Want to keep your brain healthy? Then focus on increasing your neuroplasticity.
The human brain is a remarkable organ. It can develop new connections and neural pathways through exposure to mental stimuli and new experiences. The brain’s ability to strengthen and rewire itself is referred to as neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is such an exciting concept because it means that we can rewire our brain to learn new skills and improve our cognitive health, even as we grow older.
Here are some of the reasons why it’s worthwhile to increase your neuroplasticity.
Develop new habits and skills
Neuroplasticity means that it’s never too late to introduce new, positive habits into your life. Just because you have a bad habit doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it for the rest of your life. Through time, effort, and repetition, you can retrain your brain to integrate positive habits into your daily routine.
Improve memory
Increasing your neuroplasticity has also been shown to improve your cognitive functions such as your memory, problem solving, and decision-making skills.
Improve your mindset
Neuroplasticity can also help you alter your mindset and way of thinking. If you have a tendency to be negative or if you struggle with a scarcity mindset, you can rewire your brain to reframe your thoughts and to think more positively and abundantly.
The best ways to increase your neuroplasticity
You don’t have to make dramatic changes to your lifestyle in order to increase your neuroplasticity. Some of the most everyday, mundane activities can be hugely beneficial to your brain health. The trick is to do these things consistently and over time. You can even track your progress in a notebook to stay on top of it.
Below are some of the simple and practical ways that you can increase neuroplasticity and maintain your brain health.
Do a mindful activity
Mindfulness is the state of being in the present moment. And mindful activities, such as meditating or knitting or painting, have been shown to rewire your brain and reduce the size of your amygdala, which is the part of the brain that processes emotions and perceives threats. When you’re stressed, your amygdala can go into overdrive, and can perceive small things, like, say, an email from your boss, as a bigger threat than it is.
Because mindfulness is all about grounding yourself in the activity that you’re currently doing, you’re less likely to cast your thoughts into the future or past, or ruminate on negative thoughts.
Make sure to take time throughout the day to do something mindful. Here are some examples:
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Take a long, leisurely walk. Not only will this be relaxing, but the act of walking can also improve your spatial memory. So don’t use your phone’s GPS, and see if you can rely on your sense of direction to get you where you need to go.
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Sit down on a bench in the park and observe the nature around you. Connecting with your senses will help increase mindfulness.
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Meditate for five minutes and focus on your breath. If you find yourself getting distracted, don’t judge yourself and go back to inhaling and exhaling.
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Practice gratitude. The act of expressing what you’re thankful for can help you destress and recognize all the good that you already have in your life.
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Do the dishes. Yes, even something as mundane as doing the dishes can keep anxious thoughts at bay. The repetitive act can lull you into a hypnotic-like state and make you feel more relaxed.
Learn a new language
Here’s another reason to sign up for those French classes: learning a new language is good for your brain health.
Learning a new language will reawaken the part of your brain that hasn’t been used since you were a child. And since language development requires learning new words and sentence construction, this will also improve your memory and word recall.
So if your new year’s goal was to learn French or Italian, go ahead and take a class. And the best part? You can show off your new language skills the next time you travel.
Play an instrument
Your brain needs new challenges in order to grow and rewire itself. The trick is to find something that’s challenging enough to captivate your brain, but not so challenging that it becomes stressful or tiring.
Learning how to play an instrument or picking up an instrument you used to play is a great way to stimulate your brain and have fun while you’re at it.
Practice good sleep hygiene
We already know how important it is to get a good night’s sleep. But did you know that a good night’s rest can also help you maintain your neuroplasticity and also prevent disease?
Sleeping helps clear the brain of toxins and studies have shown that a lack of sleep can increase a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
You can practice good sleep hygiene starting today. Make sure to stay away from your devices after 9 PM. Avoid a heavy meal before bed. And take a hot shower at night to help prime your body for sleep.
Write down positive affirmations
If you’re trying to combat negative thoughts or limiting beliefs, then an effective way to rewire your brain and increase neuroplasticity is to use positive affirmations.
Negative thoughts like “I’m not good enough to succeed” or “I’ll never get out of this town” or “money doesn’t grow on trees” can feel so reflexive and habitual, that you may not even realize that you’re thinking them.
Much like quitting a bad habit, you have to work on modifying your negative thoughts and replacing them with positive, productive ones.
And if you really want to change the way you think, you need to put pen to paper. The act of writing by hand has been shown to help your brain encode new information. So by writing down positive affirmations, you’re essentially rewiring your brain to start thinking in this new way.
Pick one to three positive affirmations that resonate with you or make you feel empowered. Examples of positive affirmations include: I am enough; I am abundant; I am already successful.
Then, write these affirmations down in your journal. It helps to write these affirmations repeatedly so that they can really stick.
By JiJi Lee
