Train Your Brain: Try Something New

All month we will explore the brain. Specifically, we’ll walk you through the methods for training your brain to be stronger, smarter, and faster!

Research demonstrates what we probably already knew. Learning new things is a process that exercises your brain, and makes it healthier. The same thing is true for having new experiences, which can aid in preventing memory loss and keep the brain alert in the process.

In fact, engaging in novel activities is like taking your brain tissue to the gym. It causes your brain to engage its learning and memory areas, and the critical appraisal areas as well. Plus, the dopamine arousal system that kicks in whenever there is something exciting or interesting going on is a key component in learning and memory itself.

By engaging areas involved in learning, the process of learning is exercised. By engaging critical thinking areas, those brain regions are also turned up so they don’t degrade as fast over time. In other words, the more you do, the more you can do.  Nowhere in the body is this truer than in the brain, as your actions encourage more connections to be formed and strengthened.

The outcome is that individuals who actively engage with their environment through fun new games and activities tend to have less age-related cognitive decline and memory loss.

Make it fun for you, and …

• Cook a food you’ve never prepared before.
• Pick a word and learn to say it in a variety of languages.
• Give a new sport a try.
• Learn a new dance.
• Pick up a new hobby.

Your brain will be more likely to remember to thank you!!