Welcome to RenewHer, a podcast for women over 50 ready to reignite their energy and explore what's next. I'm Genell Lemley, brain fitness coach. Here, you'll hear real stories from women taking on new challenges after 50, along with brain health tips to boost focus, energy, and the mindset to move forward with confidence.
Let's dive into today's episode.
Welcome back to Brain Notes, the series where we explore how your brain affects your work, your performance, and your everyday life. When people think about exercising their brains, they often think about crossword puzzles or Sudoku, and while those activities are certainly good for your brain, they aren't the whole picture.
In fact, relying on just one type of brain game is a bit like going to the gym, doing a set of bicep curls with one arm and then leaving. You're only working one area. Your brain is made up of multiple regions, each with different jobs. And just like your body, your brain benefits most when you challenge it in a variety of ways.
But here's something even more important. The best mental exercise isn't simply repeating what you already know. Even if your daily work is complicated, whether you're teaching classes, reading X-rays, managing people, or solving technical problems, those activities may not be giving your brain much of a workout if you've been doing them for years.
Why? Because the brain is efficient. The more often you do something, the less energy your brain needs to perform that task. That's great for productivity, but not so great for building new neural connections.
Growth happens when your brain encounters something unfamiliar. That's why lifelong learning is one of the most powerful things you can do for brain health. Learning a new language, taking up photography, trying pickleball, learning to play the piano, or even mastering a new technology forces your brain to create new pathways. And those new pathways help keep other less-used areas of the brain active and healthy.
Different activities stimulate different parts of the brain.
Language games like Wordle, Scrabble, Boggle, and crossword puzzles engage the prefrontal cortex, the part that's involved in planning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Strategy games like chess challenge this area too.
Memory games and learning to play a musical instrument activate the temporal lobes, which play a major role in memory and processing information.
Activities like Sudoku, map reading, and even juggling engage the parietal lobes, which help with mathematical thinking and spatial awareness.
And physical activities that require coordination, things like dancing, yoga, tai chi, or table tennis challenge the cerebellum, which helps control movement, balance, and coordination.
What's interesting is that many activities don't just stimulate one area of the brain. They engage several regions at the same time.
In fact, one of my favorite examples is my husband. He's retired and recently he decided to study calculus. Yep, calculus. Now, some people might think why on earth would anyone study calculus in retirement? I know I did. But then I reminded myself that learning something difficult and unfamiliar is one of the best things you can do for your brain.
Calculus isn't just exercising one area. It's engaging multiple parts of the brain. His prefrontal cortex is working through complex problems and abstract thinking. His parietal lobes are processing mathematical relationships and spatial concept. His temporal lobes are helping store new formulas and concepts. And because he's learning something completely new or relatively new, it's probably been maybe 40, 50 years, he's creating new neural connections along the way.
He's proving that retirement doesn't have to mean slowing down mentally. In many ways, it can become a season of growth and discovery. Retirement doesn't have to be the end of learning. It can be the beginning of learning things you've never had time for before. And that's an important point.
Many people spend decades looking forward to retirement, but when the challenges, deadlines, and learning opportunities disappear, the brain can become less engaged. Our brains were designed to keep learning. A lack of new learning can increase the risk of age-related cognitive decline and memory problems.
Your brain is a lot like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you can use it. There really is some truth to the saying, "Use it or lose it." But I like to think of it this way, it's not just use it or lose it, it's use it and improve it. And don't underestimate the power of breaking your routines.
Brains love efficiency, but they also need novelty. Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Use your computer mouse with the opposite hand. Take a different route to work. Walk a new path on your morning walk. Or challenge yourself to learn something that makes you slightly uncomfortable. Because that's really the goal. Not frustration, not perfection, just enough challenge to encourage growth.
You don't have to spend hours every day studying or doing brain games. Start with just 15 minutes a day learning something new. Now, you don't have to study calculus, unless you want to, of course. Take an online course, attend a class, learn a new skill, pick up an instrument, or finally do something you've always wanted to try.
Because if everything in your life is on autopilot, your brain is simply maintaining. But when you introduce novelty and learning, your brain begins adapting. And adaptation is where growth happens.
So here's your Brain Notes challenge for this week. Spend 15 minutes each day doing something your brain hasn't mastered yet. Read about a topic you know nothing about. Learn a few words in another language. Take a dance lesson, or maybe like my husband, tackle something you never imagined yourself doing. Because one of the best ways to protect your brain isn't by doing more of what you already know, it's by becoming a lifelong learner.
And that's today's Brain Note. Until next time.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of RenewHer. If today's conversation sparked something in you, don't let it fade. Take even a small step toward what's next. If you found value in what you heard, please subscribe, leave a review, or share this podcast with a woman who's ready to take her next bold step.
Together, we're building a community of strong, resilient women navigating what's next with courage and purpose. Until next time, stay energized and keep embracing what's possible