How to Make Your Brain Work Better for You
By Patrick J. Kiger
Three Tips for Making the Most of Your Aging Brain
In this episode of Brain Games, we learn that your brain goes through different stages of development from infancy to old age, but that no matter where you are in the continuum, you have some pretty amazing capabilities. But what if you want to improve your brain’s performance even more, or perhaps ward off age-related declines? Here are some ideas from experts.
Focus Your Attention by Learning a New Skill. Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the book “Neuroscience for Leadership,” notes that your brain is inherently lazy and will always choose the easiest path, if you let it. One effective way to break that pattern and make your brain more agile is to force it continually to do new things, so that it has to forge new neural pathways. Swart recommends learning a new language or taking up a musical instrument, but the key is to find an intellectual challenge that involves decision-making, complex problem-solving, memorization, strategizing, self-reflection, emotional regulation and the channeling of energy into a new activity.
Practice Mindfulness Meditation. In a Forbes article, Richard Davidson, author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain, suggests improving your brain’s performance by becoming more self-aware. Meditation is an excellent method. Pick a time when you feel awake and alert, and then sit upright, concentrating on your breathing and observing the sensations in your body. Whenever you’re distracted by a stray thought, try to shift the focus back to your breathing.
Concentrate on the Task at Hand. You might think that multitasking is the way to optimize your productivity, but research suggests that the brain’s executive control center in the frontal lobes really is incapable of doing more than one thing at a time. According to the Dana Foundation’s book Brain Fitness, multitasking creates an information-processing bottleneck that actually slows down your brain, and also adversely affects your brain’s learning systems. So instead, make a priority list and just move steadily through it.
Three Tips for Making the Most of Your Aging Brain
Focus Your Attention by Learning a New Skill. Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the book “Neuroscience for Leadership,” notes that your brain is inherently lazy and will always choose the easiest path, if you let it. One effective way to break that pattern and make your brain more agile is to force it continually to do new things, so that it has to forge new neural pathways. Swart recommends learning a new language or taking up a musical instrument, but the key is to find an intellectual challenge that involves decision-making, complex problem-solving, memorization, strategizing, self-reflection, emotional regulation and the channeling of energy into a new activity.
Practice Mindfulness Meditation. In a Forbes article, Richard Davidson, author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain, suggests improving your brain’s performance by becoming more self-aware. Meditation is an excellent method. Pick a time when you feel awake and alert, and then sit upright, concentrating on your breathing and observing the sensations in your body. Whenever you’re distracted by a stray thought, try to shift the focus back to your breathing.
Concentrate on the Task at Hand. You might think that multitasking is the way to optimize your productivity, but research suggests that the brain’s executive control center in the frontal lobes really is incapable of doing more than one thing at a time. According to the Dana Foundation’s book Brain Fitness, multitasking creates an information-processing bottleneck that actually slows down your brain, and also adversely affects your brain’s learning systems. So instead, make a priority list and just move steadily through it.