Date of Publication:
Body as a Trust: Investing in Long-Term Neurological Health for a Fulfilling Life (Dunia & Akhirat)
I recently found myself saying this more often:
The best gift you can give your children is your own health.
Because if—or when—you lose your health, what would you want for them?
Would you want them to be filial, sacrificing their own lives to care for you?
Or would you rather they live freely, even if it means leaving you to struggle on your own?
There is no easy or “correct” answer to this.
Perhaps that’s because it is not the right question to begin with.
A better question is this:
Why are we not striving harder to preserve our health in the first place?
We are living in an era of abundant information. Most people already know the basics—eat well, sleep well, exercise, manage stress.
And yet, knowing is clearly not the problem.
Despite this awareness, modern lifestyles have become increasingly sedentary. In fact, physical inactivity has been described as a global pandemic, contributing significantly to chronic disease and premature death. A landmark paper published in The Lancet (2012) estimated that physical inactivity is responsible for over 5 million deaths per year worldwide, placing it among the leading risk factors for global mortality.
So the issue is not knowledge.
It is how we apply it—and what we choose to prioritise.
Which brings us to something we often overlook:
What does all of this have to do with neurological health?
In a world where we like to break problems into parts—heart health, gut health, skin health—we sometimes forget the system that connects and controls them all.
Your brain is not just another organ.
It is your central processing system.
Your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion—these are regulated automatically through your autonomic nervous system.
Your ability to wake up, make decisions, move your body, maintain balance, coordinate your actions—all of it depends on a functioning brain.
From brushing your teeth, to driving a car, to simply pausing and noticing the world around you—
every experience of living requires a healthy nervous system.
And yet, when people are asked,
“How are you taking care of your health?”
Rarely does anyone say:
“I’m taking care of my brain.”
The reality is, your brain is constantly changing.
This is known as neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt, reorganise, and refine itself based on what you do (or don’t do).
It is incredibly efficient.
Which is both a strength—and a risk.
Because your brain will prioritise what you use…
and discard what you don’t.
Simply put:
You lose what you don’t use.
So maybe it’s time we start changing the way we think about health.
Not just in terms of absence of disease—
but in terms of capacity, adaptability, and function.
Not just:
“I exercise”
or
“I try to eat healthy”
But:
I am training my brain.
I am challenging my balance and coordination.
I am exposing myself to new movements, new environments, new skills.
Because neurological health is not something we passively maintain.
It is something we actively build.
Perhaps the question was never whether our children should sacrifice for us, or whether we should expect less from them.
Perhaps the real question is this:
What kind of legacy are we building through the way we care for our own body today?
Our body is a trust.
And our brain—this system that allows us to think, move, feel, and connect—is not something to be taken for granted. It is something to be trained, challenged, and invested in.
Start small.
Move more intentionally.
Challenge your senses.
Learn something new.
Because what you use, you keep.
And what you neglect, you lose.
In the end, taking care of your neurological health is not just about avoiding disease.
It is about preserving your ability to live with clarity, dignity, and purpose—
And perhaps, that is the greatest gift you can give—
not only to your children,
but to yourself.