A Full-Body Workout (in Our Minds!)

To renew a teaching license in Virginia (which a person needs to do every 5 years), you can do a variety of things - one of which is to take 6 credits of college courses.  Since I already have my Master's degree in Education, this frees me up to explore other areas of interest.  In the past, I took several semesters of Spanish and an Information Technology course.  Currently, I am taking a Health class.

You've heard the phrase "Never stop learning!"  Several times over the years, when I was taking a class, or teaching myself web design, or practicing piano accompaniments for local instrumentalists, I remember remarking to my husband, "It's almost like I can feel the cobwebs clearing from my brain."  It was almost hard to think at first, and gradually things became easier to understand or perform.

So I'm finding the current chapter in the Health book very interesting.  It talks about the nervous system.  Do you remember being taught that people are born with a certain number of neurons and then they just die off as you age?  Well, apparently we DO produce more neurons as we age!  This was such good news to a 47-year-old woman!

Now keep in mind, I am not a neurologist - I'm just a student - so this is what I think I understand from the book:  Apparently as you grow and learn, your nervous systems builds new pathways for these new activities.  If you quit doing an activity for an extended period of time, then that pathway deteriorates.  As an example, that is why after many years of not playing a musical instrument, you can't do it so well anymore (if at all!)

Doctors and scientists have known for a long time that it's important to keep your mind active as we get older, but modern advancements in science help them explain why.  Someone shared this video on Facebook a while ago, and as a pianist, I found it very interesting.  Apparently simply listening to music is a great way to engage the brain, and performing it is the equivalent of a "full-body workout."

What Your Brain Looks Like While Playing Piano

The Virginia teaching license renewal requirement probably helps our educators stay sharp and out of a rut in their own classrooms.  I think we would all like to say the same for ourselves.

So... let's remember to exercise our minds as well as our muscles every day.  Never stop learning!