Aug 22, 2007
The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
By: Alvaro Fernandez
The LA Times just completed a wonderful 4-part series on how learning and memory work. The NYT re-emphasized the importance of physical exercise for neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons). To put this news in better perspective, let’s review some good lifestyle options we can follow to maintain, and improve, our vibrant brains.Â
- 1. Learn what is the “It” in “Use It or Lose It”. A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain’s beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.Â
- 2. Take care of your nutrition. Did you know that the brain only weighs 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake? As a general rule, you don’t need expensive ultra-sophisticated nutritional supplements, just make sure you don’t stuff yourself with the “bad stuff”.
- 3. Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain: physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.
- 4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts until they become your default mindset and you look forward to every
new day in a constructive way. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts, actually kills neurons and prevent the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons. - 5. Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. “Use It or Lose It” does not mean “do crossword puzzle number 1,234,567″. It means, “challenge your brain often with fundamentally new activities”.Â
- We are (as far as we know) the only self-directed organisms in this planet. Aim high. Once you graduate from college, keep learning. The brain keeps developing, no matter your age, and it reflects what you do with it.
- Explore, travel. Adapting to new locations forces you to pay more attention to your environment. Make new decisions, use your brain.
- Don’t Outsource Your Brain. Not to media personalities, not to politicians, not to your smart neighbour… Make your own decisions, and mistakes. And learn from them. That way, you are training your brain, not your neighbour’s.
- Develop and maintain stimulating friendships. We are “social animals”, and need social interaction. Which, by the way, is why ‘Baby Einstein’ has been shown not to be the panacea for children development.
- Laugh. Often. Especially to cognitively complex humor, full of twists and surprises. Better, try to become the next Jon Stewart (Note: I just corrected his name from “John”…which may call for a #11: Spellcheck!)
Now, remember that what counts is not reading this article-or any other-, but practicing a bit every day until small steps snowball into unstoppable, internalized habits…so, pick your next battle and try to start improving at least one of these 10 habits today! For more in-depth information on these topics, check our Brain Fitness Topics section.
[...] Alvaro Fernandez submits The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains on his Brain Fitness Blog. [...]
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[...] Alvaro Fernandez presents The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution. [...]
[...] Coincidently, Alvaro of Sharp Brain submitted a post about lifestyle options to help us keep our brains in shape. [...]
[...] The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains: our most successful post so far, on how to maintain fit brains, with over 70,000 readers in a few days! [...]
[...] The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains by Alvaro Fernandez. [...]
[...] Alvaro Fernandez presents The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “Some tips to keep our brains sharp.” [...]
[...] Alvaro Fernandez presents The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “Some tips to keep our brains sharp.” [...]
hey it’s nice honestly it’s great bt just try to make it a little shorter to look more interesting to read
Shortest: don’t outsource your brain!
I find drinking a lot of water and napping during the day helps keeps my brain sharp, well as sharp as it’s going to get. Thanks for some great tips.
Excellent information. All very good advice on how to keep that brain sharpened. Sleep is also vital for improving memory and concentration.
[...] Please go to http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/08/22/10-habits-of-highly-effective-brains/ to read the entire article. [...]
Hello Steven and Philip, thanks for your additions. Yes, sleep is very important, and well as keeping well hydrated.
[...] Lifehacker.org recently posed a link to SharpBrains, a mental health blog that I just might have to subscribe to, with a caveat: they’re a bit silly, verging on new-age philosophy about meditation and being in “The Zone”, but it’s countered with a significant retail presence that besmirches any spiritual inclination to the point of absurdity. Nevertheless, they have some good junk too. The post in question, The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains, gives food for thought (ha, ha) on the care of what lies within your cranium. Two of them in particular are key, in my opinion, but I believe they missed one. [...]
Very smart article, full of information on how to keep our master-organ healthy. Thank you.
Have you heard of and tested Superbrain Yoga as a tool to fuel the brain? Great articles have been published as well as a book that explains the science behind the exercise. Great way to keep the brain-body system fit!
Thank you Joe! yes, our “master-organ” deserves our attention
Kim: we haven’t. We have seen scientific papers on the benefits of Yoga, but not of one specific “brand” like that. Could you give us the refereces to look into? Thanks
The stress claim looks to me suspiciously like an over-interpretation of a simply animal study. The stress in the study is severe stress and was exposure of rats to aggressive rats. Death of some newly generated cells resulted (hmm, cell death is also related to learned -but now I’m over-extending…). Perhaps we can agree that there’s a wide gap here between the animal model and everyday, complex human environments?
Hello Harry, true, there is a gap. Now, neuroscientists like Robert Sapolsky or Fred Gage are not featuring those distinctions, but our similarities. Our physiologies/ stress response are more similar than one may assume.
Fred Gage reminds us how “Chronic stress is believed to be the most important casual factor in depression aside from a genetic predisposition to the disorder, and stress is known to restrict the number of newly generated neurons in the hippocampus.”
Let me ask you: is depression severe stress? what would you say are depression rates (in humans)?
Personally, a good 60-min run is always the best way to refresh and sharpen my mind.
How about doing any exercise that quiets and stills the mind?
The greatest peril face by modern man is the disquiet mind that seems to be racing throughout the day, even into the night (which causes insomnia). Slowing down the mind and even making
it still is a great challenge, when most people need to have some music to fill any brief moment of quietness they have.
Excellent tips! Many (not people here though), forget that exercise is a HUGE component and great to see it on your list!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
this is a really superb article, and the top three are so right: Thoughts/Diet/Exercise. right on.
@ jv: when you’re fully charged and future forward, you’ll have better ideas and more energy to tackle those issues and reach out to people in need
Great article. We should post it on our computer for a daily reminder. I don’t think any one of us wants to “lose it”
Thanks Alvaro.
Harriet Diamond
Harriet and everyone else: glad you enjoy it!
My personal favorite, of course, is:
#8. Don’t Outsource Your Brain.
Wonderful article and great for understanding in a simple way, the core parts of the brain. Would like to add that many of the deeper practises of yoga meditatiosn help to destress and regenerate the brain. Specific practises are Yoga Nidra and Aantar Mouna. Both pracises work in the deeper recesses f the mind and have shown many positive changes in human personalities.