Positive thoughts and healthy diet is what your brain needs

Ever thought of giving your brain a healthy diet along with a diet of good thoughts? We all seem to be so concerned about our breakfast, lunch and dinner. But not many bother about what their brain is getting every day. As much as our body needs food and exercise for its healthy growth, brain needs the same.  Today people only care and work on their physical (outer) appearances rarely sparing a thought about their brain and its need. Though recently Art of Living sessions, yoga and meditation classes and various self-help books have entered the public space and attracted people's attention towards this bigger picture.

If the food we take in, affects our body in some adverse way it affects our brain too. Don't be mistaken that the pizza you just bit into or the soft drink you just gulped in does nothing bad to your brain as they do to your body. To enhance its working it's essential to have a balanced diet full of vitamins and minerals that nourish brain. As Dr Bharat Kanchan of Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj says, "Vitamin C is very essential for brain's development along with the ever essential proteins, Vitamins A and B, whereas glucose provides brain with all its energy to work throughout the day. Though 80 per cent of the brain gets mature by five years of age but that doesn't mean we stop paying attention to its vital requirements. All the nutritious food, be it green leafy vegetables or fresh seasonal fruits, help in proper growth of the brain. Adequate amount of sleep is as much the need of a healthy brain as a body."

We also need to know the fact that 'mental food' is as necessary for our brain as is the food we eat. The well-etched proverb "idle mind is a devil's workshop", explains the point even more clearly. It's very necessary to cultivate good thoughts in that subtle part of brain called mind every day and make it a practice. If this subtle part is at peace, balanced and full of positivity then your whole being will be at peace with the outer world. As author Robin Sharma puts in his famous book 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' that the quality of one's life is determined by the quality of his thoughts. If a person conscientiously nurtures his mind and masters it, it will blossom beyond his expectations.

Dr Udaya Yogi, once a psychology student and a Philosophy lecturer at present asks, "Can we ever forget our breakfast, lunch and dinner? Then why don't we give food to our minds to help them grow and blossom. I practice affirmations every day which has helped me a lot in my day-to-day life. Inculcating positive thoughts, practising affirmations and meditation that brings about a kind of realisation really brings along a sense of inner happiness."

So, let us take care and work for our brain (mind) which works for us even while we are sleeping. Give it a thought!