Exercise Good Ideas

It has happened to me again. After 30 years of this type of thing, you'd think I wouldn't be so surprised. Today I had another exercise-induced Good Idea. Has this ever happened to you? Maybe you are taking a nice, long walk through a tree-filled park, and like a bolt from the blue, a great idea comes to mind. Or perhaps you are riding away on the stationary bike and you forgot your ear buds, so you are just minding your own business, thinking about silly little things. Then, without any warning, the solution to a nagging problem is handed to you from the heavens! I've been known to say, "What?"

What is it about exercise that gets the good idea juices flowing?  When I was a young mom, 30 or so years ago, I started a small in-home business that I named Gifted Ideas. I did this because I kept coming up with genius new product ideas while I was pushing one of my kids in a stroller around the block. Genius may be an exaggeration, but they did certainly feel like little gifts.

In questioning how this happens to me and lots of other people, I learned from Leo Widrich that our brains are much more active during exercise than they are when we are on the couch. Belle Beth Cooper agrees. She says, "A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, even so-called fluid-intelligence tasks." There you go.

Crochet Brain, filled with great ideas!

Our brains truly are amazing in their ability to support us and our best interests. They secrete a particular type of protein that acts like a memory enhancer as well as a reset switch. This same protein will add endorphins to your blood and increase your good mood, which is perhaps why I believe my ideas are so wonderful. All I have to do to get these great ideas flowing is to get off my couch, perhaps even out of my fiber art studio, and move my body for 20 minutes. The next time I get a great idea while exercising, it will not be a surprise. My memory enhancers will make sure I don't forget how all of this works. That's the plan.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne