Spiral sketchbooks with big, white, blank pages—with texture and space—can be very appealing to your senses and can leave your brain feeling like it has plenty of space to roam; that is, it can fill those spaces with brilliant ideas.

This is why pausing to exercise or meditating for five minutes can increase blood flow to your brain. If that seems too much, simply pause long enough to slowly breathe in and slowly exhale deep breaths.

but recent experiments revealed that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective Theory of Mind (understanding others’ emotions) and cognitive Theory of Mind (understanding others’ thinking and state of being), compared with reading nonfiction, popular fiction, or nothing at all.

you have the capacity to master whatever you choose to practice. In other words, if you’re smart, you’re smart.

Moving your body regularly (twenty to thirty minutes of walking will do) helps your brain resist physical shrinkage and enhances cognitive flexibility. Exercise seems to slow, and possibly even reverse, physical decay of the brain (particularly in the elderly), and it also jump-starts neurogenesis (the birth of new brain cells).

Studies have shown that visualizations can effectively trick your brain into thinking what it just experienced in thought only is real, particularly if you break down the visualizations into specific, detailed, sequential images (visualizing them as they would happen, in your mind’s eye, so to speak).

Identify a Purpose Larger Than Yourself A 2014 study of two thousand students, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, found that identifying a “pro-social, self-transcendent” purpose, such as gaining skills to benefit society or making a positive impact on the world, helped students study longer and harder.

well. Take time to ponder and be as generous and honest as possible—noting strengths, and areas that may need more work.

Whatever you choose, make it something that brings a genuine feeling of pleasure to you. Also, the reward should take place during, or immediately after, the activity. That way, rewarding your brain will link up writing with positive associations and good consequences for you, thus reinforcing new, more positive brain connections. Soon you’ll be th