Autumn healthy habits
The summer holidays often bring us in beautiful natural environments that make us marvel at things, have fun, concentrate on one thing at a time and recharge batteries. Why not bring all these good habits into your life back home?
As the summer goes away, our body starts adapting to the changes in nature: cooler temperatures, decreasing daylight, new colours, and smells. Autumn is a season where the summer gives way to a symphony of reds and golds blending gracefully with the delicate scents of the earth.
A wonderful time for long walks and reflection on the habits we further want to build on.
Keeping vitality, energy and brain activity high
Vitality is at the core of our well-being at work and in our private life. Our body has the wonderful capacity of regenerating, providing we help it with some practices. Exercising, sleeping well, eating healthy food, and having fun are drivers that contribute to feeling good.
Recent studies show that sustaining these habits with regular contact to natural environments, such as viewing and walking in nature, greatly help to promote positive emotions, heightening physical and mental energy [1].
Along these lines, neuroscientists also discovered that our brain, far from only losing neurons, keeps producing new ones our life long. Professor Pierre-Marie LLedo, Head of Neuroscience at Institut Pasteur in Paris, determined 5 key factors that keep the neuronal production going [2]:
- Making regular physical efforts
- Preserving our capacity to marvel
- Reducing stress from the urban environment (such as noise and visual pollution)
- Cultivating frequent social interactions
- Avoiding chronic consumption of psychotropic drugs (e.g.; antidepressants)
In addition, they found that keeping the flow of your thoughts or tasks uninterrupted strongly contributes to the vitality of your brain. So, whether at work or at home, you should avoid too much multitasking and keep your energy focused.
Enjoying the bursting smells and lights of the autumn season while walking in a park or in the woods certainly is a wonderful way to be in the moment and reconnect with our vital energy.
“Mens sana in corpore sano – A healthy mind in a healthy body.”
– Juvenal (Roman poet)
[1] Dr. Eva Selhub, Alan C. Logan: “Your Brain on Nature”, Harper Collins (2012).
[2] Pierre-Marie LLedo, Jean-Didier Vincent: “Le cerveau sur mesure”, Odile Jacob (2012).
