June is Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month: The Intangible Things That Nourish Your Brain

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June is Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month: The Intangible Things That Nourish Your Brain

Every June, Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month brings a welcome surge of information about how to protect our brain health. You'll find plenty of excellent resources this month about the MIND diet, physical exercise, sleep, and cognitive engagement — and we'll be sharing some of those with you in this newsletter, because they genuinely matter.

But today I want to talk about something a little different. Something less quantifiable, but no less important. The quiet, everyday moments that tell your nervous system — and your brain — that you are safe, at ease, and alive in the best possible way.

What Are Glimmers?

Clinical social worker Deb Dana, in her work with polyvagal theory, gave us a beautiful concept she calls "glimmers." Glimmers are fleeting, everyday micro-moments that spark joy, safety, or calm. They are the direct opposite of stress triggers. Rather than activating a fight-or-flight response, glimmers gently signal to your nervous system that all is well.

A glimmer might be the smell of coffee in the morning. The way light falls through a window at a particular time of day. The sound of a familiar voice. The feeling of soil in your hands. These moments are small, often easy to overlook — but they are doing something real and meaningful in your brain and body.

Why This Matters for Brain Health

Chronic stress is one of the most significant threats to long-term brain health. Sustained elevated cortisol — the primary stress hormone — has been shown to damage the hippocampus, the brain region most critical for memory formation. It contributes to inflammation, disrupts sleep, and over time can accelerate cognitive decline.

Glimmers work in the opposite direction. Moments of genuine joy, safety, and calm activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the body's rest-and-restore mode. They lower cortisol, reduce inflammation, support healthy sleep, and create the neurological conditions in which the brain can repair, consolidate memories, and function at its best. In this sense, tending to your joy is not a luxury. It is brain care.

Finding Your Glimmers

The most important thing about glimmers is that they are deeply personal. What signals safety and joy to one nervous system may mean nothing to another. Part of the work — and it is genuinely worthwhile work — is figuring out what your glimmers actually are.

For me, some of my most reliable glimmers are spending time with someone I love, someone I've known for decades, where the comfort of that history is its own kind of medicine. Planting flowers and watching them grow. Reading a good book on my porch on a quiet afternoon. These aren't grand experiences. They're small, accessible, and available to me most days — if I choose to make space for them.

That last part is the harder piece. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that these kinds of moments are rewards — things we get to do once the to-do list is finished. But here's the truth: the to-do list will never be finished. There will always be one more thing. If we wait for everything to be checked off before we allow ourselves a glimmer, we will wait forever.

Sprinkling Glimmers Into Your Days

The research on positive emotion and brain health suggests that frequency matters more than intensity. It's not the occasional vacation or big celebration that sustains us — it's the small moments of joy and calm woven consistently into ordinary days. A few minutes on the porch. A phone call with someone who knows you well. Pausing to actually notice the flowers rather than rushing past them.

This month, I'd encourage you to do two things. First, take a little time to identify your own glimmers — the specific, personal moments that make your nervous system exhale. Second, make a quiet commitment to stop treating them as optional. They are not a reward for productivity. They are part of how you take care of your brain.

When You Need More Support

At Shore Neurocognitive and Behavioral Health, we provide psychotherapy and psychiatric medication management for adults age 20 and older across a wide range of concerns — including anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and the very real emotional weight that comes with caring for a loved one with dementia or another serious illness. Whatever you're navigating, our team is here to help.

We also offer cognitive baseline evaluations — and if you have memory concerns or a family history of dementia, this is something I'd encourage you to look into. A cognitive workup doesn't have to be intimidating. Ours are efficient, informative, and designed to give you a clear picture of where things stand. Results are delivered in plain language, with care and compassion, so you leave with real understanding rather than confusion or anxiety. Getting a baseline early means that if anything changes over time, we have something meaningful to compare it to — and that information can make a real difference.

If you'd like to learn more about our cognitive services or any of the care we provide, we'd love to hear from you. Visit us at snhealth.net or give us a call at 443-746-3698. You don't have to figure it out alone.

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