COACHING POST – Day 27(3rd Post)

Key for mind health is also to engage in new activities and learn new things. Here’s some simple suggestions:

- Do things you’ve never done before. - Travel somewhere you’ve never been. - Check out an unfamiliar ethnic cuisine. - Try a hobby that is totally out of character for you - If you are a couch potato, sign up for a dance class. - If you are athletic, try needlepoint. Novel experiences trigger the release of dopamine, the “motivation” neurotransmitter. It also stimulates the creation of new neurons. Learning something new stimulates brain activity.

But as soon as you master it, the mental benefit stops because your brain becomes more efficient at the activity.

The only way to continue to stimulate your brain is to give it new challenges and stay out of your comfort zone. So once you master something, challenge yourself with the next level of difficulty or learn a related skill.

For this reason, pursuits like learning languages, playing musical instruments, or chess are ideal brain exercises because there is always more to learn