Ah, New Year’s. The time when a lot of people make well-meaning resolutions. Improving fitness, whether for weight loss or general well-being, is one of the top resolutions. Many people vow to hit the gyms and trails this time of year. Great, but…
Get your brain into the gym, too. (Although not necessarily a literal gym. You can construct your own “mind gym” using the tips below. However, attending a regular gym or engaging in other fitness endeavors certainly will help your brain.)
(Obligatory disclaimer that I am not a doctor, so always run any physical or mental habit changes by them to make sure you’re clear for the activity, or that there’s not something else going on that’s impacting your brain.)
To see why, let’s think about modern life for a moment. Why do we have to force ourselves to get physical exercise these days? Automation took over much of the physical labor we, as a species, used to do to survive. You don’t have to haul water from the well. You aren’t out picking your own vegetables or slopping your pigs. (Maybe you are. I’m grateful for farmers and gardeners, but most of us aren’t doing this work.) You probably don’t have to walk five miles into town for necessities. And your job likely has you sitting at a desk for nine hours a day doing nothing more physical than walking to the restroom to escape your boss for a few minutes.
This is why we’ve had to resort to actual exercise to stave off disease and obesity. The exercise we used to get just by living is gone, so we have to replicate it somehow.
Which brings me to your brain. Just like with physical exercise, automation is now stealing away all the work your brain used to do. Between social media, AI, Alexa’s, smart-everything, apps, and the internet in general, we don’t have to think very much anymore. There’s literally an app to replace nearly every part of your brain. Worse, the things we do engage with these days are often unreliable, AI-generated slop-fests that offer zero nutrition for your mind.
Our brains are atrophying in the current environment. We no longer have to memorize phone numbers or directions. We don’t have to remember much because there’s always some device telling us about our appointments, or that our air filters need changing, or that it’s Jane’s birthday today. Our fine motor skills are deteriorating because all we do is swipe and tap all day. We don’t use our hands and bodies for much.
Literacy is declining. Math skills are falling away. (Nobody even has to do basic math to make change or balance an account anymore.) The attention span required to focus on any task is disappearing, lost to doom scrolling, short form content, and pings and dings from all sorts of notifications.
Art, literature, and music is supposed to be challenging to create (and satisfying), not reduced to an algorithm that craps out reductive trash stolen from the work of others. Critical thinking isn’t a thing anymore, largely because people can’t be bothered to do the necessary research, instead relying on whatever social media or AI tells them is true. Behavioral problems and accidents are becoming more prevalent because people no longer know how to handle themselves when technology is taken away. (Or when they just do what the AI bot says to do, or mimic what they see in those short form videos, which is often inappropriate and/or dangerous.)
It’s pretty dire out there, and getting worse every day. I’m astounded at how many people are willing to hand their brans over to ChatGPT or some other AI product. And how quickly. No waiting for the models to evolve, no waiting to learn if there might be problems. Just, “Hey, this thing will make it easier for me to do X, so hell yeah, sign me up.” Never mind that easier doesn’t always equal correct, safe, or good for you, it’s just, “Here, take my brain.”
We aren’t using our brains and it’s a use it or lose it situation. If you don’t keep your brain fit, you’re at greater risk for dementia, Alzheimers, and just generally being left behind by others who think faster, better, and more thoroughly and creatively than you do. Of course, if you aspire to work only with idiots, I’m sure you can find some places where the bosses respect idiocy over intelligence, but is that really how you want to spend your life? Being the lowest common denominator? Being an idiot among idiots? Surrounded by people who can’t think their way out of a paper bag? I doubt it, but if that’s what you aspire to, by all means keep using AI to tell you if the sun is yellow.
Now, I’m not completely tech-averse. There are some very good things that have come from technology. The problem comes when we completely outsource our brains to it and let it do all the hard work for us. Our brains evolved to solve hard problems, not to sit back and take orders from a machine. When we don’t even try to think through something, or complete a difficult task, and instead run to technology to answer simple questions or do our homework, or create our art, we run the risk of, literally, losing our minds.
So that’s the problem, and it’s a big one. What’s the solution?
Your brain needs to work out, just like your body does. Just like with our bodies, this used to happen by living and surviving, but now we can outsource much of our thinking and problem solving to a machine. Now we have to force ourselves to find cognitive-boosting activities.
This is why I recommend creating your personal mind gym.
Now, when I say “mind gym,” I’m not talking about all those fun little apps for your phone that have you matching colors, unraveling yarn, or solving word puzzles. They’re cute and fun, but studies show that they’re not that great at improving your brain. Even most of the ones branded as “brain fitness” apps are nothing more than glorified games. You may get a tiny bit of benefit, but they aren’t going to provide the hard work your brain needs to thrive.
