Sandra: Inspired to join field of neuroscience after watching non-verbal autistic 11 year old display mechanical genius 

• Dedicated to understanding, protecting and healing the brain 

"We’ve learned more in the last 5 years than all the years cumulative” - 2014 

• It typically takes 1-2 generations before scientific discoveries trickle down to make meaningful differences in our lives 

What harms the brain and what makes it work better

• Peak brain years = early 40s 

  • 7 Secrets to prevent cognitive decline: 

1. Single Task

• Brain designed to do one thing at a time

  • Increases mental productivity  

• Multitasking hijacks the “smartest engine” the frontal lobes : degrades your brain systems, lowers your mental function and increases stress hormones 

2. Inhibit information

• We are exposed to 200x more information than we were 20 years ago 

• Highest performing individuals know what to block out and what to focus on 

3. Detox Distractions 

• Science shows we work only 3mins at a time uninterrupted 

  • How can you do high-level thinking in just 3 minutes? 

4. Big Idea Thinking

• “Big idea thinking is the supreme unleaded fuel for your brain” 

• When you take in ideas from different areas, combine it with the rich knowledge you already have, and you form some generalized higher level way of thinking."

• Synthesize: How do you extract the essence of stories that you hear? 

• Interpret: Interpret the message, what does it mean? What’s the bottom line? 

• Powerhouse Transformative Communications: i.e. think about the e-mails you write, is the subject line boring, rote, something anyone could write? 

  • Come up with a transformative subject line so powerful everyone wants to read it

• And the message; Don’t just deluge information but show your deeper-level thinking 

• Big Idea Thinking makes your memory, thinking and learning most robust 

  • When you engage in BIT you increase your brain at all levels of health 

    • Brain blood flow by 8-12% 

    • 30% increase in the speed of neural connection across the central executive network (important for planning, reasoning and problem-solving) 

5. Calibrate Mental Effort

• Calibrate how much effort you’re going to spend on things 

• We spend too much time on things we should do quickly, or not enough time on things that deserve more 

  • When you’re hunting elephants, don’t waist your mental energy chasing rabbits?

    • Elephants need to be done when your brain is in it’s prime time

      • Typically the first 2 hours of the day, for most people 

6. Innovation Brain is wired to be inspired from youth through late life 

• Hates status quo 

7. Motivation 

• Always trumps talent

• One of the secrets to building motivation is using the other strategies  

• Motivation injects the brain with its most powerful neurotransmitter, dopamine

  • Dopamine in the right balance makes us happier and increases speed of learning 

You need to realize the you are the driver and you are the mechanic of the most powerful engine in the entire world.

Without brain health, you do not have health.