The Brain Workout: How to Get a Stronger Brain

When Emma first started building her Myrth protocol, she came up with a list of actions and habits that she thought might help her build the life she was looking for. She wanted more resilience, better habits, and a sense of peace. The Myrth protocol was built on those needs.

And in the process, Emma realized it wasn’t just self-care: it was a brain workout.

See, part of what she realized was missing in her life was a set of activities that helped strengthen the brain functions she most needed to encourage. One way of strengthening those brain functions is to give yourself the opportunity to practice them in small ways every day. 

The Myrth protocol has grown over the years into a multi-faceted approach to all aspects of wellness, but there are some key parts that help build a regular routine and a stronger brain. We’ve pulled those out to help focus your efforts as you build your own plan for self-care and wellness.

Here are six key elements of a good, daily brain workout.

1. One small, seemingly unimportant habit to strengthen your habit-building muscles

Part of building habits is having a brain that is primed to build habits, and you can prime your brain to build habits by just… getting started on it. Pick something small and do it each day. It can be making the bed, drinking a cup of water each morning, whatever. The important part is to start with a small habit and build on it.

2. One small opportunity to be imperfect each day to strengthen resilience

One way to build resilience is to learn that being imperfect isn’t so bad, and it’s easier to learn that when you have the opportunity to be imperfect in lots of small, safe ways. To give yourself that opportunity, try new things each day that are relatively low-stakes, like a new recipe or a new running route, where things might go wrong but won’t be catastrophic.

3. Meditation to strengthen mindfulness and awareness

Nobody starts out meditating in total silence without interruption for an hour. Your brain needs time to strengthen its meditation skills. Start with just a few minutes of guided meditation or walking meditation, and build from there.

4. Exercises to strengthen emotional equilibrium.

We’ve talked about how exercise releases endorphins, and those are key to helping maintain emotional balance. If you want to encourage more steadiness in your emotional life, getting some exercise each day needs to be a top priority if you can manage it.

5. Something new to think about to help broaden your horizons.

We love podcasts, audiobooks, ebooks and physical books from the library, newspapers, and other sources of new information that help us see things from a different perspective or make connections we hadn’t noticed before. Spend a little time each day learning something new to help your intellectual curiosity grow and flourish. Bonus: you can enjoy some of these while doing some of the exercise in #4.

6. Something that makes you happy—because you deserve to feel joy

Joy is not something that you only deserve after you’ve accomplished a bunch of goals. Joy is something you deserve every day, just because. Give yourself a little time to feel joyful about something: a sunset, the smell of your morning coffee, the softness of your favorite sweater. Find the joy in the everyday things and embrace it. 

When you give your brain an opportunity to build its metaphorical muscles, you’re better prepared for whatever comes next in life. It focuses you, keeps you going where you need to go, and helps you overcome obstacles more easily. With a little bit of exercise for your brain each day, you’ll find that new things feel less scary and old things are less overwhelming.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll even find that it can be a lot of fun.

Have you intentionally adopted any habits to strengthen your brain? What do you incorporate into your routine? Drop a line in the comments below!

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