Thank you for joining us for episode 475 of Live Happy Now.

It's summertime, and if your body feels like it needs a break, guess what?

So does your brain.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm joined by Dr. Henry Manka, CEO of Posit Science and Brain HQ, who is here to talk about why vacations

are so good for your brain. As you're about to find out, when you go on vacation, you're giving

your brain all kinds of ways to stay healthy and happy. And Henry is here to explain how that

works, how to make the most of your vacation, and how to keep those benefits going once you get home. Let's have a listen. Dr. Manka, thank you so much for coming and being a guest on Live Happy Now. It's a pleasure, Paula. It's so nice to meet you. Oh, I'm really excited to talk to you because this is the perfect time to talk about taking a vacation. As you know, we're in the

middle of our summer a fun promotion. We're trying to get people to have more fun this summer.

And so for anyone who's feeling guilty about having too much fun or taking a vacation, you actually

have science to back all of this up. So can you tell us what you mean when you say that our brains

need a vacation?

Our brains do need a vacation. And a lot of people think that the reason the brain needs a vacation

is it's work too much and it needs to rest. And there's a little bit of truth to that.

But the bigger truth is the brain needs a vacation because brains thrive on change. The reason we have a brain and the reason

our brain stay healthy is because our brain can adapt and learn and do new things. And a vacation,

as much as it is a little bit of a rest for our bodies and our brains, also represents an

opportunity to reset ourselves, do something new, provide some interest, some challenge, and as you said,

fun. And that's incredibly important for brain health. And so when you improve that brain health

by meeting that need, what does that mean for our physical well-being? Well, the brain and the body

are, of course, intensely connected, right? Sometimes people think about the brain as, you know,

it's our spirit and our soul and our mind and everything that makes us us. And that is, of course,

true. But at the same time, the brain is something else, right? It is a wet piece of gooey tissue that

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