Most people know how important it is to diversify your financial assets in your investment portfolio (if you’re lucky enough to have one). Too much money invested in the stock market may pack a wallop to your portfolio if the stock market crashes. The same thing goes with mental assets, and more particularly, the asset that is your brain. Research tells us that experience in the world helps to build new brain connections throughout life. Consequently, many aging experts counsel us as we age to engage in stimulating learning activities like reading, crossword puzzles, and social engagement.
I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment, and suggest that we should adopt a holistic program of brain engagement based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. He says that there are at least eight intelligences that include words, numbers and logic, music, the body, nature, the self, and other people. If we put our treasures (Biblically speaking) in only one intelligence, then if that region of the brain largely responsible for it is damaged, then we are, so to speak, SOL. However, if we’ve spent our lifetime cultivating all eight of the intelligences by singing, drawing, reading, socializing, hiking in nature, getting physical activity, meditating, and in other ways engaging our brain, then if one area goes, we’ve got lots of other channels left unimpaired. This video explains what I mean:
For more information about Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, get my practical guides to MI theory for:
- Adult learners (7 Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligences)
- Educators who teach children and adolescents — kindergarten through high school (Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 4th edition) and/or
- Parents (In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Multiple Intelligences).
This blog post was brought to you by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. and www.institute4learning.com.
Follow me on Twitter: @Dr_Armstrong.
