Things you didn’t know about your brain

Mental health. It’s a tricky thing. We can’t see it, we can’t really define it, but when it’s there, it’s there. It’s a constant battle between yourself and yourself, and when not acknowledged you slowly let these feelings contain you. What is mental health? How does it start and how does our brain work when it starts to anchor in a sneaky thought?

What are emotions and feelings?

Emotions and feelings are both responses to circumstances. How we respond to different situations is completely individual and can be based on a variety of things such as our personality, past traumas, anxiety, or habitual thought patterns. This is why feelings are such a tricky thing because nobody will experience the exact same emotional response to the same situation. Why is this important to know? Because when you understand why and what triggers your feelings, it’s easier for you to stop yourself in your track and go like “ok queen (or king), this is why you’re feeling this way”.

brain

Thoughts becomes habits.

I’m the shit. I’m the absolute bombshell of the world. People should feel blessed to be breathing the same air as me. Those are the words I want you to burst out to yourself every morning. And when you feel in doubt, I want you to repeat them even louder! Our thoughts are sneaky, and they are shapeable. A bit too easy to shape, to be honest. Once you start a thought pattern it stays to grow and all of a sudden you’ve created new connections in your brain to either the positive or the negative.

It’s hard to tell someone with negative thoughts and poor mental health to “think positive”. “Fake it until you make it”. Honestly, if you’re not begging for a slap across the face it might be the worst thing you can say to a person in a bad mental state. So how can you break free from current negative thought patterns?

Recognize them. You feel out of shape, maybe both mentally and physically. You’re isolating yourself or slipping back into bad habits. The first step is always to recognize this. And become okay with the fact that you’re not on your a game right now.

2-minute window. A thought lives in your brain rent-free for around 2 minutes. What you decide to do with this thought after that is up to you. You can either let it sit there and consume you or you can switch it to a setting completely different. Even if you don’t believe it as you start thinking it, keep it for another 2 minutes and let that thought let loose in your brain instead.

Journal to trick your subconscious brain.

I preach journaling from the bottom of my heart. It’s extremely underrated and everyone should be doing it like two years ago already. I’m not talking about writing a 6-page essay about your day every night, but take 5 minutes every morning and write down how you are feeling and what you want from the day ahead. While you’re at it, add in some positive affirmations as well! Something simple as this subconsciously sets your brain up for a successful day. If you wanted your day to be filled with laughter, you’re more likely to actually bust out a few laughs during that day.

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Identify your triggers.

Our brain is smart. It remembers situations that caused anxious feelings and will hold on to them with all its power. Why? Basic survival. If dogs trigger your anxiety the brain will continue to feel this just so you should stay alert in case you know, you die. Triggers can come from anywhere and be literally anything. It’s not an easy thing to identify these, especially if you’ve been living with them for a long time. It all comes down to awareness. As soon as you can identify your trigger it’s easier for you to start the work to rewire your brain’s emotional response. As mentioned before, our brain is very flexible and shapeable – in fancier terms known as brain plasticity. Knowing this you have the power to shape your brain into new habits, new thoughts, and a new state of being. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable.

Why does the brain hold onto negative thoughts?

It’s easier to be anxious than to walk on happy-go-lucky clouds every day. We remember negative situations better than positive ones. Why is it so hard to just be happy? As I briefly mentioned before, it’s all about survival. Humans have evolved through a lot of stressful environments where our survival literally depended on how well we adapted to these environments. Because of this, we needed to know what killed our mates, and this has shaped our brain to hold on to anxiety, just as a survival mechanism. Today we don’t need this as much since we’re not as likely to be eaten by a bear. Instead, we attach anxiety to other habits such as work, social gatherings, past traumas, you name it. It sucks, I know. But, this can also be a comforting thing to know. When anxiety strikes it’s just your brain trying to keep you alive.

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It’s okay to not be okay.

Mental health is no joke and if you’re seriously feeling very down and have been for a while, please talk to a professional. Today it’s more common than we think that people are walking around with anxiety and depression every day. The perfect filtered social media and the pressure to be so damn great all the time is not making our current environment an easy place for our brains. Turning to help is not a sign of weakness, actually the opposite. We need to normalize even the “smallest” mental issues as serious. Go talk to someone. Start talking about mental health amongst your friend group, and if they think you’re lame for doing this – tell them to fuck off. In a polite, friendly manner of course.

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment

Why we should eat meat. By a former vegan.

I can already feel that I’m about to stir up the pot with this post. As a former vegan, I know why. I was a hard-core vegan advocate, like hard hard. I preached veganism as the only source of true health and demonized anything that had to do with animals (in the food sense). Before we get into the post I want to make it clear that I’m only referring to health in this post. Regarding animal cruelty – yes, being vegan is the better option. So what changed? What made this vegan babe crave the meat again? That’s what she said…

Baby steps. It all started with eggs.

