Signs That Your Brain Is in Good Shape

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Mental, behavioral, and motivational issues are all possible manifestations of neurological abnormalities. Unfortunately, the physical roots of these problems—like toxin accumulation in the brain—make it impossible to heal them by treating them at the behavioral or psychological levels.

Much of the self-help literature, including the claims that one must learn to regulate their emotions and ideas, strikes me as wanting and even harmful. Our brains will work smart enough to make such well-intentioned counsel meaningless if we fix the issue physically. When we stop politicking and start acting in accordance with our desires, our brains will take care of the rest.

These days, we live in a world that is rich in chemicals, so our brains absorb these pollutants over time. Unfortunately, the air we breathe is seriously contaminated. We have contaminated water. We eat contaminated food. We have contaminated our bodies.

This is just the way things are in today’s world. Hundreds of harmful elements, including plastics, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, and more, are already present in your body in measurable quantities. Our bodies are teeming with contaminants because we inhabit a dirty world. Like sponges, we absorb environmental pollutants. Toxins accumulate, especially in the brain, since our bodies, despite our best efforts, are unable to eliminate them quickly enough.

Toxin buildup in the brain often has a slow and, at first, insignificant impact since the brain is a tough organ. We are likely unaffected by the occasional malfunction of a single neuron. However, neurons may malfunction or die in large numbers if the toxic burden is too high.

We experience mental, emotional, and behavioral distress when neurons fail to function properly. Dementias like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are prevalent outcomes of neuronal loss. These conditions are clinically identical; nevertheless, the location of neuronal loss varies among the diseases. The memory centers are impacted by Alzheimer’s disease. The motor cortex is affected by Parkinson’s disease.

Something is seriously amiss with your brain if you get Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. However, the activation of these disorders does not occur overnight. Their deterioration was gradual and painstaking.

For a long time now, I have been dedicating a lot of energy to detoxifying and have experimented with many diets and cleaning methods. I’ve documented the effects on my brain of major life transitions in diary entries. I haven’t cut up my head to see what’s inside, but I have scrutinized my disposition, drive, prevailing ideas, capacity to solve problems, sleeping patterns, relationships, and more.

Even after making certain modifications to my diet, such as following a macrobiotic regimen for a few months, I felt the same. The impact of other alterations was both immediate and significant. Being vegan for twenty years or more is only one example of how certain lifestyle changes seem to have a snowball effect. Because of all the experiments I’ve done, I’m now very aware of how my habits affect my connection with my brain.

To further my understanding of the brain’s inner workings, I have also dedicated the last few years to reading widely in the field of neuroscience. Because of this, I am more aware of the way my brain’s architecture influences my emotions, ideas, and actions.

One advantage is that I’ve become better at recognizing when a client’s symptoms are more indicative of a physical than a psychological issue. As a result, there are now very efficient physical remedies to illnesses that have no psychological basis, such as completing a series of 30-day detoxification cycles using chemicals like liposomal glutathione.

The Bond Between You and Your Brain

A problematic connection with my own brain was common when my diet was heavy in toxins (animal products, fast food, and plenty of processed food). I would act hastily. I often slept in since I struggled to rise and shine in the morning.

The self-destructive, high-stimulation events I had placed too much importance on. I was involved in criminal activity on a regular basis. I used to party a lot. It was tough for me to have faith in myself. It took courage just to go outdoors, since I probably would have done something foolish or hazardous if I hadn’t planned beforehand.

Staying home and playing video games was the most secure option for me. Even though I had stolen most of them, I still had over a hundred game cartridges.

Well, I felt fortunate. My behavior changed for the better once I found a way to detox for the long haul, which I nearly stumbled onto. I started eating healthier after enrolling in a nutrition class. I made running a daily habit. I transitioned from being a vegetarian to a vegan. Additionally, those behavioral issues vanished. At last, I felt like I could manage my own life.

