Do I Know My Brain?

Brain, one of the most crucial organs of a human body. Zombies love eating brains. Luckily, I do not! Instead, I love learning about human brains. Even though it is not the largest organ of our systems, it is responsible for a majority of our thoughts, emotions, sensations, behaviours, and others.

I am reading the book "The Brain Fitness Book" by Rita Carter and find this illustration so informative and helpful for me to learn the cortex's functional area:

(Page 11- Chapter: Parts of the Brain)

Each color represents a certain function of the brain:

• Jade green: Thoughts

• Blue: Sensations

• Purple: Language

• Red: Actions

• Yellow: Perceptions

• Orange: Emotions

• Light green: Memories

• Pink: Arousal

Let's do a brief self-reflection:

After seeing this illustration, I realised that I have not reached my full potential brain capacity. What a shame! I feel horrible because I made my brain function improperly which caused the imbalances and stress. These were what happened in the past:

1. I was overthinking and obsessed with planning.

2. I was not equipped with good critical thinking skills

3. My feeling and emotions were unstable. I let anger and negativity controlled my mind.

4. I did not care about my appetite. I took advantage of eating as a stress-relief mechanism.

5. Same as tastes, I did not pay attention to my gifted olfactory bulbs, and other sensations.

6. I was too quiet that drove other people insane. I 'lost my voice' which made my brain think that my voice was 'a stranger'.

7. I did not move much, no sports and exercises. It resulted in my overweight issues and low self-esteem. What another shame!

8. I did not devote enough time and efforts to improve my linguistic skills which led to a barrier in communication, especially, presenting my ideas or thoughts.

9. My worldview and perception about things were quite limited.

10. Arousal was something I was never educated or aware of before.

11. My creativity, inspiration, energy and motivation was close to zero.

12. My memory was terrible.

What caused those signs?

The root cause was lack of self-care practices. I was not mindful about the vital role of self-care in promoting and improving my physical and mental health. It explained for my inappropriate and harmful behaviours, such as dehydration; excessively eating; lazy to workout and exercise; making excuses to avoid reading books and taking care of appearance; living in an unorganised space, allowing others' thoughts, attitudes, and emotions impacted myself; poor sleeping hygiene; spending too much time on social media, indoor; and hesitating to adopt new routines.

I believe that it is late better than never. Since then, I promised to myself that I will change my daily habits, and commit to a healthier and happier lifestyle. I highly suggest that you should spend some minutes to reflect on yourself as well. Trust me, it will enlighten you more than expected.

Reference: Carter, Rita. The Brain Fitness Book. DK Publishing. 2021. ISBN:978-0-7440-2837-9.