@Mike N, just hitch up the old covered wagon to my Inner Donkey, and I’ll be pioneering all over the place!

@Mike L, I’m sure your wife knows what she’s talking about – the effects of Rogaine should help keep your brain warm, and who wants a cold brain? Always listen to the wife. Yepp yepp.

@Bonnie, that story is pretty darn funny… and I relate to it OH so well. I’m always afraid of that “Oh yeah, well if this stuff works, why do you keep forgetting everything?” My answer…. “Well, just imagine what I’d be like WITHOUT it.. I’d forget everything plus one!”

A couple of weeks ago I attended a brown-bag session where I work, put on by our company wellness coordinator. The title was “Exercising the Brain” and she talked about what you talk about in your post. We even did some brain exercises (and memory tests) during the session. Most of her talk centered on memory improvements. She recommended a book called “The Memory Bible” by Dr. Gary Small.

Here’s the kicker: After telling us all this cool stuff about how we can exercise our brain and improve our memory… she totally forgot she had scheduled an afternoon session! I’m sure that’s no reflection on the quality of the info she shared with us or the importance of brain exercising. But it was hilarious… and of course we’ll never let her live it down.

I really enjoyed your piece and it did stop me in my tracks a bit. I have been defining brain fitness by talking about exercising neural circuits, sort of like a personal coach might design a program for the biceps, and another for the deltoids. So I am doing exercising of the attentional muscle, for example, and in the case of Martin’s excellent program, the fluid intelligence muscle, which translates for me into longer attention on one task. My wife wants me to exercise the rogaine muscle now. I am not convinced that the rogaine muscle has any bearing on brain fitness, but I may be convinced by her sly ways. Mike Logan

It is surprising that you couldn’t find a definition of brain fitness online, what with so many people beginning to wake up to its benefits. Maybe you could be the pioneer definer, leading the troops to battle against brain atrophy!

Good post, Tori!

@Martin I jokingly call that the part of my psyche that deals with motivation my inner-donkey: stubborn and tough to motivate without just the right carrot or 2×4.

Maybe Da Vinci and other multi-talented geniuses had an entire team of donkeys. Or maybe just better mannered draft horses?

More seriously, I think its fascinating to look at our motivations and ponder their origins. But I’d better stop pondering now before this turns into post-length commentary

I guess it’s one of those things — some people enjoy gym, others prefer algebra or art.

But it is interesting that physical and mental motivation often don’t coincide in the same person. Perhaps there’s a connection.

On the other, other hand, DaVinci was a scientific genius, an artist, and quite an athlete. So go figure.

Martin