The old adage is, we only use 10% of our brains. So, that spawned all sorts of methods (and products you could buy, and drugs you could try) to help you use more of your brain. I have seen more recent research that seems to show that it’s not that simple. The brain is not a simple file cabinet with a computer attached. We use many parts of our brains during various times for various things. There isn’t a dusty, cobwebbed section of our brains that we haven’t got around to using. Brain activity goes on all over the brain, every day, if not all day.
We are, of course, capable of very interesting things with our brains. People have memorized pi out to tens of thousands of digits, and I am told that it’s not too hard to memorize an entire shuffled deck of cards. I haven’t tried, of course – I’m much too busy for that. I have a bandmate named Dave Courchaine who has astonishing recall when it comes to songs, and especially, lyrics. Not just bluegrass songs, either – show tunes, soul hits and even Groucho Marx songs are at his mental fingertips! Obviously, he’s using his brain pretty well.
The brain is truly amazing – there isn’t a suitable analog for the things it can do. When I was raising children, I was amazed to discover how intelligent children are from the get-go. Since babies can’t talk, my first impression was, they must be about as smart as, say cats, and get smarter as they get older. Nope, babies are BORN smart, and you can actually watch them making the connections in their minds with voracious intellect. Watch how a three year old can memorize their favorite books long before they can read. They ask for a bedroom story and you try skipping a couple of pages and they will stop you and remind you of what you skipped.
Some people decide to not use their brain so much, especially when they get out of school. For many, school is such an ordeal, they equate learning with misery and make a conscious effort to stop learning when it is no longer required of them. This is a terrible shame, but these people are not representative of our species. Even folks who get fed up with “book learning” may stretch their brains by learning craftsmanship or artisanal skills.
Which brings me to a most noble use of one’s noggin: Playing music. When you’re learning how to play an instrument, you can actually feel the neural connections being made in your brain. And it keeps on building from there. Once you become reasonably proficient on an instrument, then there are choices of musical styles to learn, and the connections in your brain become even more numerous and complicated. Then you learn songs and more connections are made.
Do this long enough (and how long it’ll take depends on some innate skills that need more development in some individuals than others), and you will discover a remarkable thing – you’ll be able to deliver a song without thinking about it, freeing up your emotions to actually express yourself in music – a direct circuit between heart, hands, mouth and head. I am hard-pressed to think of anything more worthwhile to do with your brain.
