Gema García Marcos
Updated Wednesday, February 14, 2024-00:47
Train your brain Train your brain to transform stress into eustress with Ana Ibáñez
Train your brain How to 'reprogram' our brain to get rid of the obsessive thoughts that make our lives bitter and keep us awake
"Something that greatly defines our quality of life is the
quality of the thoughts we have
. I like to say that
we are the thoughts we have
. If our thoughts are positive, constructive and optimistic, we will have a constructive and optimistic life during the that we will be able to do many more things," says
Ana Ibáñez , director of the
Mindstudio
centers
.
Maybe, after reading this first paragraph, we are invaded by that (negative) thought that this neuroscientist is 'inviting' us to put a good face on bad weather and that's it. In other words, to practice that
'positive thinking'
that, as is said so much out there in a rather 'naive' way, will end up attracting the good things that are to come. Like that, without further ado.
But no,
Ibáñez goes, fortunately, many more steps further in his argument
: "How can we ensure that more positive thoughts and fewer negative thoughts come to us (because thoughts come and go)? One of the key things is to know that
"Our thoughts are directly related to the quality of energy we have.
That is,
if we have positive energy, we will have many more positive thoughts
."
Why is this happening? "Because our brain, to connect the areas that allow us to spin positive thoughts, needs more energy.
For our brain, it is more complicated to set in motion the gear of positive thinking, which uses the prefrontal cortex, than that of negative thoughts
."
What Ana Ibáñez says would perfectly explain that mental storm that invades us on those days when we feel exhausted. "When we have
slept poorly or neglected our diet
, it is easier for us to arrive exhausted at the end of the day and to be invaded by negative thoughts, because
our brain does not have enough energy to generate positive thoughts and uses the little it has to encourage our negativity
."
What do we do, then, to get out of this loop of horror? "The first thing we have to do is be aware that
recharging ourselves with energy will ensure that we have many more positive thoughts
. This is something that all of us experience, for example,
after playing sports
since, although we are physically tired,
our brain has more energy
and increases your ability to produce more positive thoughts.
In addition to exercise, what other activities can we carry out in our daily lives to give our brain the energy it needs to 'fly'? "After
listening to good music
, we will have more positive thoughts. After
eating well
, we will have more positive thoughts. After
enjoying a good conversation,
we will have more positive thoughts. Being aware of all this will do that, little by little, we can define how all these thoughts invade us in our daily lives," concludes Ibáñez.
Ana Ibáñez
is a chemical engineer, neuroscientist, director of the Mindstudio centers and author of 'Surprise your mind' (Editorial Planeta).