As regular readers of intelligentwomen.com know, changing behavior, thinking, feeling habits evolves from the brain unlearning old patterns and acquiring new learning sequences. For example, learning problem-solving thinking, cognitive reappraisal, and detachment are the best ways to eliminate the negative self talk- one of the less useful habits of mind. My book project, Handbook #1 for Intelligent Women: Break the Negative Self-Talk Habit with New Brain Science, is a sophisticated self-help book that has a chapter on each of the skills mentioned; all part of brain fitness.
Below is a quote from an article on the business of brain fitness by Alvaro Fernandez on sharpbrains.com It’s a good context to continue understanding brain fitness. I particularly like the comparison with the physical fitness gym equipment.
“The recent discovery that experience can change brain structure and function at any age has sparked numerous health, education, and productivity applications whose value and limitations we are only starting to grasp.
Brain fitness has quickly become a mainstream aspiration among baby boomers and elders, primarily in North America. It has fueled a growing interest in brain fitness classes, brain fitness centers, and brain fitness programs, along with attendant opportunities and challenges. An increasing number of adults want useful tools to protect cognitive health and performance—not necessarily to reverse aging—and what they are finding is an expanding and noisy marketplace where they (and also professionals) need to carefully evaluate their own needs and the available options (Fernandez and Goldberg, 2009). The recent discovery that experience can change brain structure and function at any age has inspired a range of health, education, and productivity applications whose value and limitations we are only starting to grasp. If you can envision the array of equipment available to train different muscles in a typical modern health club, you can anticipate the value—and perhaps the limitations—of having an expanding toolkit to measure and enhance cognition and mental wellness. The burgeoning brain fitness industry needs to define and refine itself, to mature, before it can be as established as today’s physical fitness industry.”