Neuroplasticity exercises pdf

Neuroplasticity Exercises That Will Transform Your Brain

Incorporate these neuroplasticity exercises and practices into your daily life. They will create new brain pathways with the help of your mind and a healthy lifestyle.

These practices help to gradually reduce the tendency that we humans have to stay in routines, in what we know, and in our bias toward negativity.

Include at least two exercises or practices each day. Keep in mind that changes will be progressive. Constant repetitions of positive aspects are required to create new circuits in the brain.

1. Start Your Day with Gratitude

Studies have shown that the brain develops different areas of the brain under the influence of feelings of gratitude, self-esteem, guilt, or indignation. It was discovered, for example, that people who can experience gratitude more easily have greater volume in the right temporal lobe of the brain.

Another important research found that making a weekly list of things for which we are grateful is associated with a more positive and optimistic perception of life, more physical exercise, and fewer diseases. This same study found that the daily habit of being grateful for the good things in our life substantially improves emotional well-being. It also relates to a greater willingness to help and support other people.

Practice this neuroplasticity exercise based on gratitude every morning, upon waking up:

• As soon as you open your eyes, breathe deeply, and make the exhalation a little longer.

• Think of something for which you feel grateful in your life. For example, your family, your children, your work, your talents, your home, the light of dawn, your pet, etc.

• Feel the gratitude and the sensations it brings into your body.

• Now think of something else for what you feel grateful. Repeat the above procedure.

• Think of a third aspect that makes you feel grateful.

• Finally, think about two aspects that you want to achieve on this day, two objectives that inspire and motivate you. For example, doing volunteer work, developing a new project, or reading a new chapter of your book.

This neuroplasticity exercise will allow you to start the day with more ease, well-being, optimism, and calm. It will help you start the day with less stress. Another variation of this exercise is to do it at night before going to bed. You will sleep more peacefully. To maximize its effects, you can do this exercise both when you wake up and at night.

2. Take In the Good

This neuroplasticity exercise was created by Dr. Rick Hanson, expert in neuroplasticity and mindfulness. He states that having positive experiences is not enough to reduce the brain’s bias toward negativity. It is necessary to pause and let positive experiences sink deep into the mind and body.

By actively experiencing positive events in your life, you can create new brain pathways. This daily practice will help you develop emotional resilience, joy, and a more optimistic view of life.

For “taking in the good” you can do the following:

• When you notice something positive as you move along your day, pause for a moment. It could be a beautiful flower, the smile of a loved one, or the kind gesture of a stranger. Let the sensations and feelings associated with this experience merge with your mind, heart, and body.

• Connect with these positive sensations and feelings for at least 3 minutes. Intensify them, enjoying the mental and sensory experience.

• Absorb this experience and allow it to register clearly in your mind, body, and brain.

• Throughout your day, continue to notice positive moments. Allow an opening, warmth, and relaxation to occur whenever you take in the good.

• Also notice positive feelings within yourself, such as gratitude, joy, and peace.

• At the end of the day, before going to sleep, recount what happened. Remember the “three things for which you feel grateful.”

3. Try Something New Every Day

We usually repeat the same habits every day. This includes, for example, the way we get out of bed, how we brush our teeth, what we eat, and the route we take to work.

These routines become automatic and unconscious habits that we perform without realizing it. These routines also create circuits in the brain. They become patterns that keep us in our “comfort zone,” in the known, and making us resistant to change. These patterns prevent us from trying new things that can enrich our lives.

Get out of your comfort zone a little every day. It is recommended that you avoid passive and repetitive activities, for example, watching television for long hours.

Try something new every day. When you experience new and more complex activities, it will stimulate the brain and allow you to open up to the unknown in a safe way. Here are some suggestions:

• Search the dictionary for a word you don’t know

• Learn to play a musical instrument

• Participate in artistic activities and creative manual arts

• Read fiction books that make your imagination work

• Brush your teeth with the other hand

• Learn acting or singing

• Sleep on the other side of the bed

• Prepare new food dishes and use different spices

• Listen to music from other countries

• Write stories or poetry

• Learn something new about a subject

• Assemble puzzles and solve crosswords

• Use the computer mouse with the other hand

• Take a new route to work

• Learn a new language

• Start a short conversation with an unknown person at the bank or supermarket

• Travel to nearby places that you don’t know (maybe that little town you’ve never been to)

• If possible, visit other countries

4. Eat a Healthy and Balanced Diet

The brain needs nutrients to develop and maintain its structure. A proper diet helps prevent diseases and premature aging.