I got particularly interested in the correlation between food and conduct after reading that a study indicated that 80% of issues associated with juvenile delinquency may be remedied by completely eliminating processed sugar from a child’s diet. It seemed reasonable to assume that what I put into my body may influence my brain and, by extension, my emotions, attitudes, and actions. However, I assumed this impact would be small and unimportant.

Caffeine and alcohol, for example, had a noticeable effect on my brain whenever I drank them. As a stimulant, I could also detect the effects of chocolate when I focused. “Regular food” must have been completely apolitical, however, right? How significantly would it impact my brain if it had an effect on my body as a whole?

I used to think of my mind as something distinct from my actual brain, much like a lot of other people. My mental experience seemed to be an objective fact of life. The only thing on my mind was myself. Although I may have had a short-lived effect from coffee or alcohol, it didn’t alter the general public’s view of me.

It wasn’t until I tried to detox my food and subsequent efforts to remove even more pollutants that I started to see the enormous and indisputable correlation between my mental performance and brain health. My mental life took a dramatic turn after participating in several of these trials. More and more shifts started to occur as I continued down this road.

Allow me to describe some of the differences between having a healthy brain and one that is less healthy. My own experiences and the accounts of others who have talked about their detoxification processes have an influence on this.

Concentration and Paying Attention

Toxic effects on the brain manifest first and most visibly as problems with attention and concentration.

A foggy or mushy mind is one possible symptom of this. The mind isn’t very good at what it sets out to accomplish, like writing an essay. Some of your internal circuits aren’t working. Nothing is coming to mind. There is a lack of inspiration. When you try to focus on your job, it’s like trying to think your way through mushy oatmeal.

When writing, have you ever hit a wall? A well-functioning brain is very imaginative and free of writer’s block. My only experience with writer’s block in my twelve years or more of blogging has been during intense detoxes. For a short period of time, your blood may seem dirtier than usual as toxins begin to exit your tissues during detoxification. During the detox process, this could cause significant mental fogginess.

However, brain fog is a significant indicator that your brain is suffering from a buildup of toxins, especially if you’re not detoxifying. Assuming your brain is in good working order, all you have to do to sit down and start writing is instruct your brain to do it. Within your own brain, there is a supercomputer with 87 billion neurons. Is it really your belief that it cannot generate a stream of text that matches, if not exceeds, your typing speed? If you’ve poisoned it enough, then only then.

An increased susceptibility to distraction is another symptom of this deterioration. Even if you sometimes manage to intelligently trigger the required circuits, the suppression circuitry seems to be going offline, causing your mind to wander and diverting you from the ideal focusing point.

Each neuron (brain cell) in your brain may communicate with as many as 10,000 other neurons via extensive networks. An excitatory subset of these cells is responsible for activating other neurons in the nervous system. On the other hand, certain neurons (inhibitory neurons) provide messages that inhibit activity. The network sends activation and suppression signals to each neuron, and neurons activate when the intensity of an activation signal surpasses a certain threshold.

Brain toxins may short-circuit these synapses, resulting in the misfiring of neurons. So that it doesn’t just shut down when malfunctions happen, the brain contains sufficient redundancy to fix little mistakes. The deterioration caused by accumulated pollutants is so gradual that you won’t even realize your thoughts are progressively being distorted. Within a month of completing a rigorous detox program, however, you may find that your concentration and attention have greatly improved.

When I started experimenting with my food, for example, by going raw for a while, I noticed significant shifts in my mental performance. My writing pace increased dramatically after just a few days of going raw. It seemed like I had more mental RAM to think about complicated things, and my mind became calmer and clearer than ever before.

Eating just raw foods would allow me to create articles at a 30% quicker pace. I wanted to know what was going on and how to secure greater mental performance after that. Although I still consume a high-raw diet, I have discovered ways to get even greater outcomes that do not include eating raw foods exclusively. As I sit here and write, I’m enjoying a refreshing green smoothie.

