Brain Fitness And Your New Year's Resolutions

New Brain for the New Year!

Brain Fitness Programs.


It is January 1, 2009, and today is the day you will be doing your New Year's Resolutions, if you are done with the excesses of New Years's Eve anyway.

Perhaps you have done resolutions before, generated a great deal of excitement anticipating all the neat changes you were going to manifest, like the new physique, the reduced debt, no more cigarettes, a return to school, and then you were disappointed about the slow drain of excitement, and the continuation of old habits you wanted to change.

How about beginning the change process in the brain, before worrying about the diet or the new text book?

Yes, change the brain first and the movement of the body will change too.

Perhaps you have been tangentially noticing all the publicity in the media about brain fitness, all the information being revealed by fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) which is giving scientists an opportunity to look at the brain in action in real time.

They are discovering some very interesting information, like our brains continue to grow new cells throughout the life span, which is called neurogenesis, and that the brain is a very plastic organ, constantly reorganizing itself based on how we use it, which is called neuroplasticity.

Those two discoveries alone overthrow decades if not centuries of neuroscientific dogma, much to the benefit of our New Year's Resolutions.

However, we must maximize the brain's ability to manifest neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, which means lay the groundwork.

As we do that groundwork, the brain is in a much better position to help us carry through on our resolutions.

(Remember that Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, author of Finding Flow, says that we perceive seven bits of sensory data every 1/18th second, so our brains are fast, and my brain will have me moving down a familiar path rapidly if I am not on top of my brain fitness game).

The researchers are discovering that our brains work best when we take care of our nutrition, stress management, physical exercise, and involve our brains in novel challenges, which is part of what I want to talk about today.

Researchers are finding very intriguing evidence that brain circuits or brain maps can be exercised, and when those circuits are exercised, the neurons in those circuits continue to fire together in close harmony, and dendritic growth continues to happen.

In other words, the neurons stay creative in the sense that they are growing connections to other neurons, and the more connections I have the better I am at making decisions which benefit the entire organism.

I will be able to bring more brain power to the resolutions I make.

There are any number of marketers leaping into the brain fitness marketplace with different brain fitness programs to take advantage of this market, which is being driven by aging Baby Boomers, so it is important to take a look at the product before you purchase or partake.

I think it is important to note that research is indicating that the words "novel challenge' referred to above do not include "brain games" but do include activities like learning a new instrument, or taking up a new career, or learning a new language.

For brain fitness to occur, one does not need to become an expert at a new, novel challenge. One does need to practice regularly.

There are a number of brain fitness programs available now that offer a novel challenge to our brains which can be part of our routine which mazimizes brain fitness.

I have tried four of them, and found them all, while different in approach, time committment, and expense, very useful.

One in particular has helped me to focus more effectively on a given task, like building a website page, better than at any time in my entire life. (People have been telling me for a long time that I resemble this ADD or that ADD friend).

Another has taught me that I have some improving to do in my auditory processing, which will maximize my ability to find the correct word at the correct time, very important in my counseling business.

Another has given me a way to take a quick break between clients or phone calls to refresh the neurotransmitters in my brain so I have a less cortisol and more DHEA, more vasopressin, and more oxytocin available on demand.

And another has taught me the value of certain musical note sequences in brain speed and processing.

So the basis for my keeping my New Year's resolutions is taking care of my brain with novel challenge including computerized brain fitness programming, and learning chess to play with my son, taking care of stress reduction using HeartMath, lots of good smoothies for good brain nutrition (that is not all, of course), and lots of physical exercise,which can be as simple as walking more and longer.

By: Michael Logan

Brain fitness expert, counselor, partner with Julie Logan, RN, LCSW at Logan Family Counseling, student of Chi Gong, and licensed one on one HeartMath provider. I enjoy the spiritual, the mythological, and psychological, and I am a late live father to Shane, 10, and Hannah Marie, 4, whose brains are so amazing. www.askmikethecounselor2.com