It’s thought the big glob of muscle that is our brain becomes consolidated, once we reach a certain age, which is sometime in our twenties. It’s also thought we can continue to improve our brains thinking patterns and pathways, once certain methods are applied as we age.
Once we reach our third decade of living, our character and personality becomes pretty much set for life.
For most individuals, this personality becomes difficult to be altered again, to the point it’s settled for the remainder of our lives.
What most agree is for the majority of adults, the brain begins to condense itself.
Our character, personality, behavior, and aptitude becomes pretty much set in stone.
There are others however, who think there’s still an opening, where we can alter our thinking patterns and learn something new once we apply ourselves.
It’s found the key is constantly and continuously creating new connections and neurological passageways in the brain.
To Chemically Alter The Brain
When the brain is still young and immature and not yet fully developed, what we have is plenty of flexibility within it, as it’s still in a state of plasticity.
This is why children when willing, are able to absorb and learn quickly.
They do so seemingly on instinct, recognize certain patterns which may appear too complex for the adult brain to comprehend.
To Dig Neural Pathways
What we humans have is an advantage over every other living species on the planet, which is the ability to develop new neural pathways in our brains.
The more we develop these neural pathways as we grow older, what they become is settled and deeply embedded, moving towards the deeper recesses of the brain.
By the time we reach our mid-twenties, what we’ve developed are a lot of these existing neural pathways which our brain relies on.
These are known as habits, good or bad, and they become difficult to break free from at times.
The reason being the brain is genetically lazy, choosing the path of least resistance, or taking the most energy efficient path.
We become settled in our ways on how we behave, and are okay with it.
To Learn New Things
The brain as we grow older, begins to slow down, becomes relaxed, resists change, and can’t alter thoughts quickly as when younger. The rapid thought patterns become complex.
But there is hope for those old brains which are set and rigid. It’s though new processes can be formed.
It’s found there are ways to alter the brain waves as we age, by creating rapid connections and movement between the neurons, digging new passageways.
Dedicated Focused Attention
It begins with keeping the brain as mindful as possible, by honing and fine tuning the areas of the cortex which aren’t used as frequently as they should be.
These can be reconstructed by learning new tasks, which we find challenging to us.
The ones which will stretch our capacity to the point we’ll begin to feel mentally and physically drained.
This occurs once applying and practicing a new difficult task at hand. Since we’re forcing our brain to expand in ways it’s unaccustomed to, we begin to learn.
This is how we can grow new neurons, by taking difficult actions which are strong enough to connect with the other existing neurons.
Doing so forms new pathways, becoming a physiological process.
To Expand The Brain
It’s found the best way to stimulate the brain for instance, is by learning a new language, a new musical instrument, or a new computer software program.
Anything that’s mind and energy intensive challenging.
A new task which requires the conscious processing of new inputs, complex problem solving, conscious decision making, memorizing difficult concepts.
Others include planning and strategizing the regulation of emotions, self-reflection, channeling energy, while exercising self-control.
Practice And Repetition
Once we learn to play the piano or learn Spanish however, and never bother to apply them again, we’ll just forget what we’ve learned.
Creating these new connections and pathways are extremely fragile in nature.
Only through constant repetition and practice, can these connections become established enough so they’ll become habits or adopted behaviors.
Depending on how complex the activity is, it can take up to four months for a new brain map to be established, and become stamped into the motor cortex.
During this time, what’s required is willpower, motivation, and self-control, which are all necessary to adopt and achieve the process or goal for the brain to compress.
Find The Proper Environment
The brain needs to be in a comfortable environment for it to learn and develop. Otherwise, it’s not able to focus properly on what’s required to establish new neurons.
Once the brain feels stress, it will go into survival or panic mode, which will then default back to the already established pathways which were previously formed and familiar.
The brain retreats into safety mode, attempting to predict where the next threat will come from, rather than becoming innovative or creative, to avoid mitigating danger.
The safer and more familiar the environment is, the more comfortable the brain becomes, and opens to learning.
Proper Nutrition
What you need is to keep the brain flexible and elastic. Your physical and mental health needs to be fit, because the brain absorbs the majority of the body’s nutrients during this time.
What’s needed is proper hydration, the proper essential supplements, and adequate rest are needed for the brain to learn, relearn, and retain new behavioral patterns.
What the brain does is it sends its resources directly through the blood supply, to the areas where you’re concentrating and focusing attention on, or where it want’s to direct more energy towards.