This Smart Bite is part of the Healthy at Home series. Photo: @Shutterstock (ilkercelik)
Since shelter-in-place started, we have all done something we didn’t know how to do. In fact, we’ve done things we didn’t know we’d want to do:
Attend a live streaming exercise class from our dining room.
Play Trivial Pursuit with family members acrosss the country.
Help our kids learn in a new virtual environment.
Change the way we do business so people don’t have to gather in groups.
Celebrate Passover with loved ones from a computer.
Create a face mask from old T-shirts.
Adversity drives determination and inspiration which make our brains healthier.
You Can Teach a Brain New Tricks
While most organs decline with age, this isn’t true of the brain. Thanks to the brain’s neuroplasticity, it has a remarkable capacity to learn and grow—but only if we keep it engaged. Kathryn Papp, a neuropsychologist at Harvard Medical School, says that to maximize our brain’s health we need “new experiences which require the brain to do some work because it's encountering something it hasn't done before.” Those experiences need to be both challenging and complex to change the synaptic connections within our brain. However, in our pre-COVID-19 days, we often operated on autopilot, relying on the routine and familiar just to get through the day. All that has changed.
Brains Are Better with Exercise
An added benefit is new forms of exercise which have been thrust upon us with the closing of fitness centers. In lieu of a favorite spin class, we may try a virtual strength training class, complete with burpees and planks. We are simultaneously using our brains and bodies in novel ways. This not only strengthens untapped muscles, but it also alters the structure and strength of synaptic connections.
The Top Takeaway
A silver lining of adversity is this: it forces us to do things differently. This, in turn, improves our ability to learn, which better equips us for whatever comes next.
The Moore family enjoys virtual Trivial Pursuit (Photo @C. denBoer)