🧠 What Is Neuroplasticity? Why Should You Care?

💡 Sol Bites: 10-Step Guide to Neuroplasticity

🦋 The Messy Truth About Breaking Bad Habits

🦉 Words of Wisdom

1. Move Your Body

Exercise might be the single most powerful thing you can do for your brain. When you do cardio (such as running, walking, cycling, or swimming) your brain releases a chemical called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)—think of it as fertilizer for your brain cells. It helps grow new neurons and strengthen connections between them.

A major 2011 study followed adults aged 55 to 80 who went on brisk 40-minute walks three times a week. After one year, the memory center of their brains (the hippocampus) had grown by 2%. The non-exercising group saw it shrink. The walkers’ memories improved, too.

Quick tip: Get 150 minutes of moderate cardio per week. You don't need a gym—a brisk daily walk counts. Even one 20-minute session raises BDNF in your brain the same day.

2. Learn Something Hard

Doing easy things doesn't change the brain that much. Struggle does. When something feels difficult and you push through it anyway, your brain releases dopamine and acetylcholine, chemicals that signal “this matters, lock in,” which causes new neural pathways to form.

This was highlighted in a 2014 study, in which older adults were presented with three options: learn a genuinely challenging new skill (photography or quilting), do a familiar easy activity, or socialize. Only the people who learned the challenging new skills showed real memory improvements afterward.

This is connected to what Gu describes as her “tinkering” mindset. She approaches her own thoughts analytically, deliberately practicing new mental patterns in the same way she practices her athletic skills. Discomfort isn't a problem—it’s actually the point.

Quick tip: Pick something that makes you feel a little incompetent: a new language, instrument, sport, or creative skill. Push through the discomfort. That challenge is your brain rewiring itself.

3. Meditate — Even for Just 10 Minutes a Day

Meditation is one of the most well-studied tools for physically reshaping the brain. Harvard researcher Sara Lazar found in 2005 that people who meditated regularly had thicker brain tissue in areas responsible for attention and decision-making. Coincidentally, those are the same areas that typically thin as we age.

Even more compelling: A 2011 study by neuroscientist Britta Hölzel found that practicing mindfulness for about 27 minutes a day for just eight weeks resulted in visible increases in grey matter in the hippocampus of the study’s participants. Additionally, the stress-processing centers of their brains (the amygdala) actually shrank, and they reported feeling less stressed.

Quick tip: Try apps like Insight Timer or a structured program like MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). Stick with it for at least six to eight weeks to see changes.

4. Sleep—Seriously

Your brain does most of its rewiring while you’re sleeping. During deep sleep, it replays what you learned that day and transfers it into long-term memory. It also cleans out toxic waste products that build up in your body while you're awake.

Research by Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker showed that specific bursts of brain activity during sleep (called sleep spindles) are directly responsible for moving memories from short-term to long-term storage. Miss one night of sleep, and your brain's ability to encode new information the next day drops by about 40%.

Quick tip: Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Keep a consistent sleep schedule, make your room cool and dark, and avoid screens in the hour before bed. If you're practicing a new skill, sleeping soon after practice speeds up how fast you improve.

5. Control Your Stress (But Don't Eliminate It)

We all know that chronic stress is damaging. When you're stressed for a long time with no relief, your brain produces too much cortisol, a hormone that, in excess, kills neurons in your hippocampus and shrinks your prefrontal cortex (where rational thinking happens). Research by Sonia Lupien at McGill University showed that people with chronically high cortisol have measurably smaller memory centers and perform worse on memory tests.

However, short bursts of challenging stress are actually good for plasticity. The stress of a hard workout, a difficult problem, or a challenging conversation triggers BDNF and helps the brain grow. The key is recovery.

Again, this is part of what Gu practices: She uses journaling to observe her stress responses, understand them, and consciously reframe them, rather than letting them run unchecked.

Quick tip: Practice recovery as deliberately as you practice effort. Deep breathing, nature walks, yoga, and social connection all lower cortisol. In a Stanford University study, even a 50-minute walk in a park was shown to reduce stress-related brain activity.

6. Eat to Fuel Brain Growth

Your brain is a physical organ, and it needs the right fuel. Omega-3 fatty acids (found in foods such as salmon, sardines, and walnuts) are building blocks for neuron membranes and directly boost BDNF levels. A 2012 review in Neuropsychopharmacology confirmed that omega-3 supplementation improves cognitive flexibility across many populations.

Foods rich in polyphenols (including blueberries, dark chocolate, green tea, and turmeric) have measurable neuroprotective effects. There's also growing evidence that intermittent fasting stimulates BDNF and triggers cellular cleanup processes that keep neurons healthy.

Quick tip: Prioritize fatty fish, berries, leafy greens, olive oil, nuts, and dark chocolate. Cut back on ultra-processed foods and added sugar, which both suppress BDNF and increase brain inflammation.

