Written by: Meghan Jarvis, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Quick and easy biohacking and ‘Mental Fitness’ techniques for 2023. If you aren't in the know and are still wondering biohacking or mental fitness is or if you are doing it right, here are my quick top five secrets to bring you up to speed in 2023!
What is optimal living?
Optimal living, at its heart, is all about finding the perfect balance in your life to help you achieve the goals you've set for yourself. It's about becoming more productive and successful and forging stronger and more positive relationships in every area of your life. Working towards continuous improvement is at the core of optimal living.
Of course, living optimally isn't something that always comes to us naturally. We must implement changes to improve our mental and physical well-being, and we can do this by utilizing certain lifestyle hacks.
What's a lifestyle hack? It's a simple change you can put in place that will revolutionize how you do things. The point of a lifestyle hack is that it's a shortcut or trick to increase your efficiency and productivity in all areas of your life.
Why are lifestyle hacks so beneficial for your mental and physical well-being? The modern world is a hectic and frantic place. We're all working harder than ever before, trying to achieve more in our working and personal lives while striving to stay fit and healthy mentally and physically simultaneously.
It's a tall order. Simplifying how we live our lives can make a huge difference in how we face the world; this is where lifestyle hacks can prove indispensable. These simple methods are quick and easy to implement but can simplify and improve how we live exponentially. You'll find that you'll soon see positive changes that ripple across all aspects of your daily life.
Are you ready to learn more about the lifestyle hacks and mental fitness you can implement in your own life? Then read on and discover five easy changes that will help you to enjoy the best possible physical and mental health every day of the year.
5 Biohacking and ‘Mental Fitness’ Tips:
1. Track Your Sleep
Thanks to the latest technology, you can access sleep-tracking functionality at home. You can now buy wearable sleep trackers that will keep track of your sleep patterns so that you can become more aware of the length of time you sleep, the stages of sleep you reach and the quality of sleep you've enjoyed.
If you're having sleep problems, a wearable sleep tracker will help you to pinpoint the cause of your sleep issues. At one time, the only option was to go to a sleep lab to get a professional assessment. Now, you can have similar functionality in your comfortable bed. With the accuracy and accessibility of modern sleep trackers, you can spot problematic patterns and improve your habits.
If you track your sleep, the greatest benefit is that you'll start to spot links between your sleep patterns and overall wellness. For example, you'll discover whether drinking coffee or consuming caffeine negatively impacts your sleep or whether the alcohol that you drink affects the quality of your rest.
By pinpointing these patterns, you can then easily choose to adopt changes in your lifestyle that will not only help you to sleep more effectively but also help you to be more productive, more fit and healthy and more positive in all areas of your life.
Enter: the Oura ring. Wearing this ring daily and to bed tracks your sleep quality and stages with research-grade sensors. Capturing all the information and storing it in its mobile app, you can see your sleep quality score, which is calculated based on your quality and duration of deep sleep, REM sleep and light sleep.
2. Drink Alkaline Water
Another useful biohack that you can add to improve your lifestyle is to drink alkaline water. This is one of the latest discoveries in the health and wellness sector, and it can easily be implemented in your life.
We all know that water is key to every tissue, organ, and cell in our bodies. However, many of us fail to stay as hydrated as we should by drinking enough glasses of water. New evidence has shown that not only do we need to drink more water, but the type of water we drink is equally important. Alkaline water is believed to be the best thing for us to drink.
Alkaline water can reduce the amount of acid in your bloodstream, boosts your metabolism, increase your energy levels, slow down the aging process, improve your digestion, and even reduce your bone loss. Some believers even say that it can starve cancer cells.
Alkaline water is an antioxidant that neutralizes the free radicals which cause DNA and cellular damage. Thanks to the smaller cluster size of the water, it can penetrate the cells more efficiently to hydrate you more effectively. Its higher concentration of alkaline minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium helps ensure better health.
If you're ready to experience the benefits of drinking alkaline water, you need to know how to get ahold of it. While you can buy bottled alkaline water in stores, you can make it home with a water ionizer. A water ionizer is a compact unit connecting to your kitchen's water supply. It carries out low-voltage electrolysis on tap water before drinking or using it in your kitchen for cleaning or cooking. If you invest in a water ionizer for your home, you can enjoy all the benefits of alkaline water daily without fuss or hassle.
3. Try Red Light Therapy
During the 1990s, red light therapy was employed by scientists for growing plants in space, and it was during this process that they discovered the intense light produced by red LEDs (light-emitting diodes) promotes photosynthesis and growth of the plant cells. It was then that red light began to be studied for its possible benefits in the world of medicine, with tests being carried out to see if RLT increased the energy in human cells to treat bone density problems, slow healing of wounds and muscle atrophy.
The benefits of red light therapy include:
Promotion of tissue repair and wound healing
Improved hair growth
Treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome
Stimulated healing of wounds that are slow to heal
Reduction of psoriasis lesions
Relief of stiffness and pain in those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis
Reduction of side effects from cancer treatments
Improved complexion and increased collagen for diminished wrinkles
Repairing sun damage
Prevention of recurring cold sores
Enhanced joint health in those with osteoarthritis
Diminished scars
Relief of inflammation and pain
As you can see, there are several reasons why you should consider having Red Light Therapy to boost your overall health and well-being.
Since RLT has shown promising results in treating several skin problems, it's well worth adding red light therapy to your regular skincare regime. If you're concerned about your symptoms, you may wish to consult your doctor first to ensure that RLT is the best option for you, but for many people, the benefits of red-light therapy make the investment in a red light-emitting device well worth it.
4. Protect Yourself from Blue Light
Screens emit blue light from laptops, smartphones and tablets and eventually cause eye strain, near-sightedness and dry, itching eyes. Even worse, blue light affects the cellular anchors and the retina and can cause Advanced Macular Degeneration at a younger age. Some experts have even linked obesity to melatonin disruption and the development of some forms of cancer. Finding ways to avoid excessive blue light exposure is, therefore, essential.
Some manufacturers of devices are now recognizing the harm that blue light can cause us and are starting to develop new technological solutions to resolve the problem. Blue filter covers are available for purchase for VR goggles, mobile phones and laptops. Some devices have now integrated "evening modes" into their design which filter out the blue light when you use your device in the evening hours to limit your exposure.
Of course, the obvious solution to the blue light exposure problem is simply to avoid using any device during the evening or night. Smartphones and tablets should be kept out of the bedroom, and for several hours before bed, we should steer clear of any device usage. Unfortunately, this isn't always practical or even desirable. So, how can we avoid the issue?
The answer could be to invest in a pair of blue-light protective glasses. These are designed with an HEV (high energy visible light) filter built in. These allow you to use your devices whenever you like without any worries about exposure to blue light impacting your sleep patterns.
5. Lastly and Most Important ‒ Get More Active
We all know we should get plenty of physical exercises to stay in peak physical and mental shape. However, regardless of this widespread knowledge, many of us still aren't getting the recommended amount of activity daily or weekly. The following vital biohack to add to your life is adding more exercise daily. How can you achieve this when you're on a tight schedule?
Sedentary lifestyles are defined as a way of living where you don't do enough physical activity regularly. The current recommendations by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) are that we should all do at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise daily. Walking around 10,000 steps daily is recommended as the optimal goal to improve your health and reduce the possible health risks resulting from inactivity.
Traditionally, we are led to believe that eating healthily and doing some aerobic exercise can offset all the effects caused by spending excessive time sitting down. However, evidence now shows that if you exercise for half an hour a day, you still may be unable to mitigate the potential damage. The best solution appears to be to reduce the amount of time spent sitting down and increase the amount of time we spend moving every day.
Finding ways to counteract the negative impact of a sedentary lifestyle is imperative. Still, luckily there are several biohacking changes you can implement to improve your health, fitness and wellness.
How Can I Get More Active?
