UAE: 6 ways to build your brain, avoid social media burnout

Taking care of our brain is just as important as taking care of our bodies, according to the founder of one of the most popular educational technology companies in the world.

“You can suffer from a broken brain, but it can also be fixed,” said Vishen Lakhiani, author, entrepreneur and founder of Mindvalley, has he addressed an audience of content creators. In his session titled ‘6 tips to build an extraordinary brain that doesn't burn out from social media,’ Vishen spoke about the effects of long term Covid which he suffered from.

“I started noticing that I had multiple tabs in my mind, I couldn’t focus. But the worst part was even though my processing power was in the 1 per cent, my memory was disappearing. I would be with close friends of mine, and I would forget their name,” he said, adding that he felt his brain slowing down, which prompted him to look deeper into it.

He said that the long-term effects of Covid on the brain can be fixed within 4 to 6 months. “Our brain, just like our muscular structure is something that we can fix but the problem is that we don’t bother to pay attention to our brain,” he said before teaching the audience 6 tips on improving the functioning of the brain. “This will help you add two additional hours to your day, you will have powerful focus, you will get more done, your creativity as content creator will go up and your brain will be incredibly sharp,” he said.

The first tip is to get the right supplements for the brain such as theanine which has a calming effect when stressed. “Another one is 5HTP. If you’re not eating properly, this will affect emotions. This remedies this, it improves happiness and increases stress resilience which means you can do more in less time,” he said.

The second tip he called ‘identity’. “What we believe about our brain can affect our brain. We can rewire the brain to perceive stress differently through hypnotic reprogramming,” he explained Vishen.

Meditation on a daily basis is another tip that Vishen shared. “Many people find meditation boring, but my 6-phase meditation doesn’t focus on hermetic meditation that focuses on the breath and clearing the mind, it helps you apply your brain to solve problems to see future visions. Meditation can be fun,” he said.

Vishen continued to say that another important tip to optimise brain health is to get quality sleep every day. “Magnesium and melatonin – taken only 2 or 3 times a week - can help you sleep better, but there are other things as well like using dim lights at night, not eating two hours before bedtime and cutting caffeine,” he said.

Learning a new language is a great tool for brain health. Vishen said that he was inspired by his own children who are learning new languages. He said that he is planning to study a new language every year. For this year, he is focusing on Estonian, and he says he is helped by his daughter who already speaks it. “If you do that with your children you will raise confident children,” he said.

His final two tips are body movement and eating healthy. “The more you move your body the better it is for your brain.” He said that we must also strive to be as lean as possible because every extra layer of fat slows down cognition and brain functioning.

“I can do all of these things in 45 minutes. That just got me an extra two hours today, but it also helps me keep away, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease,” he said to the audience before adding, “This way when you’re 97 you can still be on Tiktok.”

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