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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.
Your brain is an organ, just like your heart, lungs, and kidneys are organs.
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 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.
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 and address each of them in their patients as soon as possible. The MINDS risk factors are:
To have a better mind, you must first work to optimize the physical functioning of your brain.