We all know that preserving our physical health should be a top priority, but we're also busier than ever before in our lives. With responsibilities such as caring for children or elderly parents, demanding jobs and hectic social life, we're all under pressure at a frantic pace. Of course, the most obvious way of getting more active is to go to a gym or set aside an hour every morning or evening to work at home. However, realistically, this just isn't possible for some people.
Many people are intimidated by going to the gym, and finding the time to fit physical activity into a daily regime can be virtually impossible. Therefore, finding ways to become more active while exercising regularly is the best solution.
6 simple hacks to be more active
Switch to a standing desk rather than a regular one. Office workers feel tied to their desks for much of the day, but if you change to standing rather than sitting, you'll find you're less sluggish and stiff when your working day ends. Standing uses a lot more muscles when compared to sitting, and evidence has shown that standing up every 30 minutes and moving around can reduce your chances of dying early. Even better, it promotes better posture, reducing tiredness and stress while encouraging better productivity and steadier breathing. Suppose you'd like to take things a step further. Why not switch to a treadmill desk instead? This will help you stay a lot more active while you work, and you can walk or jog simultaneously as you carry out your essential work activities.
Take the stairs rather than the elevator. Walking up an incline is better for you than walking on a flat surface, so choose the stairs for maximum benefit when getting active. Evidence shows that your cardiorespiratory fitness will improve if you climb the stairs just three times weekly. Your leg muscles will become stronger and burn more calories for easier bodyweight maintenance.
Add simple exercises to your work routine. If you don't have enough hours to hit the gym, add some muscle workouts to your daily regimen. Doing squats while at your disk or dips on your office chair won't take much effort, and it can help you to improve your overall fitness and wellness. You can even add small changes, such as balancing one leg while brushing your teeth or doing modified push-ups against your countertop while microwaving food to improve your health.
Ditch the car. Instead of driving to work or the store, try biking or walking instead. You'll find that it will bring you mental and physical benefits.
Use a resistance ball instead of a regular chair. Whether at work or home, switching your standing chair for a resistance ball will help automatically straighten your spine, improve your posture and encourage you to stretch and move more often. You can even do some small exercises at the same time, such as modified sit-ups to engage core muscle strength.
Take short walks during the day. Instead of vegetating at your desk during your lunch break, take a quick walk around the block instead. Just a ten-minute walk daily can give you positive mental and physical benefits. A workout doesn't need to take an hour. Just 10 or 15 minutes of physical activity offers benefits, too and will not only get your heart pumping but will also help you to improve your mental wellness.
Getting more active is another excellent biohack that costs you nothing. By simply getting up and walking more during your working day, choosing to walk rather than driving or taking the bus and using the stairs rather than the elevator, you can increase your overall fitness level, help yourself to maintain healthy body weight and even give your mental health a much-needed boost.
How Do I Take Action Today?
Although it may sound challenging to change your life for the better, you can see from these five simple biohacks that it needn't be difficult to turn your life around for the better. Begin by making one change, and then, over time, you can start to make more changes until you've finally achieved optimal health and wellness.
When you feel fantastic every day, you'll be glad you started biohacking your life!
Meghan Jarvis, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
A former World Class BMX bicycle racer, Meghan came to Australia to play professional basketball and stayed as a lead lecturer at the Australian Institute of Fitness. Meghan's passion for fitness and entrepreneurialism led her to found WellCorp Health and Wellness and Buzvil, a global health and fitness app. She most recently appeared as an actor and stunt woman in the new Blockbuster 'Elvis', the Portable Door, Aqua Man and has been a 'Ninja' on Channel Nine's Australian Ninja Warrior. She is also the head of Total Gym Fitness Equipment Australia, Suspension Training and Altitude Training International Master Coach, making her an authority on peak performance and an international speaker. Her experiences as an athlete, educational portfolio (Masters of Education and Coaching Science, Kinesiologist, Sports Scientist), entrepreneurial ventures, and enthusiastic character have shaped her as a formidable leader in health and fitness. She believes strongly in the importance of redefining and bridging the gap between physical and mental health. Meghan has guided many people to achieve complete personal breakthroughs and phenomenal mind, body, and business growth.