The brain is made up of 60% fat, and a diet with healthy fats helps maintain a good level of energy, cognitive ability, and motor skills. A healthy diet also helps reduce inflammation in the body, which is also important for the brain.

Nutritional neuroscience, a branch that studies the effects of nutrition on the brain, has found that the Mediterranean diet is very beneficial for this organ. This diet is characterized by abundant plant foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, almonds, seeds), olive oil, cheese, yogurt, fish and chicken in moderate quantities, zero to four eggs per week, and red meat in small quantities. This diet is low in saturated fat, so it also prevents obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Other studies describe what good nutrition for the brain should include:

• Eat fish weekly (8 ounces / 250 grs)

• Six servings of vegetables and fruits a day

• One daily serving of unsalted almonds and walnuts

• Reduce red meat

• Eat healthy proteins such as legumes, seeds, and grains

• Avoid trans fats found in industrially made foods with vegetable fats

• Reduce sugar consumption

• Reduce the consumption of processed foods

5. Share Time with Your Family and Friends

Science has consistently demonstrated that interaction with other people helps maintain brain health. The chances of suffering from depression and dementia increase when we are isolated or alone.

Studies in rats have shown that when they are isolated for four weeks, less new cells grow in their brains and fewer neural connections occur. The good news is that these effects can be reversed with social interaction. When those same rats were connected again with their families, their brains regained the ability to create new neurons and connections among them.

These findings indicate how important it is to cultivate and maintain our relationships with other people. At birth, we have an innate need to be with each other, which continues throughout our lives.

Here are some recommendations to achieve an optimal level in your social relationships:

• Define your role and purpose in life: What is your contribution to your family, community, and society?

• Develop a network of friends and acquaintances. Maintain communication with them and enjoy shared moments.

• Get closer to your family, heal tensions from the past, and discover new opportunities for growth together.

• Attend social gatherings and activities where you can share and talk with other people.

• Use technology to keep in touch with your friends and family.

• Do not isolate yourself when you retire. Use your free time to join a club, do volunteer work, and other activities that you enjoy with other people.

6. Meditate 15 Minutes Every Day

Chronic stress is detrimental to general health and brain health. Several studies have confirmed that meditation (mindfulness) is effective in reducing stress and anxiety levels. Meditation has also proved to reduce other emotional conditions such as panic attacks and depression.

If you find that you like to meditate, you can incorporate 15 minutes of meditation every day. The best time to meditate is in the early morning, before starting your daily activities, or at the end of the day.

Other related activities are as follows:

• Use prayer as a practice of gratitude and forgiveness.

• Practice yoga regularly.

• Take slow, deep breaths three times a day for 5 minutes.

• Relax all the muscles of your body progressively. You can perform this exercise sitting or lying down.

• Stop your daily activity for 5 minutes three times a day. Stay still, observe your thoughts, emotions, and feelings as they are at that time. Allow yourself to simply be there without doing anything.

7. Make Time for Physical Exercise

The brain needs 25% of blood from each heartbeat. Therefore, performing exercise that requires some cardiovascular effort is essential for brain health.

Studies indicate that aerobic exercise increases the cognitive capacity of older adults. Positive changes in the structure and functioning of the brain have also been observed. For example, greater volume in the hippocampus, an area responsible for the formation of new memories, spatial memory, and orientation.

The following exercises will help you maintain the cognitive ability of your brain:

• Walk approximately one mile (15 blocks) a day. This amount of exercise by itself may be enough to stop cognitive impairment and reduce brain atrophy for several years.

• Practice yoga and perform moderate weightlifting.

• Perform aerobic exercise several times a week.

• Dance frequently to the rhythm of music.

• Reduce the time you spend on a chair and other sedentary behaviors

In addition to preventing cognitive impairment, physical exercise may be able to reverse it.

Recommendations for Making Neuroplasticity Exercises More Effective

Dr. Michael Merzenich, professor and researcher of neuroscience at the University of California, describes some essential aspects of transforming the brain with neuroplasticity exercises.

• You need to achieve a specific amount of motivation and keep your focus on what you are doing. In this way, the brain will release the neurotransmitters that promote learning and positive changes in the brain.

• As you practice these neuroplasticity exercises, connections between neurons will be strengthened or new connections between neurons will be created.

• Through these exercises, connections between neurons that are no longer needed will be weakened. In particular, it is important to weaken connections related to negative thoughts and life habits that do not serve you.

• The more you practice these exercises and habits, the more connections will change and develop in your brain.

• When you include more sensory elements (for example, images, sounds, aromas, and sensations), more connections between neurons will be strengthened.

• Initial changes will be temporary. For this reason, constancy with these neuroplasticity exercises and practices is very important. The changes will be more permanent if the brain considers the experience interesting, new, and important. Likewise, relevant changes in behavior will also help make changes in the brain more stable.

• When your brain learns a new skill, it remembers the successful attempts and dismisses failed attempts. In this way, it is possible to progressively improve a new skill.

• Mental exercises that use imagination, visualization, and meditation are as effective in changing the brain as external and tangible practices (physical exercise, yoga, learning a new skill or language, healthy diet, etc.).

• Remember that neuroplasticity can work in a positive or negative way. You can create new connections and circuits to improve your life, but also to make it more difficult. It is you who decides!

Recommended Books and Courses

Book: Soft-Wired – How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life (Michael Merzenich)

Audio Course: Self-Directed Brain Change (Rick Hanson)

Book: Bouncing Back (Linda Graham)

Audio Course: The Enlightened Brain – The Neuroscience of Awakening (Rick Hanson)

References

Graham, L. (2013). Bouncing back. California: New World Library.

Hanson, R. (2016). Hardwiring happiness. New York: Harmony Books.

Nussbaum, P. (2015). Brain health for the self-empowered person. Journal of the American Society on Aging. 39(1), 30-36.

5 Neuroplasticity Exercises All Coaches Should Know

What is Neuroplasticity?

As Coaches, we know the human brain is capable of great change. Neuroplasticity – the biological underpinnings of this transformative ability- is the brain’s ability to change and strengthen neural networks in response to repeated environmental stimuli or training.

Over the last 50 years, the dominant view on neuroplasticity has shifted. What was once viewed to be the sole domain of the young, growing brain is now known to be a lifelong phenomenon. Our neurons are continually rewiring. The brain is indeed most malleable in early childhood, but some degree plasticity persists throughout our entire lifespan.

Advances in neuroscience tell us that neurons can change shape, make new synapses and create new neural pathways in the brain to allow for life-long adaptation. In your 80’s? New neurons can still be generated, and your neurochemical balance can shift.

Neuroplasticity can be halted or enhanced by a complex array of interacting factors including the physical and psychosocial stimulation in the environment, drugs, stress, growth factors, learning, and the aging process.

Using Neuroplasticity with Clients

As our understanding of brain change increases, scientists are experimenting with new methodologies to facilitate neuroplasticity and lessen the negative effects of brain damage and mental disorders. The Coaching field can learn from this burgeoning area of study to help their clients improve their general cognitive performance including learning, memory, and stress reduction capabilities. Executive Coaches in particular will find that solution-oriented neuroplasticity exercises are in high demand among their clients. Coaches can tailor appropriate exercises to meet their clients specific performance enhancement goals.

A useful neuroplasticity definition – neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to continuously change itself in response to all of our experiences. By elucidating the concrete biological mechanisms underpinning continual brain growth throughout the lifespan, Coaches can help their clients cultivate a growth mindset rather than fixed mindset.

Neuroplasticity Exercises

Here are a few tactics to share for clients interested in self-directed neuroplasticity enhancement. Deliberate, consistent practice is likely to result in cognitive benefits. Clients can greatly benefit from the continued guidance of a Coach to adjust exercises as necessary and promote program adherence.

Meditate

There is a huge body of research studying the structural and functional changes within the brains of meditators. The results are impressive. Studies show that meditators exhibit increased grey matter, improved attention, and better performance on learning and memory tasks. These benefits may be seen with as little as 5 minutes a day of guided breathing meditation. Some studies have shown measurable gray matter growth in as little as 8 weeks of practice! As a bonus, meditation practice comes with many other benefits, including immune system strengthening.

Try Neuroplasticity Computer Games

Neuroplasticity exercise computer programs use a video-game like interface to present multiple gamified memory or spatial challenges. For example, the Cogmed Working Memory Training Program programs harnesses current understanding of neuroplasiticty to help improve attention, planning, and task completion abilities [Reference: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-14109-1_5, http://www.cogmed.com/]. There are a range of neuroplasticity training programs available depending on your client’s specific goals, including Lumosity, Superbetter, and Cogmed.

As the jury is still out on the effectiveness of various general ‘brain training’ games, Coaches should use caution in selecting the appropriate program for their clients. The most rigorous studies (randomised control trials) tend to be done on trainees with brain injuries like TBI or stroke and mental disorders like schizophrenia, ADHD, or normal age related memory declines. In general, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that computerized training can produce meaningful and long lasting improvements in cognitive function. Use these programs in close consultation with your client, offering support and encouragement, and carefully track outcomes to find a program that meets your client’s needs.

Reduce Stress

One of the most visible effects of the environment on neuroplasticity is the well-studied phenomenon of shrinking dendrites on neurons in the hippocampus as a result of exposure to chronic stress. Chronic stress has a toxic effect on the brain. Encourage your clients to identify relaxing activities and set goals for engaging in those activities on a regular basis – not as a reward for hard work, but as a deliberate exercise for brain health.

Foster Positivity in Relationships

Better relationships lead to enhanced neuroplasticity. Traumatic relationships can have the opposite effect, creating a hostile environment for brain change. Feeling understood by others creates appropriate climates in the brain for learning. Encourage your clients to take steps to create a supportive growth environment – whether that means shaking up group dynamics at work or focusing on improving intimate relationships. The brain is a social organ, and negative social interactions will hamper client’s ability to respond successfully to new challenges in any area of life.

Try Something New

Learning a new skill such a new language or a new instrument gets new neurons firing and wiring together. What if you’re an Executive Coach working with a busy clients that don’t have the time for such an undertaking? Neuroplasticity can also be promoted by something as simple as taking a new path to work. Encourage your clients to shake things up – even small deviations from the daily norm can promote brain health.

Neuroplasticity is complex, and caution must be taken to not prescribe any method as a one-size-fits-all solution to a client’s needs. As always, use caution around any supplements, training games, etc that claim to use neuroscience without presenting a sufficient evidence base.

Interested in learning more about neuroplasticity? Check out this recommended neuroplasticity book:

The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Future of Neuroscience by Norma Doidge

9 exercises to reboot the brain

Books Briefly. The main ideas of useful books.

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The Laws of Influence Susan Weinschenk

There are 100 billion neurons in our brain - that's more than there are stars in our galaxy! Each cell in turn can give 200 thousand branches. Thus, the brain has enormous resources to store memories for about 3 million years. Scientists call these “magic trees of the mind” because the nerve cells in the brain are like branched trees.

Mental electrical impulses between neurons are transmitted through synapses – contact zones between neurons. The average neuron in the human brain has between 1,000 and 10,000 synapses, or contacts, with neighboring neurons. Synapses have a small gap that an impulse must overcome.

When we learn, we change the way our brain works, creating new pathways for mental electrical impulses. In this case, the electrical signal must “jump” over the synapse gap to form new connections between nerve cells.

This road is the most difficult for him to pass the first time, but as he learns, when the signal overcomes the synapse again and again, the connections become “wider and stronger”, the number of synapses and connections between neurons grows.

New neural micronetworks are formed, into which new knowledge is “embedded”:

beliefs,
habits,
behavior patterns.

And then we finally learned something.

This ability of the brain is called neuroplasticity .

It is the number of micronetworks in the brain, and not its volume or mass, that has a decisive influence on what we call intelligence.

In passing I want to note that in early childhood, when the most intensive period of learning passes, a rich and varied developmental environment is extremely important for a child .

Neuroplasty is one of the most amazing discoveries of recent years. Previously, it was believed that nerve cells do not regenerate.

But in 1998, a group of American scientists proved that neurogenesis occurs not only before 13-14 years of age, but throughout our life , and that new nerve cells can also appear in adults.

They found that the reason for the decrease in our mental abilities with age is not the death of nerve cells, but the depletion of dendrites , - processes of nerve cells through which impulses pass from neuron to neuron.

If the dendrites are not constantly stimulated, they will atrophy, losing their ability to conduct, like muscles without exercise.

The same daily actions form patterned behavior - our habits - while using and strengthening the same neural connections. This is how our "autopilot" is built in, but the flexibility of our thinking suffers.

The brain must be maintained in "working condition", not allowed to "sleep". And for everyone - both adults and schoolchildren, whose school life also quickly enters into a familiar rut with repetitive rituals.

Charging is very easy to do - you can do it almost anytime, anywhere.

Consider mental aerobic exercises.

1 - NEW FURNITURE. From time to time it is very useful to be in unfamiliar places. Therefore, visit a part of the city where you have never been or visit very rarely - a large park or a store. It is also good to change the usual routes - for example, go to work by another road.

2 - NEW SCENTS. In the morning, immediately after waking up, experts advise: inhaling a variety of aromas, such as essential oils - this helps to “wake up” the brain.

3 - IMAGINARY BLINDNESS. Attention and concentration exercise - try to orient yourself in the room with your eyes closed (as an option - take a shower). In the absence of vision, other senses are sharply activated.

4 - RIGHT-LEFT. Do something sometimes with a non-working hand: if you are right-handed, then with your left; if left-handed - right.

5 - UNKNOWN WORK. Often take on work that has not yet been done - the brain is quickly activated when you do not know exactly what to do.

6 - ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. The same question can be answered in different ways. So answer, avoid the usual standard phrases - at least mentally. Neurobics is a very good exercise - to touch, to distinguish objects with your fingers. For example, coins. For example, in a boring queue.

7 - MAGAZINES. Periodically buy newspapers that are not related to your interests - for example, about the economy or about fishing. It is not necessary to study the subject in depth, it is enough to change the topic of what you read from time to time.

8 - MUTE TV. Turn off the sound of the TV and try to sound the image, following the lips of the characters on the screen. This, by the way, is not only good for the brain, but also a lot of fun, especially in the company.

9 - NEW TEMP. From time to time change the pace of the usual action. If you usually do something slowly, speed up the work by 2 times. If, on the contrary, you are in a hurry, force yourself to do everything slowly.

And in our Library you can read a review of Doidge Norman's book Brain Plasticity, in which the author makes a revolutionary statement: our brain is able to change its own structure and work due to human thoughts and actions!

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Laws of Influence Susan Weinschenk

Brain Exercises for Adults – MyGenetics Blog

Plastic in the general sense implies pliability, flexibility. Clay is plastic in its properties; the human body is also plastic - muscles pump up, ligaments stretch, adipose tissue either accumulates or is burned.

But how to apply this concept to the brain? How do abstract thinking and the quite material "walnut" in our skull correlate? And finally, is there any special exercise for the mind?

What the brain consists of

The brain consists of neurons - special nerve cells, unique in their structure: with many short tentacles and one long one. Short - dendrites, long - axon.

Dendrites connect neighboring neurons, axons - different parts of the nervous system, sometimes very distant. For example, neurons in the head can reach their axons to the lower back, and neurons in the lower back to the toes.

The place of physical contact between the processes of two neurons is called synapse . This connection is loose, there is a gap in it. The signal from one cell to another is transmitted through ions or special intermediary proteins.

The brain is divided into white and gray matter:

The white matter consists of axons. Its function is to deliver signals throughout the body and coordinate the work of the entire nervous system.
Neuronal bodies and dendrites form gray matter. Let's dwell on it in more detail.

Role of gray matter

Frankly, it is rather gray-brown - a brown tint is given by blood vessels that carry nutrients to neurons. Gray matter is responsible for memory, emotions, speech, movements, and processing data from the senses.

All our ideas about the world are stored in the form of connections between neurons. Each new fact triggers the creation of new associative links.

The more associations one memory forms, the stronger it is. If you saw something, connections were formed for that “something” in the visual area of the brain. If you connect the ears, nose, tactile sensations, add joy, despair or any other strong feeling, then more diverse associations will arise - the image will settle more firmly in the head and it will be easier to remember it.

