Brain Changes Initiative

Inside your brain are specialized immune cells called microglia, constantly scanning for problems, clearing debris, and helping keep your neurons healthy.

These cells can become activated long before you ever feel “sick.”
Researchers are learning that poor sleep, chronic stress, inactivity, and consistently poor diet can influence how these cells behave over time.

That doesn’t mean every moment of brain fog or low energy is caused by neuroinflammation—those symptoms have many possible causes—but it does highlight just how connected your daily habits are to your brain.

It’s great to know that many of the same habits that support your heart also support your brain:
- Prioritize quality sleep.
- Move your body regularly.
- Eat a nutrient-rich, minimally processed diet.
- Find healthy ways to manage stress.

None of these have to be perfect.
Your brain responds to what you do consistently.



Sources:

- Asimakidou, E., et al. (2025). The metabolic engine of cognition: Microglia–neuron interactions in health, ageing and disease. Nature Metabolism.
- Charisis, S., et al. (2024). Diets to promote healthy brain ageing. Nature Reviews Neurology.
- Gao, C., et al. (2022). Microglia in neurodegenerative diseases: Mechanism and potential therapeutic targets. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.
- Jiao, H., et al. 2024). Microglia, circadian rhythm and lifestyle factors. Neuropharmacology.
- Strohm, A., et al. (2024). Physical exercise regulates microglia in health and disease. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
- Godos, J., et al. (2024). Relation between dietary inflammatory potential and sleep features: Systematic review of observational studies. Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism.

One of the things that surprised me most during my recovery from a traumatic brain injury was how therapeutic cooking became.

At first, it was simply a way to make healthier meals because I wanted to give my brain the best possible nutrition.

But over time, I realized something else was happening.
Every meal challenged my brain.
Planning recipes.
Remembering ingredients.
Timing everything perfectly.
Problem-solving when something didn’t go as planned.
Staying present instead of rushing.

Without realizing it, cooking became another form of cognitive exercise.
It’s also one of the most powerful activities that naturally combines several pillars of brain health at the same time.
- You’re choosing foods that support brain function.
- You’re challenging memory, attention and executive function.
- You’re practicing mindfulness by slowing down and focusing on one task.
- You’re creating something from scratch.
- And if you share it with people you love, you’re strengthening one of the most important factors for long-term brain health: social connection.

I still enjoy experimenting with new recipes today for the same reason.
For me, cooking isn’t a chore.
It’s one of the healthiest things I can do for my brain.



Sources:

- Kim, Y., et al. (2025). Impact of diverse dietary patterns on cognitive health: Cumulative evidence from prospective cohort studies. Nutrients.
- Farmer, N., et al. (2018). Psychosocial benefits of cooking interventions: A systematic review. Health Education & Behavior.
- Mills, S., et al. (2017). Health and Social Determinants and outcomes of Home Cooking: A systematic review of Observational Studies. Appetite.
- Yantz, C. L., et al. (2010). Functional cooking skills and neuropsychological functioning in patients with stroke: An ecological validity study. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
-World Health Organization. (2023). Social connection as a determinant of health.
Haslam, C., Cruwys, T., Haslam, S. A., et al. (2023). Social connectedness and healthy ageing: A review of the evidence. Nature Reviews Psychology.

What if I told you that one brain network quietly shapes your mood, your confidence, your relationships, and even your future?
It’s called the Default Mode Network (DMN).

Most people have never heard of it, yet it’s active whenever your mind turns inward—when you’re remembering the past, imagining the future, talking to yourself, or simply letting your mind wander.

This is where your inner narrative lives.
Sometimes that narrative helps you solve problems, dream big, and connect the dots in creative ways.

Other times, it can trap you in endless loops of self-criticism and rumination.

The goal isn’t to “turn off” your Default Mode Network.
The goal is to train your brain to move flexibly between reflection and the present moment.

That’s one reason mindfulness and meditation can be so powerful—they don’t eliminate thoughts, they help you stop getting carried away by every single one.



Sources:

- Menon, V. (2023). 20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis. Neuron.
- Sanz-Morales, E., et al. (2024). Advances in the fMRI analysis of the default mode network: A review. Brain Structure and Function.
- Mirir, E., et al. (2024). Functional connectivity in rumination: A systematic review of magnetic resonance imaging studies. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology.

Every time you meet someone new, your brain begins building an entirely new network of connections. It links their face, voice, name, emotions, personality, and the context in which you met into a single integrated memory.

The hippocampus helps create the memory.
Face-processing regions recognize who they are.
Language areas associate their name.
Social brain networks begin predicting how they’ll think, behave, and relate to you.

Every future interaction strengthens that network.
The more meaningful your conversations become, the richer and more efficient that neural representation grows.

This is one example of social neuroplasticity—the brain’s remarkable ability to continuously reorganize itself through our relationships.

In other words:
Every person you truly get to know literally leaves a trace inside your brain.



Sources:

- Okuyama, T. (2024). Concept cells and social memory: The abstract representation of familiar individuals. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
- Kovács, G. (2020). Getting to know someone: Familiarity, person recognition, and identification in the human brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Have you ever bought a new car... and suddenly it felt like everyone else owned the exact same one?

Or learned a new word and started hearing it everywhere?

Neuroscience calls it selective attention.