7. Stay Socially Connected

Loneliness is genuinely harmful to the brain. John Cacioppo's research at the University of Chicago showed that lonely people have disrupted sleep, elevated cortisol, and faster hippocampal shrinkage compared to people with strong social ties. Rich social interaction (like real conversations, teaching, and collaborating) is important because it requires your brain to stay active as you process language, read emotions, and respond in real time.

Quick tip: Invest in real, in-person relationships. Teaching something to another person, having deep conversations, and working through problems with others are especially powerful brain-boosters.

8. Mental Imagery (Visualization)

This is one of the most underused brain tools available to anyone, and one of the most studied in sports. The science behind it is striking: When you vividly imagine performing a movement or action, your brain activates the same neural pathways as when you actually do it. You're literally practicing without moving.

A survey of US Olympic coaches found that 94% of them, along with 90% of their athletes, used visualization regularly. Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps famously “swam” every race in his mind the night before a competition, visualizing everything—including things going wrong and how he would correct them. Studies suggest that athletes who combine physical practice with mental imagery show around 30% better muscle coordination than those who only train physically.

The key is vividness. The more senses you involve (what you see, feel, hear, and even smell), the stronger the neural signal. Researchers describe this as making the imagined experience “functionally equivalent” to the real one.

Spend five to 15 minutes each day doing structured visualization. Imagine a skill, performance, or challenge in as much sensory detail as possible. Practice both ideal outcomes and handling adversity. You can do this anywhere— before bed, on your commute, or right before training. Like Gu, think of this as a form of mental journaling: You’re rehearsing who you want to be.

9. Cold Water Immersion

Cold exposure has become a staple in elite athletic recovery, but the brain benefits go far beyond sore muscles. When you enter cold water, your body immediately releases a flood of neurochemicals that are directly linked to neuroplasticity.

The most significant of these is norepinephrine, a hormone and neurotransmitter that plays a direct role in synaptic plasticity and the activation of neural stem cells in the hippocampus. Research by Petr Šrámek and colleagues showed that full cold water immersion can raise norepinephrine levels by up to 530%, with dopamine rising by around 250%. On top of that, it’s a sustained elevation that can last for hours, not just minutes. Dopamine, in turn, drives motivation, learning, and the formation of new habits.

Cold exposure also activates RBM3, a cold shock protein that has been directly linked to the regeneration of damaged brain synapses. Research published in PubMed Central found that cold water immersion increases connectivity between large-scale brain networks, improving alertness and attentional control after just one session.

One important nuance: Research also suggests that doing cold immersion immediately after resistance training may blunt muscle growth by reducing muscle protein synthesis. Athletes have learned to time it strategically, using cold water for mental recovery and alertness, not immediately post-strength sessions.

Quick tip: A cold end to a shower (just the last 60 to 90 seconds) or a two- to five-minute immersion in cold water (around 50 to 60°F / 10 to 15°C) several times a week is enough to trigger norepinephrine and dopamine release. Slow, deliberate breathing during the cold period amplifies the neurological benefit. (If you’re new to cold water immersion, start with cold showers before trying plunges.)

10. Cognitive-Motor Dual-Task Training

This is one of the most exciting and least-known approaches to neuroplasticity, but it’s increasingly used by professional athletes and their coaches. The idea is simple but powerful: Instead of training your body and your mind separately, you train them at the same time.

In any real competition, the brain never gets to do one thing at a time. A basketball player dribbling has to simultaneously read the defense, track teammates, make split-second decisions, and control their body. Traditional training with drills that just isolate physical technique doesn’t fully replicate this environment. Cognitive-Motor Dual-Task (CMDT) training bridges that gap deliberately.

Quick tip: Walking or jogging while doing mental math out loud—for example, counting backwards from 200 by 7s—is the single best entry point for this type of training. It requires zero equipment, fits into something you already do, and immediately forces your brain and body to compete for the same mental resources—which is exactly the tension that drives neuroplastic change.

Your brain—every brain—is a work in progress. It is 'plastic.' From the day we're born to the day we die, it continuously revises and remodels, improving or slowly declining, as a function of how we use it.

Help us make this newsletter even better for you! Was this issue useful? What would you be excited to read about next? Reply to this email with your thoughts and suggestions. We read every response!

3 Ways to Heal Brain Atrophy (Without Labeling it Trauma)

Retrain Your Brain: 4 Steps to Overcome Negative Thoughts

Why Your Brain Loves Being Stuck

Anxiety Decoded: When Your Brain Is Doing Too Much

Four Steps to Rewire Your Brain and Beat Anxiety—Pill-Free

The Messy Truth About Breaking Bad Habits

Stop Buying Into Your Brain’s Made-Up Emotional Drama

Why Your Brain Has 47 Tabs Open (And How to Close Them)

Your Anxious Brain Mistakes Worry for Protection