Read the full transcript of psychologist Dan Banos’s talk titled “8 Principles To Achieve Optimum Mental Health” at TEDxRockhampton on Jul 21, 2015.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
DAN BANOS: Thank you kindly. You are right. I would like to thank you first of all for allowing me to introduce to you a passion that I have and allow me to introduce a concept that we call, and you might have heard before, called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the capacity the brain has to be able to adapt based on what we do. So you and I have the ability to change some of the structures our brain has and also to change some of the processes.
I’m excited about this concept because the reality is that this concept is the basis for achieving an optimal mental health, and these eight principles or habits that I’m going to encourage you to do will be challenging, will be out of the ordinary, but I believe it will provoke you, and it will allow you to visit people and share these concepts, but it will also do something very important, which is what was mentioned just earlier. It will allow you to visit people like me less, and that is something good, believe it or not.
So these eight principles, I don’t only believe in them and practice them, but they are evidence based. And so I would like you to, if you can, pay attention to this, so that maybe take one or two or three and practice them when you get out of here.
Principle #1: Nutrition
Principle number one, it’s a very simple one, it’s the principle of nutrition. Nutrition is an important thing, and allow me to share with you something that some of you might know, some of you might not know.
There was a man by the name of Dan Buettner, he teamed up with people from National Geographic, and the mission was to find out a group of people, or people around the world, who can demonstrate that they can live healthier physically and mentally. These are people who the norm was to achieve 100 years or older. So as soon as they found them, they named these zones around the world, Blue Zones, and they found nine characteristics.
I won’t share them with you, but I would like to share one, which is related to this concept. One characteristic was that centenarian cultures and centenarian groups of people have the basis of their diet as beans. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I have an advantage in there, I’m originally from Mexico, and Mexicans have a lot of beans. I’m not 100% sure I will live to 100, but I’m hoping I will, because like I said, I believe this and I practice it.
What they have found is that people who live more than 100 physically, and who are physically and mentally able, above the average, also only consume flesh or meat products only five times a month. It shouldn’t be a surprise, because even just recently, maybe a couple of weeks ago, the National Council of Australia, who talks about dieting, has re-modified the pyramid. I don’t know how many of you saw it, but at the bottom, the greatest amount of it is plant-based. So the message is go plant-based. And that’s what they found these societies have embraced.
Principle #2: Exercise
Principle number two shouldn’t be surprising. Principle number two is exercise. Now what we have found is that exercise is a matter of life. We cannot achieve an optimal capacity if we don’t become active.
There is a lot of research that I could share with you, but allow me to perhaps believe, get out of here and perhaps research it, that exercise alone can have a great contribution on the diminishing of symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s very simple. You exercise and you generate endorphins, good, happy chemicals.
You exercise regularly, and you will also generate the production of a neurotransmitter in your brain called serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. All of these are related to depression, Parkinson’s disease, and also Alzheimer’s disease. So to actively participate in exercise will definitely contribute to achieving an optimal mental health that will set you and the community above the average and will reduce visits to people like me.
Principle #3: Water
Principle number three, that will be water. Water is so important. 70% of our bodies are made out of water. 80% of our brains are made of components that are water. That’s a high percentage. So it shouldn’t be surprising, again, that to achieve an optimal mental health, we need water, perhaps more than what we utilize.
Now, let me share with you something. There are certain chemicals that we can only achieve by eating food, certain types of food. We already talked about food. We didn’t go into specifics, but there are certain foods that we can consume.
One of the certain types of food produces something or gives you something called tryptophan. Tryptophan is a substance that, if it reaches the brain in good proportions, will allow you to secrete more serotonin. So tryptophan is the raw material that the brain needs to produce serotonin.
And you might be thinking, well, what does that have to do with water? You’re talking about food now, and I’m confused. Well, allow me to share with you why water is so important. The reason why it’s so important is because water is one of the elements that allow these things that you consume and these nutrients to travel to the brain.
The key is simple. The formula is simple. The more water, the more tryptophan goes to the brain, the more raw material we have to generate serotonin, and the happier you become.
Some of the things that water can give you is a great clarity in your mind. But some of the things that it could give you, if you lack intake of water, is a reduced ability to be happier.
People who do not consume enough water become more frustrated. They have less clarity of mind. And then it will affect, as a default, your mental health performance.
Principle #4: Sunshine
The next principle is sunshine. I will keep this one simple. We need the sun, and there are three reasons that I can share with you why we need the sun, or at least a couple.
One is, if we allow ourselves to intake sunshine on a regular basis, you can actually achieve a greater level of sleep. Your sleep will be increased, it will be standard, and you will feel refreshed next time. That, by default, will increase your capacity to learn, to memorize, and to concentrate.
It’s very simple. Sunshine, as well, believe it or not, can also have an impact on the level of pain that you might have physically. If anybody here, or if anybody in the community has some pain, sunshine can decrease the level of pain that someone has. It’s amazing what sunshine can do, if taken in the right amount.
Principle #5: Temperance
Let me show you the next principle. This is a principle that is very important. Temperance. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard these words. Not many people have, but allow me to share what this means.
Temperance implies that we are to create and practice in our lifestyle schedule a balance. A balance that will set you up above the average. What that implies is we need to make sure that we allow ourselves to introduce certain habits and behaviors that will provoke and will allow you to have a better mental health performance.
You might be thinking, well, can you explain a little bit more? Let me share with you something. Our societies are run in such a way that we tend to take something that is bad and make it good. And sometimes, unfortunately, we take something that is good and make it bad.
One example is something that happened in the 1950s. In the 1950s, someone realized, I think smoking is related to lung cancer. So what people did in the 1950s is they introduced what we call the filtering cigarette. Because the power of the cigarette was related to lung cancer. Today we continue to know that smoking is one of the greatest causes of disease and death in our society. So it didn’t fix it.
Another thing that we know that is harmful and we tend to embrace it is the use of alcoholic beverages. Australia reported in 2011 to 2012 that 19.7%, that’s a reasonable percentage, 19.7% of relationship breakups, of interpersonal relationship breakups, occur as a result of an alcohol-related problem. And that doesn’t account for a psychiatric condition. That’s a high percentage.
What alcohol can do to us is it can impede our frontal lobe cortex that allows us to make good and sound decisions. Research has shown us that consuming such substance increases our likelihood of cheating between 30 to 50 percent. Funny that, because a lot of the time when we do business, there is…
Always something like this involved. So we kind of need to prepare ourselves, instead of breaking a good deal. But I’m not saying that everybody who does that is cheating, but the research and the numbers, that’s what they indicate.
Another harmful substance that decreases our mental capacity and our ability to deal with things such as depression and anxiety is coffee and caffeinated drinks. Caffeinated drinks stress our nervous system, and they stress us so much they can increase the level of depression or depressive symptoms, and also the level of anxiety.
So what temperance is, we need to learn how to abstain from certain things that might be harmful, and perhaps utilize certain things that are good for us with a measure. It’s creating a balance, and I think the picture describes that. It’s creating a balance in our lives. It’s not only about what you drink or eat. It’s also about what we do in general. If we work too much or too little, it can perturb our performance. Or if we play too much and too little, it can also have an impact on our performance.
The Importance of Fresh Air
Another principle is air. I would like to share with you a story, which is perhaps an incredible story. In 1919, in Eureka, California, a hospital was facing a great epidemic of flu, and it was getting out of control, so much that the chief physician said, “I think we need to call the army, we don’t have space.” So the army came, and they brought tents, coats, and some blankets. And so the overflowing hospital patients who were getting the infection were placed in these tents, and the only thing they had apart from the blankets were hot water bottles to keep their feet warm.
What they found is that the people who were in the tents were not dying, compared to the people that were in the hospital. Once someone realized what was happening, they turned down the heaters in the hospital, opened the windows, and put heavy underwear on the patients, and the death rate diminished.
The key today is to spend time outdoors. When you think about it, many of these things are interrelated with each other. If you exercise, unless you go to the gym, and that is okay too, but if you exercise outside, you get that air that you need to have.
Scientifically, it just makes sense. You get oxygen, and oxygen cleanses your blood. The blood is the same blood that will come to your brain, and we want to create the best environment that we can have in our brain, in our systems, to be able to create those happy-feeling neurotransmitters.
The challenge is to spend time outside, and in our homes, open the windows, let the sunshine in and let the air do what it was intended to do, do what it was created to do.
