Brain, Mood & Nervous System
A root-cause guide to anxiety, burnout, brain fog, sleep, mood, cognition, nervous system regulation, and mental clarity.
Your brain is not separate from the rest of your body. Mood, focus, sleep, stress resilience, memory, and nervous system regulation are shaped by inflammation, hormones, blood sugar, gut health, nutrient status, trauma, circadian rhythm, toxins, and the way your body responds to modern life.
This hub brings together Robin’s writing on brain health and emotional resilience, from vagus nerve regulation and burnout to cognitive longevity, sleep architecture, mood, metabolic health, and the practices that help bring the nervous system back into balance.
Start here
Begin with the foundations: how the nervous system gets dysregulated, how the body drives mood and cognition, and what actually helps restore resilience.
Mental health is whole-body health
In functional medicine, anxiety, burnout, brain fog, poor sleep, and low mood are not treated as purely “in your head.” They are often connected to the immune system, gut microbiome, hormones, blood sugar, mitochondrial function, nutrient status, and the stress response.
The goal is to understand the root causes beneath the symptoms, then build a plan that supports the brain and nervous system from multiple directions: food, labs, sleep, movement, breath, connection, therapy, nervous system practices, and targeted clinical care when needed.
Latest articles on brain, mood, and nervous system health
Explore Robin’s latest essays on anxiety, burnout, brain fog, sleep, cognitive health, vagus nerve regulation, mood, metabolism, and nervous system resilience.-
The best “calm tech” to hack your vagus nerve
I’m fascinated with tech that promotes high “vagal tone,” i.e. stimulates the vagus nerve to help improve stress response. Read more
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How to Slow Brain Aging Starting in Your 40s
Your brain shrinks 5% per decade starting at 40. Here’s my 6-step protocol — labs, exercise, HRT, supplements — to slow cognitive aging before symptoms ev Read more
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Neuroplasticity and the “New Year, New You” Craze
So what does it actually take to make a meaningful change in your life? Here’s what I’ve learned. Read more
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The best diet for brain health?
To have the healthiest mind, growing evidence shows the best diet for brain health is the Mediterranean diet. Read more
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How to reduce stress in 15-minutes
Chronic stress increases risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s. But too often we brush it off. Here’s how to reduce stress. Read more
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Plant medicine can be a tool, but it’s not a cure.
Plant medicine should be used in therapeutic or guided ceremonial settings run by well-trained and experienced facilitators. Read more
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The breathing habit that will transform your health overnight.
Did you know that you have a signature breathing pattern akin to your fingerprint that can be used to identify you with 96.8% accuracy? We are how we breat Read more
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Fix Your Metabolism to Improve Mental Health
Learn how stabilizing blood sugar and reducing metabolic inflammation can improve anxiety, brain fog, and mood—faster than you might expect. Read more