Using your mind in creative and unfamiliar ways will increase your brain power and cause your mind to function more effectively. Learning new skills is a fun and effective way to gain this type of benefit. Surely, there’s something you’ve always been interested to know or to learn. Now’s the perfect time to sign up for that class or research that topic of interest. Read on to discover the benefits of brain exercises and learning something new today.
Exercise For Brain Power
Engaging in active learning on a regular basis actually works to change the chemical makeup of your brain. The white matter in your brain, known as myelin, is increased and becomes denser over time with exposure to and practice of new skills. Myelin is important because it helps to improve performance of cognitive tasks.
Brain Power Exercise Leads To Brain Growth
Learning a new language, in particular, has been shown to increase the size of your brain. Swedish researchers used brain scans like MRI to determine that specific parts of the brain were actually affected in size when exposed to extensive language learning. The area that increased in size, it was found, was based on one’s natural inclination toward language learning.
Prevention of Cognitive Decline
Exercise for the brain keeps the neural pathways in your brain active as you new things regularly . The result in this constant activity is that demyelination of the brain, or breakdown, is less likely to occur. It’s this breakdown that leads to dementia, so learning new things and firing up those neurons will help to stave off its onset.
Increased Neural Connections
Neural plasticity is the ability of the brain to change and adapt over time. This ability is increased when you learn new skills because exercising the brain in such unfamiliar ways increases the connections between neurons. As you learn something new, you gain skills. These skills build upon existing ones, which is what leads to such strengthening of brain connections.
Increased Learning Speed
The more you learn, the faster you learn it. Adding new skills to your knowledge base actually increases the stimulation of neurons in your brain, increasing your learning speed over time. Electrical impulses travel more quickly across the newly formed neural pathways. Thus, reading helps to sharpen your mind.
Using your brain in new and interesting ways can provide you with a host of benefits. If you want to maintain your brain power and continue to be in tiptop mental shape for as long as possible, it’s wise to invest time into discovering new skills, learning additional subject and trying novel activities. The more ways you can utilize your brain, the higher your chances of maintaining the cognitive skills you currently possess and staying sharp as you age.
