Building A Better Brain. Use it or Lose it.

Remember that saying, “you only use 10% of your brain”? It’s completely wrong. If you don’t use your brain, you lose it, which means that IF you have brain cells up there, they’re being used.

At the cellular level, the connections between brain cells will retract and ultimately die if they are not active. So. How do you kill brain cells? Slip your brain into neutral and leave it there.

Think of it like training of any other system of your body.

Every action you take makes it more likely that you’ll be able to do that action (whether that activity is physical, mental, or emotional). If you walk, you’ll be better able to walk; if you do puzzles you’ll be better able to do puzzles; and if you engage with the world, you get really good at engaging with the world.

But in the same way that actions train your system to be better at doing that activity, INaction can lead to inactivity at the level of your brain cells as well. That does not mean that you should never disconnect, or that you should never stop peddling for a second and coast down hill to enjoy the breeze once in a while.

But it does mean that long term disengagement, or “not thinking,” essentially trains “not thinking” into your brain, which makes you better and better at it. So engage with the world, challenge yourself, put yourself in novel situations, and even when you watch television find shows that cause you put your brain in gear.

In other words, use it so you don’t lose it!