How Challenges Both Heal and Grow Your Brain and Mind
Challenges in work and life build strength and directly impacts the brain and mind. When you think of past hardships that pushed you to do something different or apply yourself in a different manner, you’ve probably found yourself in similar situations and felt more equipped to tackle such challenges. That is an example of hour our brains and minds grow — when we feel assured and smarter as we do a skill or activity the second time around.
Our brains are hardwired to follow a familiar path and way of doing things but when that changes, this affects us neurologically. It’s our neurons that grow and multiply as we go through experiences that teach us new things. Science now shows that learning a new skill activates other neurons and creates new connections between brain cells. These connections affect how well our memory functions.
Whenever you learn how to do something new and make this a routine, this process continues boosting our memory. There are pathways in the brain that we often revisit and this is how memory works and routines are established.
When we’re challenged by an obstacle, adversity, or are in the process of learning a new skill, this also expands our minds. Our thinking skills and abilities sharpen and we become wiser and better at discernment in all areas of our lives. Our emotional health also strengthens and we become more resilient as we evolve and change.
Imagine that your mind is like a backyard without a fence. You can see other pathways that you have probably not yet gone down. Learning a new skill brings you to a new path, thus allowing this expansion and growth to occur. These are pathways you can go down again. Let’s say you learn a new skill such as sewing. It may take several tries at the sewing machine before you can sew a straight line seam, but eventually, you’ll perfect the craft.
Once you do, the skill is engraved in your brain and the more you return to it, the better you get and longer this pathway gets. You can go from being terrible at something to becoming a professional at something and this is growth and transformation at its finest. With everything you do, you’re constantly sharpening your brain and mind the way you sharpen pencils.
The mind and brain are similar in terms of how they expand and grow based on the things you do, skills and lessons you learn. Science also shows that mistakes grow our brains and make us smarter. It’s fascinating to think that we can improve and enhance the style in which we learn and use our memory. In retrospect, everything we do in our lives from our school days as kids to our professional lives as adults is all an exploration of how well our memory functions.
Our brains can act as storage units with built in pathways that we can either leave in the dark or choose to take. Memory is such an asset and we rely on it daily. Through order of operation, the action of doing a task thoroughly to completion is another brain stimulating and mind expanding process. The transactions of life, for example, such as scrubbing the dishes and putting them where they belong or doing laundry and putting clothes away benefits how well we navigate throughout our daily lives. We’re continuously working and exercising our memory so that we can use it later to help us simplify life.
Getting things completely done impacts our stress levels and how we respond to stress. There are times when everything in life and in your environment feels like it’s all piling up, and that’s when overwhelm sneaks up on us. We can live lighter and happier by engaging in routines that bring us joy, peace and a feeling of accomplishment or like we’re more together in general.
The reason why I stress creativity in the face of challenges is because of the stunning impact it has on our minds, especially our emotional health. Making something with your hands is like exercising your brain too, it’s all connected. Trying anything new can act as a form of meditation and a calm mind allows for so much more growth and improvement. Our thinking paths change and instead of entertaining negativity, we’re immersed in something positive. Creativity can be used as a tool to silence troubling thoughts and ease symptoms of depressive cyclic thinking.
Doing anything with our hands that brings something to our life is how we can beat depression and unnecessary anxiety. The act of doing is what allows these transformations to take shape. If you find yourself in a difficult place emotionally, do something creative or enriching, something that intervenes in those negative thoughts. Remember that the negativity we entertain usually isn’t our truth. It’s purpose is to bring us down and stop us in our tracks. By engaging our hands in activities, we’re healing, growing and sharpening our brains, minds and emotional health.
Concluding Thoughts
Learning a new skill is the most effective way to grow your mind and brain. Always introducing yourself to new things and new activities will keep your memory sharp while also promoting healing. Completely carrying out and finishing tasks is another method for strengthening and expanding our mental and emotional minds. Memory is an asset and can be improved and developed in these two ways — by learning new things and order of operation.
Doing things with our hands is like exercising our brains and minds as well. Growth can only occur through our actions and what these actions bring to our lives. How something serves you or others determines how you may feel in the long term. We should be viewing depression and anxiety under a new light. Through doing and being active, we’re making ourselves feel much better by either reducing stress, minimizing cyclic thoughts and/or calming our minds. In those moments when you’re not feeling great or something is bothering you, try getting busy with something enriching and see how your mind and you change.
