During the Covid-19 pandemic, brain doctor Daniel Amen says “mental hygiene” is just as important as washing your hands.
As a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist for more than 30 years, Amen says being on lockdown and dealing with the spread of coronavirus can lead to “unhealthy thinking patterns,” which could have detrimental long-term effects.
So Amen, the author of books including “Change Your Brain Change Your Life,” says the absolute worst thing people can do during this time is “to believe every stupid thing they think.”
“We call it killing ‘ANTs,'” Amen tells CNBC Make It.
ANTs are “automatic negative thoughts” that come into your mind and try to ruin your day and throw you off balance, Amen says.
“[I]f you watch the news too much, you’re loaded with an automatic negative file,” he says.
To combat such thinking, Amen created some daily, simply techniques to help decrease negative thought patterns and improve brain health.
In fact, he uses them himself.
Dr. Daniel Amen
Courtesy: Dr. Daniel G. Amen
Here’s a look at Amen daily routine to boost mental health while self-quarantining.
Morning positivity
Like most doctors, Amen believes in making sleep a priority, especially during a pandemic. So he sticks to the same sleep schedule, going to bed at 10 p.m. every night and waking up at 6:30 a.m.
But he says the most crucial part of his morning routine, is what he does as soon as he opens his eyes in morning.
“I say to myself, ‘Today is going to be a great day.'”
It sets up his mind to look for what’s going right in his day rather than what’s going wrong, he says.
10,000 steps
As the founder of a chain of national brain health clinics called Amen Clinics, the doctor’s day consists of multiple conferences calls.
But Amen makes it a point to never sit down during calls. Instead, he walks and talks.
Each day, Amen says he makes an effort to get in at least 10,000 steps. And he does is not only for exercise but it’s also good for brain health, he says.
When a person is standing or walking, the brain showers itself with a growth factor called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, essentially a protein for the brain), which helps the brain thrive, neuroscientist Rahul Jandial told Make It in July.