“The brain is wider than the sky.” By poet Emily Dickinson.
Beautifully said. Neuroscience tells us Emily is right and yet all I can think of is how little brain I must actually be using!
Since that’s a terribly negative angle on things, I’ve decided to re-frame my point of view…
Just in case I happen to discover my inner rocket scientist and suddenly find I have the intellectual capacity to use all that nature has bestowed upon me… In order to make full use of my very own “Smartest Brain Around,” what would I need to keep it fit and dully ready for Pulitzer Prize action? I’d need it to be healthy of course! But how?
Science has been clear on that lately. So clear in fact, that some days we need to be a rocket scientist just to keep up on all the brain research out there. It’s an exciting time for the brain! To simplify, here’s our short list of ways to tackle the “if I only had a brain” conundrum:
1) Keep it rested – Poor sleep digs out cells from the Hippocampus, the area of the brain that helps with memory and learning. By contrast adequate sleep actually builds more grey matter, helping consolidate memories and learning, thus giving true grit to the problem solving option, “Let’s sleep on it.”
2) Keep it moving – Exercise is a one-two punch for brain health. First it increases our resistance to “brain insult.” Don’t-cha love science-speak? Second, here’s more from the researchers in that joyous pontificating tone: “Exercise recruits use-dependent plasticity mechanisms that prepare the brain to encode meaningful information from the environment and, at the same time, activates mechanisms that protect the brain from damage.”
So, beyond staving off deterioration, what’s even more exciting is that exercise goes one step further (pun intended) making the brain more “plastic” or better able to learn and grow, at all ages! Holy cow! Science is fantastic.
In fact, just to punctuate it further, in an exercise study of 55-80 year old subjects, the brain actually increased in size by 2% when the natural trend is a 1.4% loss. Some parts of aging present a choice: do it gracefully through exercise. In this study, subjects walked 40 minutes, three times a week. That’s pretty doable. (Science News – Univeristy of Illinois study by Dr. Arthur Kramer)
3) Keep it connected and happy. The brain does better when we are forming and maintaining quality relationships, and when enjoying positive emotions.
4) Keep it thinking. The more you use it, and in new and exciting ways, the better and stronger it gets.
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll
Dr. Bruce Perry, a prominent brain scientist in child development, tells us that the cognitive part of the brain can change throughout our lifetime. Feed it with music, movement, oxygen (exercise), healthy touch, and happy emotions and your inner rocket scientist has all the chances in the world to be its best, to solve the world’s problems.
Since it’s raining and all my friends are at work, I’m off to do a Soduku while walking on the treadmill listening to Tchaikovsky; Winnie the blog dog snoozing on the recumbent bike seat next to me. Ahhhhh, life is good.
See you on the PATH Ahead!
“My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.” –Dalai Lama