Brain Relationships

This month in the US we celebrated Valentine’s Day and I started thinking about a book I read recently: The Brain in Love by Daniel Amen, MD.  Amen’s book focuses on what happens to the brain when we’re in love and the importance of sex and relationships for healthy brain functioning. There is also information and advice that is relevant to us when we're at work. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), which I’ve mentioned before, is the executive functioning center of the brain. It helps us to organize and plan, to make judgments and decisions, and to control our impulses and learn from our mistakes. When it’s working right, Amen says, “we are thoughtful, empathic, expressive, organized, and goal oriented.”  He calls it “the Jiminy Cricket part of the brain that houses our conscience and our ability to stay on track toward our goals.”  So when it’s not working as well as it should, it can cause us to make poor decisions, be impulsive, disorganized, lack insight, be easily distracted, and have poor time management skills. What I really appreciated about his book is that Amen gives practical advice for creating better working brains. He points out that poor functioning in the PFC can be related to a deficiency in dopamine, a key neurotransmitter, which can be increased with medication or supplements. Other methods he offers include eating a higher protein diet, aerobic exercise, engagement in stimulating activities, using exercises and tools that help in planning and goal setting, and coaching — getting the help from someone who can hold you accountable and keep you on track and who can help you reflect on and pay more attention to your core values as well as your goals. Having a healthy PFC will enable you to develop the relationships you need at work because with a healthy PFC you will be able to listen more thoughtfully to others, focus your conversations, and think before you speak, so that what you say supports the achievement of goals while constructively expressing your feelings and empathizing with others.