That’s actually a really cool question because we often focus on the unhealthy things in the body, or when it comes to science, or medicine. But understanding what is healthy is actually quite essential as well.
I think how we define this, is that there are certain abilities we look for, that someone is able to do in their daily life. So with a healthy brain, it’s not like you should never forget things – but you shouldn’t have excessive forgetfulness. For example, you should be able to carry on your day knowing what you’re doing. So, you shouldn’t have excessive forgetfulness, and you should be able to do your motor behavior properly – which means that you will walk, you fold things, you do your daily life. You will open doors, you sit down, and then if you have to run – you run. So these are motor abilities that are controlled by the brain. So we expect someone with a healthy brain to be able to do them anytime they wish.
The cognitive part of the brain is quite essential as well, we can call this mental health, or your mood.
There are certain diseases that we call – mood disorders. So, this defines that like, of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t have any emotional changes in the day, but you should be able to have those changes. So that’s what’s why it’s important, so you can feel happy. But then if something bad has happened, you can feel sadness – then come back to your normal state.
So, these changes should be at a level that doesn’t affect your day negatively. So that’s kind of a healthy state that you’re able to feel things, change your mood, but then come back – to whatever the regular state you are. Sometimes if the regular state is leaning towards one mood, then you start thinking – maybe there might be an issue there.
Apart from that, I think cognitive and motor behavior is the main thing that we look at as a first insight. I don’t want to give such a detail saying that you shouldn’t feel any negative things because then people start thinking – oh, I feel low today – am I not healthy? It’s not like that, your day should be content within, and then you should be functioning properly. So, we can conclude that you are actually at a normal stage.
Sleeping is another important part of a healthy brain, because it’s the time that the brain shuts down, rests, and actually continues working in the background. This is why we say we should sleep, especially if we are trying to learn things, because the learning is being actually completed, processed while you’re sleeping.
So that’s another important thing – if your brain is not able to shut down, especially long term, maybe you can start thinking maybe there’s a problem there.
