NINE WAYS TO USE AI TO ENHANCE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH WITH AI TECHNOLOGY

May 4, 2023

In today’s AI-dominated world, an array of gadgets significantly alters our life experiences. These computers replicate themselves, learn autonomously, and exhibit creativity. Positively, AI expands our communication and knowledge spheres, fostering deeper friendships irrespective of distance, granting easier access to specialized healthcare, and enabling more family time. We access globally sourced goods to create custom-lit bedrooms and utilize devices that manage household tasks, from ordering food to baking bread. Our searches cater to personal interests. Research indicates that 400 social media data points form a highly accurate user portrait. However, this technological support can diminish analytical thinking and impact neural health. While AI broadens possibilities and connectivity, it’s crucial to balance its advantages with potential drawbacks, preserving our cognitive abilities and well-being.

Here are nine safe ways to enhance your life and neural network with the use of AI technology:

◻Curate your cognitive space, hire out with AI Technology

In the realm of cognitive demand and time limitations, the brain has a finite amount of reserved energy to carry multiple things in our conscious stream of thought.  For this reason, when we have too many streams of responsibility running simultaneously, our attention and performance may be compromised in one or all of them.  A quick rule of thumb is that if you can pay someone else less than you make per hour to complete a task that you do not enjoy, it is prudent to do so unless the task brings enjoyment or stress relief.

Outsourcing tasks with AI technology that do not bring joy or learning to our lives allows us to reserve our cognitive space and energy for activities that encourage enrichment or demonstrate our unique value. This may include:

• • • Website editing and system enhancement and optimization
      • • Online shopping to grocery selecting and pickup
      • • Meal curation packages
      • • Curated wardrobes
      • • Automatic photo curation
      • • Online notarization of a document
      • • Document editing
      • • Scheduled emails or mailers for key holidays
          •     Virtual business development.

If enacting the task does not enhance personal or professional life, perhaps it is best to offload it to enhance productivity.

◻Rev up your memory by revving the gas

Ever missed an exit due to weak wifi or lagging map directions? Can you navigate sans the map app? If these scenarios made you hesitate, it’s time to consciously attend to your routes. Mindfulness, or paying attention, holds immense significance. Firstly, staying present reduces overthinking and fosters peace. Secondly, the hippocampus, governing navigation and memories, aids in processing stress alongside the amygdala. Exercising this brain region enhances memory and information processing. Test yourself: use the map app to reach a place, then navigate back home without it. Practicing this can bolster your spatial memory. Strengthen your navigation skills and mind’s clarity by exploring routes without relying solely on technology.

Being able to visualize a route and make your way from point A to point b without AI technology like Waze or google maps is incredibly beneficial for your brain!

◻Energize your brain with diverse play

It has become common knowledge that regular mental stimulation is imperative to overall brain health; what is less widely known is that the specific type of activity does not necessarily generalize to full brain health.  We must create tasks to exercise each area of the brain; often a task can activate multiple areas at the same time, but rarely all areas at once.

Problem Solving and the Frontal Cortex- The frontal and prefrontal cortex are the parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, stress management, impulse control, and personality.  Analytical and  problem solving games are most specifically designed for frontal activation.

Words and Patterns and the Temporal Cortex- The temporal cortex is the portion of the brain that houses language, rhythm, music, and patterns.  Language games such as crossword puzzles and rhythm based games can be particularly activating for the temporal cortex.

Hand-Eye Coordination and the Parietal and Occipital Cortex – The parietal cortex is the part of the brain that orchestrates the sensation and movement of the body.  The occipital cortex is the neighboring brain area responsible for processing visual input.  The act of moving, hand-eye-coordination, and physical activation help hone these brain areas.  Pokemon go, or other interactive games can be quite effective at orchestrating brain health in these areas; at a smaller level, any games that require fast response may further aid in this process.

It is important to remember that all exercise is best in moderation. Set a timer when playing games or streaming content and play a diverse array regularly.  Critical analysis is a key way to maintain brain health; however, skillsets are not generalized, so as you play scrabble, you are working out the verbal part of your brain while playing candy crush may activate the spatial part of your brain.  Using a variety of games can keep the brain active and healthy.  Setting a timer can help assure that you get the neurological stimulation distraction, or dopamine hit that optimizes your brain function without falling into the dead zone of lost hours or getting to sleep too late.

◻Capitalize on dopamine hits with and without AI technology to fight the blues

Got the blues? Activate your feel-good neurotransmitters with the curated use of Social Media or quick rush games like CandyCrush.  If you are having a rough day, a quick game or social media scroll can give your brain a quick boost of dopamine.  This quick surge of the feel-good neurotransmitter can help rewire your general mood or provide distraction from rumination and worry.  Use it as a brief burst and log off. 

Remember, dopamine hits can become quite intoxicating and difficult to disconnect from.

If we are anxious when we aren’t connected, the device is disrupting sleep or work, or you feel you go online constantly, you may have developed an unhealthy connection to it.  Social media, (facebook, snapchat, tiktok, instagram), make money when you remain connected and have thus strategically designed it to be difficult to put down.  The prolonged overuse of social media reduces the brain’s ability to produce feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin from real life experiences. If you note that it is problematic set a timer, but here are some great ways to ramp up the feel good chemical:

• • Try connecting through other forums that allow for the natural flow of connectedness, text, call, or in-person meetings.
  • Take a 30 day social media free challenge
  • Delete the apps, so that logging in is a prolonged process
  • Utilize the quiet options in the social media system

◻Use social media as a self-reflection tool.

If you looked at your facebook or instagram profile, would the online “you” truly represent the person you feel you are? If not, why not? Are you presenting what you assume others would enjoy or are you omitting the parts of yourself that are most salient to your personality?

Learn about yourself, your motivation, social norms, and values by what you have presented.  Give yourself permission to shift it or limit what is available to the public and start from here, if the way you portray yourself does not match who you truly are, recommit to yourself.  If you are editing based on the audience, rethink your virtual crowd.  Unlike the highschool yearbook signing days, you are not required to say yes to every invitation to publicly link with others and, in fact, it is probably better you don’t.

Want to learn more about the function of the brain and how to make life a little easier when our brains operate slightly different from the norm? Dr. Martin would be a wise selection of therapists to consult with.