Grow Your Brain
"Try the Opposite"
Opposite-ism Expands Your Brain
Our brains are shrinking. I thought mine was for sure, but it turns out all of ours are … and have been ever since we wandered out of the wild and built a way of life with less survival challenges, shared agriculture, and reality TV. In fact, "all domesticated animals have smaller brain mass compared to their wild cousins" according to research by Deane Alban.
Ironically, the shrinking may result from having highly functioning brains which prefer efficiency. Our brains have two basic gears for accomplishing tasks: 1) learning how to do something new, which links and ignites various parts of the brain in order to form novel neural firing patterns, or 2) carrying out practiced tasks, for which the brain calls up previously learned neural firing patterns to complete, thereby expending less energy. As an example, think of how hard it is to learn to ride a bike, but once you’ve pedaled up that learning curve, it becomes as easy as riding a bike to… well… ride a bike.
Experts agree that for activities to help stimulate your brain, they have to be complex and novel. So, while following our everyday routines does not get our juices flowing, changing up routines and consciously learning new things can help. To grow more grey matter and tap creativity, we can very simply switch our brains back over to learning mode by doing the things we normally do, but in the opposite way.
Today find a way to use your non-dominant hand for tasks.
In life, consider trying these tasks using your opposite hand:
Open jars
Stir the pot
Drink the wine
Dry the hair
Use a fork
In the studio, you have a wide range of options, such as:
Paint with the opposite-sized brush
Use a completely different color
Go big instead of small, or visa versa
Make circles instead of angles
Close your eyes while doodling
Give into some brain-building, creative self-lovin’ and let me know what you find!
Sending Love,
Montine