between Someday and blursday is grati-day

Today, I am thankful for my brain and remembering to care for it through practicing daily gratitude. 

Daily gratitude is a conscious practice of taking a moment, each day, to recognize the positive. At least once a day, write down, think or talk about what you are thankful for and appreciate. 

Mindful gratitude is a healthy choice for the brain because of the complex relationship between mood and physiology. Gratitude lists can change your focus and allow you to “let go” of a perceived slight or problem, which may lower cortisol levels. Cortisol, a stress hormone, in prolonged, heightened amounts, is toxic to brain cells.  

Getting older? Let's look at a positive. 

Whatever your relationship with anxiety in your youth, it may begin to mellow in midlife, when people tend to begin accentuating the positive. The amygdalae, two almond-shaped parts of the brain that are involved in processing emotions, especially those associated with basic fight or flight reactions, start to react less to negative stimuli. Thus your ability to regulate emotions increases in middle age and this allows for increased emotional stability. Humans, for survival reasons (Is it a stick or a snake?), are hard-wired to notice the negative over the positive, but brains increasingly recognize the positive, beginning in midlife.