The Power of Rest
The next principle is rest. I would like to emphasize something here. We live in a society that is very outcome-driven. Unfortunately, we live in a society that indicates that for us to be able to succeed, we have to achieve the greater goal of whatever position you might be having. It’s a society that says, I have to put the top-level man or woman down so that I can be that person eventually, and that creates a lot of stress.
We live in a society where we expect many people, many children to succeed to the top they can, and we should expect such things, but sometimes we push so much that we lack the amount of rest that we should have.
One of the things that we know is that the idea that staying later at night is better because I achieve better is a fallacy. It’s nothing else but a self-deception. Some of you, and I had lived that too, before I got to know about these principles and practices. Some of you will have thought, “I stay late at night because I seem to achieve a lot more in the middle of the night.” It’s amazing, but research shows otherwise.
A group of people were taken and exposed to an overnight, an all-nighter party kind of thing. No alcohol, no substances. The key isolated factor was: keep them awake for as long as you can. And then the next day, they took a critical thinking test. They were compared to a control group of people who slept eight hours in the night.
The results will be quite interesting for you to know, and I’ll share them with you now. You will be expecting this: the eight-hour sleep control group performed better in the test of critical thinking. But the next thing you might not be thinking of, the all-nighter group performed worse, but they had a perception that they did better. And then another test, a self-reported, self-reflective test, showed that they not only had a perception that they performed better, but they were more confident in their work. While the other people that slept nicely the night before performed better, they were less confident, but the results spoke for themselves.
Rest can give you mental clarity, can help you to remember and memorize things clearer, and enhance your ability to be creative, to think objectively and analytically. Rest is an important thing that we must not forget if we want to achieve optimal mental health and go above the average.
Trust and Community
The last principle is trust. There is an author in the 1900s who said that the greatest need of this world is that of people who stand for the truth as the needle of a compass to the pole. It is the need of the world to have people who stand strong to principle even though the heavens fall.
It’s quite an interesting concept, might be a bit poetic as well, but today it’s very hard to develop trust in many things. When you think about it, I talk about rest, and we have that tendency to want to achieve the ladder of success, and for that sometimes we have to put someone else down. So it’s hard to trust many people.
But what these investigators found, in terms of the people who live long, healthier and happier lives, is that they have three things in their lives:
One, they have people they love close by, and they invest in that.
Number two, they also have an amount of time that they spend with people who are like-minded. People like you, who have been here to talk about like-minded things and perhaps different ideas to enhance our community.
And number three, they also showed that they met with regularity with those people that they resonate with.
So number one, they got the parents, grandparents and children close by. Number two, they met together. As a matter of fact, the research goes deeper and they found that people who have some kind of faith and gather together at least four times a month have a likelihood of reaching a higher expectancy of life of 14 years. In simple words, people who gather and have some similarities in faith four times a month, they can expect to live 14 years longer. That’s just research.
I appreciate the presentation before that talked about the meaning of life and just having a meaningful life and knowing what your life is. Knowing what you wake up every morning for can give you seven years, seven years extra.
I would like you to think about this because today, even though it’s hard to believe in people and society, we need to achieve a sense of trust. This New Start model goes beyond and emphasizes the idea that we can achieve a level of trust in a superior power. You can call it God or you can call it whatever you desire. Something that gives you a sense of purpose. What we have found is that it decreases anxiety, increases motivation and gives you a happier life.
Taking Action
Let us just summarize because you might forget what these are. New Start: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance, Air, Rest and Trust in divine power.
Today my challenge for you is to pick three of these. You can do it even today and tomorrow. One, go to your GP, your friendly GP in town and say, “GP, what can I do to exercise safely? Do I have any conditions that will impede my exercises?” And if you don’t and…
Number two, don’t wait too long. Let’s network after here, but don’t wait too long to go to bed. Try to do eight to nine hours of sleep, if you like to sleep, once in a while.
And number three, make commitments. Get those people you love, those people that you embrace, get a sense of purpose and make a commitment.
Conclusion
Today New Start is something that I challenge you to practice and if you want to practice and achieve a higher, an optimal mental health, a high capacity, this can be yours today. You don’t have to go to a psychiatrist. You don’t have to go to a psychologist unless you have a condition that needs that professional input. But otherwise, you can achieve a higher capacity that will set you above the average. Thank you.
