By Daniel Amen, MD
[Excerpted from
Change Your Brain Every Day]
Your brain is involved in everything you do, including how you think, feel, act, and interact with others. Your brain is the organ of intelligence, character, and every decision you make.
Your brain creates your mind. It is the hardware of your soul. Your brain creates anxiety, worry, or a sense of peace. It stores traumatic events that continue to hurt you long after they’ve stopped, or it processes them for any important lessons to learn. Your brain focuses your attention on relevant material or on meaningless distractions; feels sadness or happiness; creates a healthy and a sick reality; and remembers what’s necessary to make your life better and discards what’s not.
THE BRAIN IS AN ORGAN
In 2020, Justin Bieber released his docuseries
Seasons, where he told the world I’ve been his doctor. Fame is very hard on the brain, and it happened to Justin so early and so intensely that I’m happy he survived and is now an amazing young man. Before Justin came to see me, he had been diagnosed by another physician with bipolar disorder based on his symptoms alone, but his SPECT scan showed his brain had been hurt.
I remember one day when he came into my office and said, “I think I understand what you’ve been trying to tell me. My brain is an organ just like my heart is an organ. If you told me I had heart disease, I would do everything you said. I am going to do what you say.” By focusing on both brain and mental health together, he has continued to do well.
THE BRAIN’S RISK FACTORS
Your brain
is an organ, just like your heart, lungs, and kidneys are organs. Yet most people who see cardiologists have never had a heart attack; instead, they are there to prevent them. I anticipate a day when psychiatrists will act in a similar way, when they will know the brain’s risk factors (BRIGHT MINDS) and address each of them in their patients as soon as possible. The 11 BRIGHT MINDS risk factors are:
B is for Blood Flow
R is for Retirement/Aging
I is for Inflammation
G is for Genetics
H is for Head Trauma
T is for Toxins
M is for Mental Health
I is for Immune System/Infections
N is for Neurohormone Issues
D is for Diabesity
S is for Sleep
To have a better mind, you must first work to optimize the physical functioning of your brain.
In Change Your Brain Every Day, psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist Daniel Amen, MD, draws on over 40 years of clinical practice with tens of thousands of patients to give you the most effective daily habits he has seen that can help you improve your brain, master your mind, boost your memory, and make you feel happier, healthier, and more connected to those you love.
If you want to join the tens of thousands of patients at Amen Clinics who have already learned how to change their brain every day and have a better life, speak to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. 
