YES! Living life with meaning, setting realistic goals, and maintaining your social network can improve your brain health.
Brain health includes things you can do to maximize how your brain works. Cognition is one of your brain’s main jobs. Cognition is your ability to think, learn, and remember. As we age, cognition changes and brain diseases are more common. But certain positive factors may protect your cognition and even prevent dementia. Cognitive resilience is your brain’s ability to stay healthy despite aging and disease. The strongest evidence points to three positive factors as being the most protective: well-being, self-efficacy, and social support.
Well-Being
Well-being is living life in a way that is consistent with your goals, values, and potential. Research shows that people with higher well-being have better cognition than expected. This was true even when researchers considered other factors like education, finances, and depression that can impact cognition. Some things that you can do now to support your well-being include:
- Write down a list of what gives your life meaning
- Do at least one activity each day from that list
- For example, some people find meaning through spending time with their loved ones, giving back to their community through volunteering, or attending religious services.
Self-Efficacy
Researchers* looked at many positive factors to identify which were most important for protecting cognition. First, this study showed that positive factors were associated with better cognition even when negative factors (like depression) were held constant. Next, this study found that self-efficacy was one of the positive factors most associated with better cognition. Self-efficacy is a belief in your ability to successfully carry out a task. You can do small things to support self-efficacy such as:
- Set achievable goals
- Break tasks into smaller steps
- Celebrate your success in achieving goals
- Seek support when things don’t go as well
Social Support
The same study found that social support was also an important positive factor associated with better cognition. Social support can come from a lot of places like family, friends, romantic partners, pets, and your community. Social support can vary based on the number and quality of your relationships. Social networks get smaller as we age but tend to be higher quality. Researchers found that friendships protect cognition the most. You can invest in your social network to support your brain health.
- Spend time with friends at least once a week
- Maintain a social network of peers, friends, and family
- For a triple threat that hits all three areas, engage in meaningful activities that allow you to meet new people!
Stay safe! Be well!
Those Nerdy Girls
* We’ve included the link to the summary of this paper. The full paper is not available online for free.
