Everything we’ve discussed up to this point is still on the table. Most of it even more so. Learning, growing, and healing aren’t abilities you’ll stop needing in your life. An elastic brain is a brain that can go the distance. It adapts to new challenges, heals minor damage, and resists major damage. Author Nassim Nicholas Talib coined the term “Anti-fragile” to describe “things that gain from disorder.” He wrote a book about it. This term doesn’t describe an immovable body, frozen and immune to stress. It describes a system that thrives under stress, as all good systems do. A body (and brain) that take the inevitable wear and tear as catalyst for growth and improvement. […]

So exercise grows the brain and helps regulate it. Plus the younger we start the earlier the benefits are. But what if you’re (as a random example having nothing to do with the author) in your mid-thirties and struggling with stress, self-worth, and focus. You haven’t exercised in years. Maybe you never really did. Are you stuck with the brain you’ve got, unaided by all that great stretching, growing, exercise I mentioned last time? No. And not only no, but an emphatic “absolutely not!” […]