After about 5 years into being completely vegan (being vegetarian about 4 years before that) and consuming whole foods such as beans, lentils, vegetables, rice, and potatoes I started to feel like “something” was missing. I couldn’t really pinpoint exactly what this something was but I found myself thinking about omelets and scrambled eggs in a way I’ve never thought about eggs before…So after a mental battle between myself, I went to the store and got myself some eggs. What happened when I ate that bad boy? Nothing. It was good. Like actually good, and as I continued to incorporate eggs into my diet again I could feel this “something” started to go away.

Eggs are the healthiest food on the planet.

Or at least one of the healthiest foods. Eggs are a natures protein bar packed with vitamin A, B, omega 3, and cholesterol which isn’t a bad thing! It’s 2021, can we please stop demonizing cholesterol as the root of all evil?! Sure if you’re blood is made with only cholesterol, maybe not optimal, but cholesterol itself is extremely important for our body to make vitamin D and A. Eggs are also very versatile food that we can find in the sneakiest of things. Pasta, bread, vegetarian meat alternatives, sauces, fried stuff, the list goes on. Without eggs, in your diet, you have to remove even more things than “just the eggs”.

why we should eat meat.

Omega 3 from fish.

The natural second step was to get fishy. Not that I had to, more that I started to crave it. A nice salmon was literally screaming my name. Fish and seafood, in general, are healthy sources of protein and essential fatty acids such as omega 3 which can be hard to get on a vegan diet. Even though walnuts, flax seeds, and chia seeds contain a fair amount of omega 3 you will need to eat a lot more of it to hit your targets. Omega 3 is essential for your brain, skin, and reproductive health. Looking at other types of fish such as cod and tuna, we are getting a lot of good quality protein for a little to no fat.

The fishy thing about fish though is that we want to be kind to our oceans and not promote overfishing. There’s also a discussion about our fish containing mercury and other toxins. It’s all about quality. And maybe not eating fish all day every day. It should be an addition to your meal, not your staple.

Let’s get real about protein.

Okay guys, let’s talk about protein. We can’t shut up about it. No matter if you’re a gym rat or someone just trying to be healthy, we always come back to get in enough protein. But why is protein so important? Protein is the building block of literally everything in our body. Muscles? Protein. Hair, skin, and nails? Protein. Our DNA? Protein. Quick protein lesson. Our body is capable of making 11 out of the 20 amino acids by itself. The remaining 9 amino acids we have to get through our diet. Foods that contain all these 9 amino acids are called complete proteins.

Everything we eat has protein from spinach to chicken breast, even though they contain different amounts and especially different qualities of protein. Animal protein such as chicken, meat, eggs, dairy, and fish all make up a complete protein by themselves. Plant proteins such as beans and lentils are incomplete proteins meaning they don’t contain these 9 amino acids by themselves. To make a vegan protein complete they need to be combined with another incomplete protein such as rice, bread, or potatoes. Of course, you can still get enough protein from a vegan diet but it needs more planning and could potentially also lead to a higher calorie and carb consumption just to hit your targets. I still eat my beans, trust me! But I don’t make them my source of protein anymore.

Get cheesy for your gut.

Dairy was the hardest thing to start eating and I didn’t for the longest time just because it grossed me out. I’m also still a bit conflicted if I believe it’s that healthy for us, but after doing research I do believe that good quality dairy is very much beneficial to us. Natural sources such as greek yogurt and aged cheeses are extremely good for our gut. The fermentation process of these dairy sources packs with so many healthy gut bacteria and protein. The French do know something about finishing the meals with bread and cheese. Butter from grass-fed beef also contains a bunch of retinol (vitamin a) which is a vitamin the body can’t make by itself.

why we should eat meat.

Whole Foods.

Don’t get me wrong, I still preach whole foods with all my heart. Fruit, vegetables, and legumes are still the biggest staple of my diet but I’ve also started to incorporate more animal products with my meals. We need to eat vegan food way more than we do today, especially in the western world where we are deficient in so much fiber that it’s scary.

Change the way we eat meat.

The most important thing in this the animal perspective, and here we can’t argue that being vegan is much more animal friendly. Mass production of meet is wrong on all levels and nothing I support. When I do eat meat, it’s usually when I’m out at dinners and I make sure it’s good quality and locally sourced. At home I eat meat with my vegetables and not vegetables with my meat. I also make sure to get plenty of meat that isn’t from an animal source. What? Nothing.

Sources

https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/what-is-a-complete-protein

https://medlineplus.gov/cholesterol.html

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment
Hack your hormones

Hack your mood

Alrighty guys. It’s that time of the year when everyone is trying to squeeze out every ounce of summer. Days are becoming darker, and it’s just about time for the real darkness to arrive (especially if you live up here in the north). If you weren’t looking for a relationship before, you’re definitely looking to lock someone down, as cuffing season is upon us. The shift from summer to fall can be hectic, especially for our mood. Feeling sad? Anxious? A bit blue maybe? In this post, we’ll learn about how to hack your mood to become your best self as we enter the darker half of the year.

Happy hormones.