Your brain is flooded with an incredible amount of sensory information every second. If it tried to consciously process all of it, you’d never be able to focus.

Instead, it relies on powerful filtering systems to decide what deserves your attention.

One of those systems is the Reticular Activating System (RAS), a collection of nuclei in the brainstem involved in regulating arousal, wakefulness, and attentional filtering. It helps determine which information reaches conscious awareness.

Working alongside it is the Salience Network, which continuously asks:
“Is this important?”
If something is emotionally meaningful, relevant to your goals, novel, or potentially threatening, your brain gives it priority.

This also explains why your mindset matters.
If you’re constantly focused on everything that’s going wrong, your attentional systems become increasingly tuned to detect problems.
Your brain isn’t manifesting bad things into reality, it’s just becoming more efficient at finding what it’s been trained to prioritize.

On the flipside, when you intentionally look for progress, opportunities, learning, or gratitude, you’re helping shape what your brain becomes better at detecting over time.



Sources:

- Dosenbach, N. U. F., et al. (2025). The brain’s action-mode network. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
- Menon, V. (2023). 20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis. Neuron.
- Taran, S., et al. (2023). The reticular activating system: A narrative review of discovery, evolving understanding, and relevance to current formulations of Brain Death. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal Canadien d’anesthésie.

Every heartbeat sends information back to your brain. Your breathing, gut, muscles, and other organs are constantly doing the same. Your brain combines all of these internal signals with what’s happening around you to build your moment-to-moment experience.

Scientists call this interoception—your ability to sense what’s happening inside your body.

One of the brain’s key hubs for this process is the insula, which acts like an internal dashboard, helping your brain monitor your body’s condition and use that information to guide attention, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

This doesn’t mean every emotion comes directly from your heartbeat. But it does mean your brain is never working in isolation. Your thoughts and your body’s signals are continuously shaping each other.

This is one reason practices like mindfulness, slow breathing, and heart rate variability biofeedback may improve emotional regulation— because they help your brain interpret your body’s signals more effectively.



Sources:

- Feldman, M. J., et al. (2024). The neurobiology of interoception and affect. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
- Wang, R. L., et al. (2024). The Coding Logic of Interoception. Annual Review of Physiology.
- Zhang, R., et al. (2024). The Insular Cortex: An Interface Between Sensation, Emotion and Cognition. Neuroscience Bulletin.
- Lazzarelli, A., et al. (2024). Interoceptive Ability and Emotion Regulation in Mind–Body Interventions: An Integrative Review. Behavioral Sciences.
- Wareing, L., et al. (2024). The Utility of Heartrate and Heartrate Variability Biofeedback for the Improvement of Interoception Across Behavioural, Physiological and Neural Outcome Measures: A Systematic Review. Brain Sciences.

Have you ever felt amazing after eating something sweet only to feel anxious, irritable or completely drained a few hours later?

This is your brain responding to rapid changes in your blood sugar.

When blood sugar rises quickly, your brain gets an immediate reward signal through dopamine. But if it crashes afterward, your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline to bring blood sugar back up—and those same hormones can make you feel anxious, restless or on edge.

Of course, anxiety and depression are incredibly complex conditions with many biological, psychological and social contributors. Blood sugar isn’t the whole story—but growing evidence suggests it’s one factor that’s often overlooked.

You don’t have to eliminate carbohydrates, but there are some strategies we can use to slow down the blood sugar spike they produce in our body.

Content credited to the excellent article by Dr. Mary Scourboutakos published in The Conversation. Thank you, Dr. Scourboutakos, for helping translate emerging nutrition science into practical information for the public.



Sources:

- Firth, J., et al. (2019). The effects of dietary improvement on symptoms of depression and anxiety: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychosomatic Medicine.
- Kwon, M., et al. (2023). Risk of depression and anxiety disorders according to long-term glycemic variability. Journal of Affective Disorders.
- Gangwisch, J. E., et al. (2015). High glycemic index diet as a risk factor for depression: Analyses from the Women’s Health Initiative. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
- Ludwig, D. S.,et al. (1999). High glycemic index foods, overeating, and obesity. Pediatrics.
- Swami, V., et al. (2022). Hangry in the field: An experience sampling study on the impact of hunger on anger, irritability, and affect. PLOS ONE.
- Kopp, W. (2009). Chronically increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system: Our Diet-related “evolutionary” inheritance. The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.
- Scourboutakos, M. (2024, August 20). Blood sugar fluctuations after eating play an important role in anxiety and depression. The Conversation.

Nature gives your brain a chance to recover.

Research shows that spending time in green spaces can improve mood, reduce mental fatigue, and help restore attention after hours of screens, emails, and constant stimulation. Even brief exposure to nature may make a difference.

One thing worth mentioning: you’ll often hear that negative ions are the reason nature feels so good. The science is still evolving. While there are some promising findings, the strongest evidence supports the overall experience of being in nature—not any single factor alone.



Sources:

- Liu, S., et al. (2025). Effects of urban green space on human cognition: A systematic search and scoping review. Urban Climate.
- Bell, C. N., et al. (2025). The relationship between nature exposures and attention restoration, as moderated by exposure duration: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
- Fu, Yu., et al. (2025). The effect of the natural environment on cognition, mood and stress in adults: A systematic review. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
- Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
- Perez, V., et al. (2013). Air ions and mood outcomes: A review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry.