ELAN Blog ~ Week 42, Day 214

This week ELAN Blog has been celebrating the plasticity of our brains, but there is a downside. The same capabilities that allow our brains to change and produce flexible behavior can also encourage us to create more rigid ones, such as bad or repeating habits. Norman Doidge, M.D., in The Brain That Changes Itself calls this the “plastic paradox.” This relates closely to recent ELAN Blog posts about The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg, in which he explains how our brains respond to rewards, stimuli and cravings wrapped up in the habit loop. Anything we do over and over, without variation, will form mental habits because neurons are firing together and therefore wiring together. As Duhigg pointed out, this can be very helpful as we rely on many automatic actions to get us through a daily routine. But we don’t want that routine to become a rut. The good news is, according to Doidge, new environments trigger neurogenesis. In order to keep the brain fit, we must learn something new. It seems that science backs up the value of being a life long learner. He adds that learning also enhances survival of stem cells. “Thus physical exercise and learning work in complementary ways: the first to make new stem cells, the second to prolong their survival.”

If we compare mental exercise to physical workouts we can imagine that stimulating our brain will make it stronger. Here is an important difference: the human body is limited in concrete ways, there is a physical barrier to breaking the x-minute mile or jumping higher than x feet without the help of a machine. Doidge says that when we become proficient at a new skill, we use our neurons more efficiently and the speed at which we think is actually plastic. Do you believe it? Do you think you can actually make your brain more effective as well as smarter? That is good news. The speed of thought is an important part of intelligence. The way we use our brains on a daily basis has direct impact on how well it will serve us down the road.

Today think about a new skill you would like to learn. What is stopping you? Certainly not your brain.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls.” Matthew 11:29

“Learning makes a man fit company for himself.” Thomas Fuller, 1654-1734