Rewire your brain! Do some mental fitness! Cultivate positivity!
We all heard these advices before, but how are we supposed to do it? How do we retrain our mind to think other thoughts? Our brains are constantly reorganizing, relabeling, recategorizing and rewiring everything in our life. Our actions, thoughts and feelings are feeding the brain.
Thus when we realize certain thought patterns aren't serving us, we need to rewire our thoughts towards positive thinking. Growing our mindset it's not rocket science and does not require a mentor ! Just the will to change and a conscious effort!
Self-directed neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. (Wikipedia)
What does self-directly neuroplasticity mean? It means that if humans focus their attention enough, they can slowly rewire these pathways themselves by breaking their habit loops and reshaping thinking using mindfulness.
The results of a study show that the brain processes over 6000 thoughts per day. Not all need to be acted upon as they may not be beneficial.
In order to break a habit, you need to change your cues. Redirecting your thoughts and actions leads to rewiring the neural pathways. As the old habits are being replaced, new parts of the brain are used, creating a new mindset. Breaking a bad habit is not impossible, but it can be hard! Research has revealed that it takes between 18 and 254 days for someone to form a new habit.
Research suggests that neuroplasticity can benefit not only your well-being , but also certain mental health conditions. Experts discovered that patients suffering from depression presented negative thought patterns, interrupted or impaired neuroplasticity processes.
Nowadays there is more evidence that chronic stress, which can precipitate or exacerbate depression, disrupts neuroplasticity, while antidepressant treatment produces opposing effects and can enhance neuroplasticity.
How to supercharge our neurons through neuroplasticity?
Now that we grasped the concept of neuroplasticity, how do we put it into action on a day-to day basis? Here's a list of suggestions that can impact our brains’ ability to thrive:
Meditate - A few Zen minutes every day can change the way we think, build new neural connections. Meditation can change the shape of our brain by flexing the muscle of attention.
Learn a new skill - Options are endless. We can go from learning a new foreign language, braille to juggling and so on. By practicing a skill daily or at least on a regular basis, the neural connections get stronger, enabling us to perform this action with ease.
Improve our vocabulary - Learn a new word per day. Not only we'll rock at Scrabble, but you'll also generate new ways to activate the brain's visual and auditory processes.
Travel - Take a weekend road trip to a new destination, a close by city. and enhance your cognitive flexibility and creativity. By exposing the brain to new, novel, and complex environments, we cause the brain to sprout dendrites.
Play music - No need to be a musician to learn an instrument. We can only benefit from such a multi-sensory experience. When we combine motor actions with sounds and visual patterns, we form new neural networks.
Make art - No artistic skills required for this exercise! You can can simply doodle and use art to express emotions, feelings, experiences or struggles. You can join a local art class (mosaics, jewelry, pottery, painting, drawing, etc.) or try it by yourself in the comfort of your own home.
Sleep or rest - Have good night sleep and try to nap in the afternoons. A 20 minutes nap helps the growth of dendritic spines, which act as crucial connectors between the neurons in the brain.
Play chess- Playing chess does improve cognitive, memory, and math skills. Players can also develop various skills such as logical thinking, abstract reasoning and spatial intelligence.
Exercise - Regular physical exercise has positive effects on cognitive functioning. A 30 minutes exercise session per day stimulates the production of new synapses. You can choose between taking a walk, aerobics, going to the gym, jogging, swimming, etc.
Practice mindfulness - Remember to take a pause and reflect on your efforts, results, and mindset. Create yourself a routine for reflection. Pair it with a small cup of tea, or simply do it at bedtime, while you are laying in bed with your eyes closed. Reflecting is crucial to building new pathways in the brain.
Feed your brain - Although the brain makes only 2% of your total body weight, the resources it requires are close to 20% from everything we eat. An enhanced diet that includes walnuts, blueberries, avocado , along with vitamin D and magnesium increase has the ability to rewire your brain.
Boost dexterity in your non-dominant hand - Practicing to use your non-dominant handpracticing to use your non-dominant hand has more benefits than being ambidextrous) has more benefits than being ambidextrous.
Try brushing your teeth, writing, drawing or perform certain activities by using your wrong-hand if you want your neurons to create new synapses!Read fiction - When you delve into reading a fiction novel, you shift into another mental state, which is an important skill for mastering the complex social relationships.
Dance - Listen to your favorite tunes and turn your living room into a dance floor. Dance like no one is watching because dance practice stimulates the release of the brain-derived protein neurotropic factor that promotes the growth, maintenance, and plasticity of neurons.
Intermittent fasting - Fasting for brain health helps optimize brain function and influences the energy metabolism, creates a favorable environment for the emergence and maintenance of neurons, as well as for the formation of new nerve synapses.
Play video games - As surprising as it may sound, playing video games has cognitive benefits and it can teach your brain new skills and boost your neuroplasticity.
Be social - Surround yourself with people that keep you stay challenged and engaged in a positive way. Needless to add that we need to pay attention who is in our close circle of friends! Nurturing social ties and having frequent social interactions leads to a slow aging and healthy brain.
Take away
You are responsible for your own well-being. Reshaping your life starts with reshaping your brain. It is entirely up to you to decide which one of the above mentioned tips works for you or not. Improving your cognitive performance can be achieved as long as you are consistent and continue to challenge your brain.
The artwork in the image above, Rewired Toughts was realized with ink on Canson paper.
check out my GALLEA online art gallery page HERE
or visit my website: lavipicu.com.
There is definitely a lot to unpack here, but it's nice to read and realise that I (try to) engage in a lot of these already, personally, and try to impress a lot of this on my children. Alas, they focus on the video games aspect of it all. "See dad? It's good for you!" They do not seem to yet appreciate the thought of "in moderation."
"Everything is good in moderation" was my dad's motto. I find myself repeating this sentence quite often. Though it still sounds like a foreign language to the kids.
It was definitely foreign to me at a young age, too! Took me awhile to learn the wisdom of it.