Our mood is a tricky thing. It can go up and down for the most random of reasons and sometimes it can feel like our mood is in control of us, not the other way around. When we talk about mood we need to understand that it’s our sweet hormones who are living it up and cause us to feel all range of emotions. Hormones are essentially the messengers of the body. Some of them tell us to feel hunger, some tell us to feel full, and some of them – the happy hormones tell us to feel happy.

happy hormones

Serotonin

The crowned king of “happy hormones”. Serotonin is literally called the happy hormone and plays a role in regulating our sleep, appetite, and digestion. Fun fact, 90% of our serotonin production takes place in the gut. When we have a good balance of serotonin bouncing around we feel happier, less anxious, calmer, and more focused.

Natural ways to improve serotonin is to:

  • Exercise. When we exercise our serotonin levels go loco due to the BDNF activity in the brain. This activity creates a protein that makes us feel pretty sweet and saucy inside.
  • Get more sunlight. That the sun makes us happier isn’t really news, and it’s wise to try to catch some rays whenever the sun wants to play.
  • Eat foods high in tryptophan. Trypto- what now? Tryptophan is an amino acid that produces serotonin. With low, or no tryptophans we can’t fully make serotonin which is why it’s important to eat this bad boy every day, since our body can’t make tryptophan by itself. Foods with high amounts of tryptophans are eggs, poultry, spinach, salmon, seeds, and nuts.

Dopamine

Ever felt low? Lacking motivation? And just not excited for things? Dopamine, and more specifically the lack of it might be the blame. When we get a rush of dopamine we feel pleasure and reward, which is why we continue to indulge in behaviors that produce dopamine. This can obviously be either good or bad habits depending on what we are doing.

We want to increase dopamine naturally, and here are some ways to make that happen:

  • Exercise. Yes, once again exercise tops the charts for producing feel-good hormones. Dopamine is not the exception.
  • Complete tasks. You know that rush of accomplishment you feel when you complete a task or project? That’s dopamine. To stick something out and actually finish it is a great way to not only increase dopamine but to build good habits of showing up for yourself.
  • Listen to some bangers. Music can have this beautiful effect on us where we get a sudden rush of joy when that beat hits. What happens is a sweet release of dopamine.
  • Healthy diet. Diet does play a big role in dopamine production and especially getting enough protein and amino acids in the form of tyrosine which can be found in protein-rich foods such as meat, eggs, fish, and chicken. Taking care of your gut by giving it plenty of probiotic foods such as yogurt and fermented food is also a good way to keep dopamine production high.
  • Sleep. Can’t escape sleep. We need it for plenty of things and dopamine is one of them.
happy hormones

Oxytocin

Love is in the air! But not if you’re lacking oxytocin. This hormone is known as the “love hormone” released when we experience belonging, touch, and yea love in general. Oxytocin is especially important for reproductive health and plays a role in childbirth. It’s s also responsible for the feeling of attachment between a mother and child during breastfeeding. Females tend to have a higher level of oxytocin and a reason why we easier form attachments to partners, children, or even pets.

  • Sex. It ain’t called the love hormone for no reason and sex is a sure way to boost those oxytocin levels.
  • Help others. To do acts of kindness makes our oxytocin levels go through the roof. There is indeed no selfless deed because even helping others will make you feel good.
  • Pet an animal. If you don’t have a partner to cuddle up with your furry friend will do just fine. Petting a dog, having a purring cat in your lap, or looking at an adorable bunny eating a carrot will all boost your oxytocin.
  • Good food. Foodgasms are a thing and they also increase oxytocin. Even better if you cook and eat together with someone you care about.

Endorphins

Last, but definitely not least we have endorphins, the hormone responsible to decrease pain and discomfort and make us superhuman for a while. You know that feeling of hyper-focus you get in a stressful situation? Or how you’re able to get up and walk after spraining your ankle? It’s all thanks to endorphins. You don’t need to be Edward Cullen to put a dent in cars, you just need a shit load of endorphins.

Endorphins also give us a lot of pleasure and you could call it the body’s own morphine, which is why we want to make sure to increase it as often as possible in natural ways.

  • Exercise. We can’t escape exercise. It’s simple just good for us on so many levels!
  • Laugh. When I say laugh, I mean laugh. Like from the bottom of your stomach, so much that it hurts! Laugh loud and often.
  • Dark chocolate and spicy food. Like we need another reason to indulge in some chocolate? Sign me up! Both chocolate and spicy food have a positive effect on our endorphins.
happy hormones

Take away

Happy hormones. They might have different names and act in slightly different ways, but the take-home is that they all act to serve the same purpose, and can be attained in similar ways. As the fall and darkness are approaching we should be mindful about getting daily sunlight, exercise, healthy food, and social interactions to feel like awesome sauce. To be honest, this should be a mantra all year round!

Sources

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/serotonin

https://www.insider.com/how-to-increase-serotonin

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-increase-dopamine

https://www.verywellmind.com/natural-ways-to-increase-your-dopamine-levels-5120223

https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/oxytocin/

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment