How to start a brain health revolution in the workplace

Mar 03, 2020

We are at the start of a brain health revolution. When we start caring about our brain health, we care about our whole body health. Our brains run everything, from organisations, to schools and colleges, to governments. When our brain works right, we work right. In today's society we are seeing an increase in the number of incidence of mental health issues, obesity, which is considered an epidemic of the 21st century, and we are seeing it in the younger generation. Worrying they are predicting that our children for the first time will have a shorter life than ourselves and I'm really not ok with that. What can we do to leave a lasting legacy for our children? Well it all starts with what sits between our two ears - our brain.

Step 1 - Define your why. Why is brain health important to you? For me I want to be there for my daughter's sixtieth birthday - I will be 102. I also want to be there to give her the appropriate tools and techniques so that she can flourish and grow in an increasingly challenging and toxic world.

Step 2 - Offer programs to boost your employees brain power and performance.  Offer your employees programs that will really help them boost their brain power and performance and reduce the 11 risk factors associated with brain health.

Step 3 - Swap alcohol and caffeine for brain healthy beverages.  This is really key, but it is a real challenge. We are talking about a brain health revolution, not transformation. Much bigger. Focus on swapping alcohol and caffeine as our beverages of choice for events and recognition for reward for brain healthy beverages. Why is this important? Because both alcohol and caffeine restrict blood flow to the brain and we know that blood flow from a brain imaging perspective is the number one predictor of Alzheimer's disease, which is also on the rise in today's society.

Step 4 - Offer brain healthy foods.  Offer brain healthy food and drink as a replacement to processed food, sugar-laden food, gluten and dairy laden food. Why? Because they are all pro-inflammatory. They all cause inflammation in the brain and body and that can lead to a multitude of different diseases.

Step 5 - Role model the way.  And I don't see this often enough - role model the way. What can you do as a leader to role model the way? This includes setting up appropriate brain healthy habits, including how you sleep, what you eat, what you do in the workplace, how you break and how you look after yourself and your employees at large.

So five steps we can take to start a brain health revolution in the workplace:

  1. Define your why
  2. Offer programs that help boost brain power and performance
  3. Swap alcohol and caffeine for brain healthy beverages
  4. Offer brain healthy food and drink as a replacement for processed, sugar laden, gluten laden and dairy laden food and drink
  5. Role model the way.

My name is Dr Ruth Mary Allan. I'm a Certified Brain Health Coach through the Institute for Better Health and the Amen University, as well as a High Performance Coach. If you'd like to find out more about how you can boost brain power and performance in your workplace, please click on the link below to register for a free consultation.

If you'd like to learn about how I can help you or your workplace, book a 30min free consultation by clicking on the link below.


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