How Healthy Is Your Brain?

With everything under attack by tech, 2019 is the year to future proof your mind for the modern world.

- Lucy E. Cousins

CHANGE THE CONVERSATION The first step, says neuroscientist and author of The Women’s Brain Book, Dr Sarah McKay, is to stop “demonising” technology. She believes technology can be very positive in the way it connects people, allows us to work efficiently and can even have a positive effect on our mental health.

“A huge part of what we know, in terms of keeping people mentally healthy, is making them feel useful and engaged and purposeful,” she explains. “So, if you’re reading emails [and using technology], then you’re staying cognitively engaged and it’s intellectually challenging. And that’s good news for your brain.”

However, she says, if you feel that you literally don’t have the “capacity” to switch off the technology in your life, then that can then become an issue. “So, while there’s many great things about modern life, it sometimes displaces some of the things that we still need to be doing.” Essentially, if your use of technology is stopping you from having calm in your life and preventing you from the stress-busting and stress-buffering activities we should all be doing as a counterbalance to our tech-full lives, then it’s time to help your brain cope.

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