So far we have talked a lot about what power means with regard to movements and how to train for that. We also mentioned that it is important to include power-type training, particularly as we grow older. What you might be surprised to hear is that this, and many other forms of physical training also positively affect our thinking ability. So, let’s look at thinking power a bit more.
Imagine you are going to a new supermarket, or worse a supermarket in a different country, and you are searching for one item. Let’s say you are looking for pasta. In a typical supermarket there will be many shelves to scan through. Once you find the shelf with pasta, there is a high chance that there are many different shapes and types of pasta, different brands and so on. Too many you might think. Your brain will have to make hundreds and millions of decisions in this situation.
First, in order to find the right area of the supermarket, you will be grouping items on the shelf (especially in a foreign country where the labels are no use to you). Next you will be searching for a specific shape and perhaps colour of packaging. You will be scanning the words on the boxes and so on. All of this relies on stored memory and your ability to use general rules (deductive reasoning). Doing this is an example of thinking ‘strength’. Now, if you are in a hurry because you have someone waiting for you outside the supermarket or it is nearly dinner time, you will also need to make those decisions quickly. The speed with which your brain is working and making decisions (usually called processing speed) will be critical in that example, too. And if we put (‘strong’) thinking together with (increased) processing speed, we have thinking power.
Now, the above example is obviously quite a low-level example of thinking power. Imagine you are an air traffic controller and you have to quickly and accurately apply many different sets of rules (possibly under stress) – that is a different game altogether! But our brains can do it and, more importantly, we can train our brains to be more powerful. Unfortunately, our modern everyday environments work against us when it comes to thinking power. First, we are constantly bombarded by a great amount of information. Second, we have all become quite good at outsourcing – ‘ask google’ or ‘ask siri’- sounds familiar? So, knowing how to retain and build thinking power becomes even more important today, I think.
Just like with physical training, in order to work on power, we need to have a good basis of strength and speed. In terms of thinking ability, this means we want to practice slow, deliberate, ‘strong’ thinking. You can do this by learning a new skill. For example, you might like to start learning a new language and practice making sentences (without any automatic translator help or asking google or siri). In addition, you will also want to practice speedy thinking. Reading often and quickly can lead to better processing speed, for example. One important consideration is that when training speedy thinking, the context is quite important. My recommendation is to train speed in such a way that it is comparable to the situation you want to improve your thinking power for.
We also already mentioned that physical activity can boost thinking ability. It does so by increasing blood flow to the brain and keeping the blood vessels reactive to different pressures. What is more, physical activity that requires integration of different types of information (like your body position and location of obstacles, for examples) is particularly good at boosting thinking power.
Finally, there is intriguing evidence from medical decision making, that in specific circumstances, mental shortcuts can lead to improved decision making compared to taking all available information into consideration. Taking this into an everyday context, there may be benefit in reducing the amount of information in our environment in order to be more powerful thinkers.
If you are keen to learn more about how you can develop power for your physical and mental activity, follow me or subscribe to the blogpost. To work with me one-on-one to apply some of these principles to your own life and movement, message me for a free call. I look forward to hearing from you.
References (for the extra keen)
Kahnemann (2011)
Lennemann et al. (2013)
Marewski & Gigerenzer (2012)
Nouchi & Kawashima (2014)