In contrast to a healthy brain, which is stronger at focusing and blocking impulses to alter direction, a sick brain is readily sidetracked. Keeping focused on a single activity for a long period of time has a calming and reassuring effect. The suppression circuitry is functioning normally, so although the temptations to divert myself may sometimes come, they aren’t as intense as they once were.

Scientific imaging of the brain has shown that, in preparation for potential input, our brains are always activating various patterns. Even if it’s just happening subconsciously, the very sight of the word “bear” triggers mental images of the animal. Preloading related patterns into your brain is an ongoing process while you read this content.

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When they aren’t required, the brain normally swiftly suppresses these patterns, but in a sick brain, the suppression circuitry doesn’t operate properly, so the mind often wanders into these preloads. Imagine trying to read an online article without being sidetracked by the first or second link; as a result, you end up spending much more time on the original piece—if you get to complete it at all.

Self-Discipline and Inspiration

One sign of brain misfiring is when different regions of the brain aren’t working in tandem to comprehend ideas. Conflicts like this manifest in several ways; for example, wanting something but acting in a manner that won’t bring about that end; wanting to do something but lacking the drive and self-control to make it happen; or wanting to be joyful but experiencing negative emotions instead.

Do you know what it’s like to have big ideas but put them off until later? Are you prone to doing things in a random fashion that won’t lead to something worthwhile in the long run? Does it seem like there’s a disconnect between your desires and the activities your mind suggests? Are you hindered by bad emotions?

Is it your belief that your brain’s contradictory behavior is an evolutionary adaptation? After the mammalian brain has evolved over millions of years, isn’t it logical that humans should have similar difficulties? Not at all. The ability to effectively coordinate one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions was crucial to the survival of one’s ancestors. There is a continuous line of survivors from whom you have inherited the ability to succeed. Every one of them had offspring.

A significant enhancement to your brain’s capacity for internal synchronization is one of the most potent advantages of detoxification. After experimenting with 30-day intense detox programs, I saw a marked improvement in the coherence of my wants, my behavior, and my emotions. Getting my actions to match my goals used to require a lot of self-improvement on my part.

There has been a substantial improvement in this alignment over time. The pendulum has turned, and now I don’t need external reinforcement to do the right thing. These days, I find that I’m doing things that help me reach my objectives without even realizing it, and I often find that I complete tasks before I consciously resolve to do them.

With each step forward, I can see how my efforts are complementing one another to get the intended result. I can relax and enjoy the ride without worrying about overthinking or forcing myself to accomplish anything. My brain not only gives me desires, but it also gives me the means and the will to fulfill them.

Compared to the alternative, which is to continually battle yourself whenever your emotions and actions don’t match up with what you want, this is a very different way to live. Maybe it’s not a mental issue but a physical one if you’ve been struggling with consistency and drive. Maybe your brain is smarter than you think, but it can’t function properly due to the toxic overload that causes so many neurological misfires.

Addiction is more likely to develop in a brain that is not healthy. A more robust prefrontal cortex, present in a healthy brain, is able to overcome the temptation to become addicted. Your internal sense of discipline will increase in proportion to the number of addictions you successfully overcome.

A sense of better inner peace is one of the outcomes of detoxification. Following this road has deepened my admiration for the human brain and its remarkable capacity for intelligence and coordination, provided that we restore it to its original state. Living in harmony with one’s thoughts is much different than dealing with discord.

Setting Priorities

Your capacity to set priorities originates in the emotional, survival-oriented regions of your brain. No amount of reason can tell you which is more pressing: brushing your teeth, finding a new romantic partner, or launching a company. Many contemporary demands are at odds with the evolutionary trajectory of our prioritizing circuitry, making it all too simple to confuse these pathways. A little poison may ruin them severely, leading you to place too much importance on little things and too little on what really matters.