What is brain neuroplasty

For the first time this concept was used by the Polish neuroscientist Jerzy Konorski more than 70 years ago. In short, neuroplasticity of the brain is the ability to form new associative connections. And not just any, but those that help us adapt to changing conditions.

What is neuroplasty

This concept combines all the ideas, technologies and approaches that allow you to stimulate the plasticity of the brain and thereby pump it.

Five factors influence neuroplasticity:

Number of nerve cells
Number of shoots on them
Number of synapses (remember: these are physical contacts between neurons)
Number of signaling proteins in synapses
Number of cerebral blood vessels

With the first four points it is clear: the more cells, processes, synapses and synaptic proteins, the richer the "infrastructure" for the emergence of associative links. Point 5 needs some clarification.

Neurons need energy to work efficiently, and this requires a good blood supply. If it is not there, then the activity of nerve cells decreases. This often happens after traumatic brain injuries that disrupt blood flow. Therefore, the number of blood vessels is also one of the key factors of plasticity.

Brain training: fast and slow changes

Grow new dendrites, form new synapses, or weave a network of blood vessels—all these anatomical changes take time. They are important, they can be influenced (we’ll tell you how a bit later), but they go in the background. But a sudden improvement in the "here and now" you are unlikely to notice. Another thing is learning with the help of synaptic proteins.

If some information activates the same associative connection over and over again, then it is important. To remember it, the necessary contact between neurons is enhanced: there are more intermediary proteins in the synaptic cleft, the signal passes faster.

If this information needs to be remembered even better, old synaptic proteins are replaced with new ones with a higher level of activity. Such a quick training can be completed in a couple of weeks.

Age-related neuroplasticity

“Absorbs like a sponge; catches on the fly ”- this is more often said about children. It is clearly more difficult for older people to learn, and there is a biological explanation for this.

Windows of plasticity are periods in life when the brain is most susceptible to the influence of the surrounding world and it is easier to create neural connections.

At an early age, there are critical periods for different functions: first sight and hearing, then speech and motor skills, then higher cognitive functions. At this time, predominantly excitatory neurons are active. Then the braking system develops and the window closes. However, the latest research shows that closing the window is not a death sentence.

First, new neurons are formed in adults. So far, little can be said about this process, it is still being studied, but the discoveries are encouraging.

Secondly, it is possible to create new neural associations even in old age, and up to the restoration of all motor skills from scratch. This is evidenced by the experience of rehabilitation of patients after a stroke.

Sports and neuroplasticity of the brain: chair training

Speaking of motor skills. Plasticity concerns not only higher nervous activity, but also coordination of movements.

There is even such an interesting technique - the mental reproduction of movements. It has been proven that by scrolling through the next technique in the head, the athlete activates the same neural circuits as during real movements. It turns out that even sitting in a chair after a workout, you can develop motor memory.

The 10,000 hour rule: the importance of repetition

The rule goes like this: Every genius has spent at least 10,000 hours practicing skills before they succeed. That's three and a half years of daily eight-hour training. But not everyone has to become geniuses. Most people just need to keep their brains in good shape. This is enough for less than 10,000 hours.

When neurons form new associative connections, they release neurotrophins, special proteins that positively affect the viability, development, and activity of neighboring neurons. It turns out a positive chain reaction in which nerve cells support each other.

The concentration of neurotrophins decreases with age. But if you regularly load the brain with new impressions and information, it will be more focused and manageable.

By the way, you can evaluate the efficiency of the brain inherent in nature and find ways to maximize the work of cognitive functions using the MyNeuro DNA test. It will also help assess the genetic risk of cognitive decline with age (read more about this in the article "Alzheimer's Disease" on our website.

Making the brain obedient

It has been proven that neuroplasticity factors can be influenced, and by simple and understandable means:

Physical exercise for the brain, especially aerobic exercise, promotes the creation of new blood vessels.
Cognitive brain training exercises boost dendritic branching and new synapse formation.
In addition, as we have already said, any exercises for the development of neural connections of the brain include the same chain reaction with neurofins, which means that they make the mind more flexible and mobile.

It is on these principles that Neurobics is based - a set of physical and cognitive exercises with which you can develop the brain and keep it active.

Learn more