel, act, learn and work. Serotonin levels, can spike your moods up to a winner’s circle at the peaks… or unfortunately… lack of it, can dip you into deep dysfunctional depression pits.
5. Give more satisfaction through the transmission of nerve impulses between nerve cells… which are created in the brain and located in the brain, digestive tract lining, and in blood platelets … in ways that alter your food cravings. It’s serotonin that gives you that "satisfied" feeling from food.
6. Enrich sleep and relaxation. If you’ve noticed a change in your sleep patterns or an inability to relax because your mind races or you feel up one minute and down the next– you are looking at an important role of serotonin ... which likely needs attention…. What do you think?
Next in this series next we’ll look at foods that impact your serotonin levels far more than most people realize….
Brain health is certainly a sobering issue once we come to terms with the realization that everything that we do is "Brain Based!" Learning how to optimize the experience is the important part. When it comes to health there is so much propaganda to sort through it may leave us short circuited for a bit. As a person that deals with a great amount of stress and joined by others that do the same, we are discovering an interesting but easy way to cope.
Not long ago we decided to do some research surrounding certain symptoms in common and found a book written by Dr. Eric Braverman, M.D. entitled The Edge Effect: Achieve Total Health and Longevity with the Balanced Brain Advantage. As I understand it this doctor was studying at Harvard during the explosion on brain research and began to find the correlation between foods that build healthy brain function and increase the four neurotransmitters serotonin, acetylcholine, GABA, and dopamine. By balancing the four you get your “edge” back. We are just trying things out but so far I have to say that I’m impressed. The book is at least worth checking out of the library. Be well!
Posted by: Minda | July 6, 2006 2:22 PM | Permalink to Comment