Neuroplasticity and Brain Games

Neuroplasticity sounds like a horrendous word, but stay with me here. It is the specific neuroscience study of how the brain and nervous system change in response to its enviornment. What does all that talk mean when at a yoga training? Well, it is commonly accepted that once you hit a certain age your capacity to learn is shot. Though it is true neurons in your brain can die, the synaptic connections (the pathways that send information signals to the cerebral cortex-where the brain signals the body to action) can continually be re-organized through challenging active experiences. But if you aren't challenging your mind, these connections shut down so your brain can refocus its energy elsewhere. So, when you challenge yourself to learn a language, take up a new sport, or play sudoku, you challenge your brain to re-organize itself. With these newly formed neuro connections your brain can react faster to enviornmental changes. The best connections are generally formed when we work those areas we shy away from. Such as those who avoid math at all cost, take some time to do a few multiplication or division problems (no you may not use a calculator)!

Specific activities that can help you to form these connections are:
-Completing puzzles
-Learning a new language
-Yoga!
-Lifting weights
-Sudoku
-Scrabble
-Reading
-Crossword puzzles
-Brain games on http://www.lumosity.com/

Your two challenges for today are to find a new activity that will challenge your brain and to answer this riddle: What happens once in a month, twice in a millenium, and never in a billion years?