No, you’re going to have to go deeper. You’re going to have to – gasp – think! And learn. Yeah, it’s not easy and hard things are becoming less and less attractive these days. It’s the same reason why Twinkies are more attractive than asparagus. We all like junk food and our minds enjoy it, too, in the form of silly games, snack-sized content, and anything that boosts our dopamine levels. (A fact that our tech bro overlords are all too willing to exploit for money, at the expense of your mental health.)
So what should be in your mind gym? How can you specifically exercise your brain? Here are some ideas.
- Physical fitness. As I noted above, physical fitness will benefit your brain. Just getting the blood flowing to your brain is helpful. You get bonus points if the activity you choose requires thought or learning something new. Try things like learning to dance, learning a new sport (or new skills/tactics within an old favorite), doing an activity as part of a group to boost your social connection, or walking meditation/yoga/tai chi to improve focus. At the very least, try to change up your old favorites. Get off the treadmill and walk or bike outside where you see new things. Try an aerobics class with a different instructor, or at the gym across town. Novelty helps your brain.
- Read. Read often. Read everything. Challenge yourself to read more difficult works, longer works, or work from different genres and authors. Read without distraction. Try to read actual books because you get the full tactile experience for all of your senses that you just can’t get on a device. (Although reading on a device is better than nothing and as someone who needs bigger fonts, I totally get the eReader love. Just try to stick to e-ink devices over devices that emit blue light. Blue light messes with your circadian rhythm and isn’t helpful for brain health.) Join a book club to make it social and get that extra benefit of connection.
- Learn. Pick something you’re interested in and learn about it. Languages, music, art, math, history, any subject that interests you… Just pick something and invest time learning about it. Read about it, practice it, research it, watch documentaries, visit museums, attend groups dedicated to the subject, take a class. Your brain needs to learn new things, and at a deep level. An AI-enabled surface glance isn’t enough. You need to do the hard work of actually learning.
- Go analog when you can. Many of us are losing the connection between our brains and our hands. More and more kids can’t tie their shoes or button a coat. Don’t lose your dexterity and fine motor skills. Write long-handed when you can. Do jigsaw puzzles or play with Lego. Take up an analog hobby like playing music, knitting, painting, sculpting, model building or drawing. Not only do these things improve your motor skills, the thought and learning involved are brain boosters.
- Meditate. This doesn’t have to be a formal thing, and you don’t have to move to an ashram. Just sit quietly with no distractions. (Phone off.) Focus on your breathing and let your thoughts go. Meditation reduces anxiety, but it also boosts your memory and ability to make creative connections.
- Practice critical thinking. It’s too easy today to just take what you hear on the news or social media as gospel, but that’s the wrong approach. You need to practice critical thinking. Take in information from a variety of sources. Learn what makes a source unbiased. Research things that seem suspect or partisan. (Often the truth lies in the middle.) Ask yourself who is benefitting from the information being presented, or the urgency being created. Look at everything from different perspectives. Not only is it good exercise for your brain, it helps prevent gaslighting, falling for scams, and being manipulated.
- Use your senses. We take our senses for granted, but your brain loves to use them. Most of us get into ruts that don’t let our senses run free. Lift your head from your phone and really look at the world around you. Note shapes, colors, interesting sights. Take in the smells around you. Stop and literally smell the flowers. Expose your taste buds to new foods and recipes. Touch new things. Feel the bark of that tree, or pick up that shell at the beach. Listen to your environment. Are the birds singing? Is there music playing? Try out new music occasionally.
- Play board games. Board games are great brain boosters. You have to learn rules, practice strategies, and pay attention to what others at the table are doing. They are social. (Yes, you can play some solo and that’s great, too, but the benefits are compounded when you play with others.) Moving the pieces helps your motor skills.
- Play video games, within limits. Video games can help your brain, but this is one instance where too much of a good thing can be bad. Video games can help with your coordination, strategizing, and socialization (if you play multiplayer). However, the screen time can be bad for your brain, and if you cross over into addiction, other parts of your life can suffer. So play, but tread carefully.
- Change up your routine. Your brain, while very good at routines, doesn’t benefit from them. Novelty helps your brain grow, so switch things up. Take a new route to work. Pack different lunches. Try new activities instead of the same old. Rearrange your furniture. Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Walk or bike a new route for exercise.
- Limit app use. Many of the things on this list have apps to help you. You can learn languages on an app, or play board games. You can read, do puzzles, and play games. And this is fine, to an extent. But our brains evolved in an analog world and get a stronger workout when doing things in an analog fashion. So if you’re using an app to learn a language or study a topic, be sure to incorporate some actual books and real world interaction like classes to really give your brain a workout. Go find some friends to play games with, or lay a physical puzzle out on a table. It’s like cross training your body. Feed your brain different ways of doing things and taking in information.