By ingesting coffee, I may degrade my prioritizing circuits. After a shot of espresso, I tend to become too preoccupied with meaningless activities, and I end up wasting hours on them. My mind is always racing to keep itself occupied, but it fails to see the forest for the trees when it gives me tasks to do. For these and other reasons, I’ve decided to abstain from coffee for a whole year. Caffeine impairs my ability to set and stick to sensible priorities. Even if caffeine makes me faster, I’ll end up going in the wrong direction very quickly.

Consistency is the outcome of well-functioning priority circuitry. The ability to maintain focus and perseverance over extended periods of time will serve you well in achieving your long-term objectives. Compared to aimlessly bouncing between ideas without ever committing to one for an extended period of time, this is undeniably more fruitful.

Psychological Stamina

I’ve always been able to keep my mind sharp and focus on difficult tasks for long periods of time. However, my endurance spiked to even greater heights after extensive cleansing. These spikes were initially quite haphazard. Though that wasn’t always the case, there were days when I’d breeze through twelve or more hours of creative labor. However, these outbursts have become more frequent the farther I’ve gone down this road, and they may last for weeks at a time.

You may get more done in less time if you have high mental endurance. There are fewer obstacles that require you to pause and think critically, and you can get through them with fewer sessions or pauses. For the coaching program that will be offered in the spring, I have just finished writing a 16,000-word design document. As I saw, my subconscious essentially composed the text.

I really like this upgrade. The coaching program is only one of many lofty objectives I’ve set for myself and am working hard to achieve as a result. As a result, I am experiencing the fulfilling sensation of my talents finally matching my aspirations.

Social Ease

Feelings of shyness, nervousness, or anxiety in social situations are more common in those with damaged brains. Because toxicity interferes with your ability to interact socially, you may find that you retreat from others.

Incongruent feelings and unproductive actions are two ways in which toxicity hinders sociability. Discomfort, worry, or a desire to isolate yourself replace pleasant emotions like friendliness, extroversion, and self-assurance. If your body language doesn’t show that you’re engaged and open, other people could think you’re distant or uncaring.

Making friends is less of a struggle when you’re mentally and emotionally stable. If, instead of misfiring into pathways of fear or anxiousness when you’re among other people, your brain creates happy sensations naturally, then socializing becomes much simpler.

Why on earth would your brain ever put you in a state of anxiety while you’re in the company of other people? Is it smart to isolate oneself and cut off all social support? The majority of these actions lack intelligence. A brain that malfunctions often produces similar behaviors.

Some argue that our fear of strangers stems from an innate biological response to the possibility that they pose harm. There could be some very dangerous scenarios to think about, but why would our minds create such irrational fears when it’s so obvious that we’re not in danger? To others, it seems like a relic from the early stages of human cognition. In part, I agree with it.

Our brains’ natural fight-or-flight response is a lifesaver in certain extreme circumstances, but if we’re partly activating it when it’s not needed, it’s because our older, less developed brain regions aren’t in sync with our more evolved, contemporary ones.

In benign circumstances, the brain ought to be repressing parts of the fight-or-flight reaction. When it’s working well, it does inhibit those superfluous emotions. Your brain is very perceptive; it can tell when something isn’t dangerous and make you feel safe and secure.

If your own mind is tricking you into acting in ways that are counter to your values, then improving your social skills will be an uphill battle, no matter how hard you try. If you try to be more socially courageous but then back off, you’ll only end up retreating more. However, the abnormally high levels of poison in your brain are the only reason this seems to be your default.

Maybe you’re not even sure that you need social bravery. Perhaps what you really need is an innate capacity for empathy, openness, and connection in your brain. The brain of a healthy person accomplishes this without conscious thought. In fact, a well-functioning brain may initiate social interactions even before you consciously decide to do so.

Actually, if you want to, you can work on both fronts at the same time. While you’re doing it, you may clean out your head and focus on developing social bravery. I went that way, but I really believe that detoxification would have helped me reach my goals more quickly.

