Which feeling can shrink your brain

Opt for whole grains, fruits, and veggies, which contain complex carbs that boost production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps level out your mood. When you socialize and feel supported, your body produces more oxytocin. It also has the power to reduce those pesky cortisol levels. There are a number of ways we procrastinate and recognizing them is the first step in putting an end to putting it off.

From helping medical students to furthering research, here's how donating your body can give you a second life — and save others. The relatively new psychological phenomenon known as ASMR, triggers sensations in the brain by listening to specific sounds, and it may have numerous…. Binaural beats are auditory illusions that occur when you hear different frequency sounds in different ears.

Learn how they could make it easier for…. It's easy to get stressed over the holidays. Watching frightening films can give you much more than a good scare, they can also help relieve stress and anxiety. Yes, really. They increase blood flow to skeletal muscles and decrease it to the intestines and alter blood flow in the brain. Cortisol is a steroid hormone. Cortisol increases aggression, kills your libido, and generally leaves you feeling stressed out.

Epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol are all released by the adrenal glands. These pea-sized glands sit atop each of your two kidneys. While these hormones can save your life in truly life-or-death situations, the majority of threats in our world today are all in your head. Modern life is taking its toll. Each year the APA surveys Americans to assess our stress levels.

Their survey revealed some alarming numbers. In the past month, nearly half of Americans lay awake at night worrying about something.

The body has amazing ways for adapting to its environment. Fortunately, there are simple things you can do now to start reducing your stress, reducing your risk and helping you start feeling better quickly.

Here are my top seven tried-and-true recommendations. However, even focusing on just one, two or three will make a world of difference and get you moving in the right direction. Catch some ZZZZs. Sleep deprivation puts a tremendous stress on your body, decreases your ability to think clearly and complete daily tasks and increases cortisol.

For more tips on improving your sleep, read my blog, Your Checklist to Beat Insomnia. Chill out. Practicing regular stress reduction techniques is important. Yoga, meditation, walks, prayer and reading for enjoyment can all help.

I wake up 45 minutes before everyone else in my family. This is my quiet time before the rest of the house gets up and the day gets crazy. I set a timer and read for pleasure for 30 minutes, and then take some time to write in my journal or quietly think and set my intentions for the day. Create your stop-doing list. I love learning new things from my wife, Romi , a hugely successful entrepreneur, best-selling author, and an incredible mom to our two kids.

Nourish your body. As you can imagine, you don't want your brain to prematurely shrink in size, so avoiding these habits can help your cognitive health be at its best.

Caroline Leaf , tells Bustle. Negative behaviors and toxic environments can affect the manifold functions and structure of the brain and can potentially cause the brain to 'shrink' over time. Jared Cooney Horvath , tells Bustle. To keep your brain as healthy as possible, you'll want to be mindful of these seven habits that could cause it to shrink, according to experts.

Leaf says. It is an excellent technique to help reduce stress because it allows you to reduce the feeling of being out of control. Essentially, mindfulness helps you stop jumping from one thought to the next, which keeps you from ruminating on negative thoughts. Our worries often come from our own skewed perception of events. So before you spend too much time dwelling on what your boss said during the last staff meeting, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out.

Most likely you will come up with just one or two things—not everything. The key to keeping your cool is to remember that your feelings are exaggerating the situation and the scope of the stressor is much more limited than it might appear.

To be calm and productive you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insights and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation.

Asking for help will mitigate your anxiety and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon. As simple as these strategies may seem, they are difficult to implement when your mind is clouded with stress. How do you manage stress?