Are there specific activities that can foster greater levels of resilience in a grieving brain?

Jim KwikFounder, Kwik Brain · Brain Coach

How to deal with grief 🖤

18 Jun 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

A Dutch study found that mild cognitive impairment was linked to more severe, prolonged grief. Grief triggers a physiological stress response: elevated heart rate, blood pressure, and higher stroke risk. Relaxation techniques, exercise, walking, and yoga help the nervous system recover during grieving.

Questions this video answers

While neuroplasticity is crucial—evidenced by a Dutch study linking mild cognitive impairment to more severe, prolonged grief—grieving also raises heart rate and blood pressure, increasing stroke and heart attack risk. Therefore, giving the body a break through relaxation, exercise, walking, or yoga helps the system become more resilient.

Chapters

Are there specific activities that can foster greater levels of resilience in a grieving brain?
While it is very clear that neuroplasticity is important, and probably the small piece of evidence I can tell you about that is in a study of older adults that was done in the Netherlands, they found that people who had more mild cognitive impairment tended to have more severe grief and it tended to not improve. In the way that we would expect. But it does suggest to us that brain health is important when we are grieving. And we know people's heart rate goes up, their blood pressure goes up a little bit. They're at increased risk for things like stroke and heart attack. It's really important to give our body a break. So finding ways to relax, to exercise, going for a walk, taking a yoga class, finding ways for our body to get a break, it gives our system a chance to be more resilient.