This 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarter

This 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarterThis 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarterEverything popular is wrong? - ?Oscar WildeIn the book,BLUE ZONES Lessons for Living Longer From the People Whove Lived the Longest,author Dan Buettner details some incredible science on how to live the longest possible life.One of the key insights is to continually learn NEW and different things. You will age very quickly if you stop learning.Use different learning stylesLearning tons and tons about one idea or subject is good. But its also ineffective to learn about one thing in the saatkorn learning style.WHAT you learn about matters, but HOW you learn matters a lot more.If you only read books, even if youre reading about multiple subjects, your brain will atrophy in certain areas, which will age you faster.According to 50 years of research on learning theory, we all have a dominant learning style. We all also have several backup learning styles we rely on when were in a difficult s ituation. However, there are also several other learning styles that each of us neglect and avoid.Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.Some of these learning styles includeImagining which involves coming up with ideasReflecting which involves learning about the ideas you come up withAnalyzing which involves synthesizing what youve learning and making strategic plans about what to do with those ideasDeciding which involves making a decision on ONE WAY you will go with a specific ideaActing which involves DOING SOMETHING toward the attainment of your ideaExperiencing which involves learning from multiple angles, whether that be with other people, creating something, failing, or attemptingThe more learning styles you can regularly experience, the better and healthier your brain will be.Spend 15-30 minutes per day learning something TOTALLY DIFFERENT (do it just for fun, nut in an aggr essive way)When you were a kid, you tried tons of different things. Your brain was expanding and stretching left-and-right. Unfortunately, most people stop trying new things the older they get.If you want to make your brain healthier, and if you want to become a super-learner, its essential to continually learn different things.LanguagesLearning new languages is amazing for your brain. However, you dont want to learn those languages with the same methods. The more methods you can implement the better.For example, here are a few methods you could useUse an appUse flash-cardsWatch films in that languageHave conversations with people who speak the languageListen to music in the languageWrite journal entries in the languageEat food from the cultureThe more immersive the experience the better. However, even just actively learning something new for 15-30 minutes per day will open your brain and consciousness in so many ways.Musical InstrumentsLearning musical instruments is also very, ver y healthy for your brain. I recently started learning piano off a cool app. Its addictive A few days ago, I practiced for three hours straight I couldnt get myself to stop it was so fun.If you can gamify your learning, all the better. By gamify, I mean to make it into a game. In video games, you have quests or goals to accomplish.The reason I like the app Im learning piano on is that I have 15-minute lessons, and within those lessons, I have 5-10 sub-lessons. The competitor in me loves knocking-out as many lessons as possible.Just like in a video game, its fun to landsee how far you can go.How your brain changes when you learn something newThere is a lot of brain science into how this works and how to maximize the experience.Firstly, learning is all about memory - and about enhancing your memory. The best learners can develop a nearly photographic memory. This is a skill you can absolutely develop.Secondly, your confidence is all about winning, and creating quick wins - so the mor e you can win and keep winning, the more your confidence will boost.Thirdly, as you learn one subject, youll get creative breakthroughs in the other areas of your life. This is particularly true if youve developed mastery and expertise in a specific area. As you learn a new subject in a completely new learning style, youll make all sorts of unique connections in your brain related to your expertise. This is called, non-linear learning or indirect learning, and its perhaps the most effective learning tool.Albert Einstein, the Beatles, and several of the best innovators and artists got their biggest breakthroughs in an indirect and non-linear manner. For example, Albert Einstein was working in a patent shop, notlage an academic setting, when he got his insights about time relativity.The Beatles studied totally different and foreign music which led to their breakthroughs in Rock and Roll.Grant Achatz, considered one of the top chefs alive, studied abstract art to get inspiration for hi s cooking.How to maximize your experienceIf you really want to give yourself a brain-workout, here are some things you could doDaily, learn something totally different (it could be an instrument or a language, but it could also be something else like cooking, travel, public speaking whatever you want)Even though its just for fun, set goalsGamify the process as much as you can - you can make it a competition with friendsSpend 1530 minutes, at least 5 times per week, learning this thing (it will be a very healthy mental break from your job)Once every week or two when you have time, do an intensive 3-4 hour session when you totally focus-in and geek-outWhile in your deep intensive session, take 5-minute fitness breaks every 30 minutes like sprinting around your house and doing 50 push-upsDrink tons of waterHave a journal near you and document ALL of the creative insights you get that are either related or unrelated to your core expertiseAllow yourself to imagine where you could take t his small learning hobby. Now that youre an adult, you can think about and approach this differently than when you were a kid. Rather than going through the motions, you can get creative with this.For example, rather than just learning the piano to play it, I also want to learn it to more fully develop a photographic memory and to enhance my artistic sides. I want to learn piano because music can literally heal and release suppressed emotions. But I also want to learn to write and compose amazing music because it will teach me about learning, creativity, and the brain.In other words, you want to have some profound WHYs behind what youre learning. But you also want to have specific milestones or achievements to keep yourself going, to gamify the process, to build your confidence, and to make it fun.Heres whats truly amazing When you learn new things, you change as a person. Changing is the most healthy thing you can do.You cant actually have hope for your future if you dont believe y ou can change.The more you change, and the more you learn how to transform in a positive and intentional direction, the more hope youll have for your future.Hope is a powerful and positive EXPECTATION not just mere wishing.So, when you take 1530 minutes per day, focused exclusively on activating different areas of your brain, you heal yourself and make yourself younger. But you also infuse deep levels of HOPE into your future.Not only that, but you enhance the areas of your life where youve already developed deep mastery. You get to re-experience the beginners high and humility. You get a new perspective of yourself and the world.This pulls you from the rut and apathy of routine. It allows you to see the other areas of your life with fresh eyes. This changes EVERYTHING. As Wayne Dyer once said, When you change the way you see things, the things you see change.Youll start to infuse hope and healing into your loved onesPut simply, when you change your cognition, you transform your en vironment, your psychology, and your biology. You change yourself and you change others - because you interact with them differently.You become more loving and interested in your relationships. Because your own hope and healing is deepening, you become a more powerful vessel for healing, hope, and transformation others.You love your family and friends more. You see them in different ways. You notice the small things. You appreciate those small things. You thank them and acknowledge them for those small things.You smile more - because youre learning and changing and healing. Youre appreciating this amazing this we call life more.Your imagination starts to take-off, and you remove limiting models of thinking. Again, non-linear learning is about seeing things from totally different perspectives. So, by practicing, playing, and challenging yourself in new ways, youll start to get insights to improve the current approaches youre taking in your work and in other areas.Put simply, if you re not doing this, youre missing-out HUGE.This article first appeared on Medium.