Talking becomes less of a chore when your brain is in good shape. You could find that you have more pleasant things to say, and you’ll become more in sync with the other person, striking a good balance between speaking and listening. Recently, I’ve been feeling more present, attentive, and comfortable during our in-person gatherings, which has made them more enjoyable for me than before.

Toxic environments may quickly affect your desire to interact with others. I didn’t feel like interacting with others throughout the 30-day detox that I underwent in January of this year. People who asked to meet up that month didn’t hear from me until the following week. Those get-togethers in February were a delight, however, since I started to feel much more sociable as I neared the end of the detox.

My mind creates less anxiety and reluctance in social circumstances in relation to the amount of effort I put into maintaining my internal cleanliness. I went through a phase when I was more of an extrovert and less of an introvert; my Myers-Briggs type changed from INTJ to ENTJ.

In the present moment, I don’t think I fit neatly into either category; I am equally at home in both the introvert and extrovert camps. While I’m completing a detox cycle, however, my introverted side comes out in full force.

Try Some Enhanced Self-Awareness

You may take action to stop the deterioration of your brain circuitry if this article makes you more aware of the possibility that it is happening. It usually takes a long time and a lot of patience for things to happen. But I believe it will be well worth your time. Seeing your mental acuity improve with each passing year is unquestionably preferable to the alternative. There are some similarities to the pill scene in Limitless.

You really have to be there to believe it, in my opinion. A brief period of mental clarity gained from a cleansing might be a useful benchmark for measuring how well your mind functions when it’s operating at peak efficiency. This served as my primary source of inspiration.

During a 7-day green smoothie detox, a 17-day water fast, and a few days of consuming just raw foods, I saw a marked improvement in my mental clarity. Additionally, following a 30-day juice fast, I had a prolonged period of enhanced emotional and mental clarity.

As I continued to explore cleaning, I felt closer to these transcendent higher levels, and I began to question if it was really feasible to bring my everyday experience closer to this ideal. Still, I feel like I’ve already surpassed the older standard in certain respects. Because mental purity allows for ever-increasing peak performance, perfection is not a static goal but rather an ever-evolving one.

Although some people report sudden insights when cleaning, this is by no means universal. Your toxicity level and the extent to which a short-term cleanse may reduce your toxic load are two factors to consider. Trying to taste a new peak could be worth a shot, in my opinion. In that case, there’s a 50/50 chance that your brain isn’t operating as well as it seems and that the way you’ve been describing it as normal is really a diseased and deteriorated state.

Some obstacles may arise along this road. While you’re detoxing, you might make some foolish choices. Like Bradley Cooper in Limitless, who loses his drugs while in a peak state, you could make choices when in a peak state that you can’t really implement.

It may be especially disheartening when you slip a bit, and you might have to adjust to a broader range of mental abilities. The road to detox isn’t always easy and consistent for the majority of individuals. In most cases, much trial and error spanning many years is required.

When I quit eating meat in 1993, I unknowingly began my journey. I failed to see the significance of that step at the time. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that the high concentration of heavy metals like lead and mercury in fish makes it one of the most poisonous meals humans can eat.

Even more effective were being vegan, trying out raw foods, drinking filtered water, and going through numerous rounds of intense detox like the ones Josh Macin described. Last year in London, I had the pleasure of meeting Josh at a conference. His incredible journey from mental and emotional disorder to wellness is really remarkable.

Ignoring this critical route in today’s world would be a huge mistake, but it isn’t simple either. There is no escaping the toxic overload in our food, water, and air. We’re unable to escape its influence on our thoughts since we’re now steeped in it daily. If we want to reach our full potential as human beings, we have to do something to stop, or at least mitigate, the harm.

Decline and subsequent difficulty in altering your trajectory are directly proportional to the amount of time spent on the default route of toxicity. A cleaner, purer diet and regular detoxification sessions started while you’re young will pay dividends throughout your life.