12/20/2025
Food for thought - read the article.
Your brain is an energy-hungry organ, and not all tasks cost it the same. According to neuroscience, the two most expensive things your brain can do are controlling body movement and learning new information. Every time you move, your brain must coordinate muscles, balance, timing, and force in real time. This requires constant neural signaling, feedback loops, and adjustments, all of which demand a significant amount of energy. Movement is not automatic background noise to the brain. It is a full-scale operation.
Learning something new is equally demanding. When you learn, your brain builds new neural connections, strengthens existing ones, and rewires entire networks. This process, known as neuroplasticity, consumes large amounts of glucose and oxygen. The brain must focus, filter distractions, store information, and integrate it with what you already know. That is why learning can feel tiring even when you sit still. Mental fatigue is real energy expenditure.
What’s fascinating is that movement and learning are deeply connected. Physical activity increases blood flow to the brain and boosts chemicals that make learning easier and memory stronger. This is why people often think more clearly after exercise and why movement improves focus, mood, and creativity. When you move and learn, you are asking your brain to perform at its highest level.
This also explains why comfort and passivity can dull both body and mind. The brain adapts to what it is asked to do. When challenged through movement and learning, it becomes sharper, more resilient, and more efficient.
Growth, whether physical or mental, always has an energy cost. But that cost is an investment. The more you move and learn, the stronger and more capable your brain becomes over time.
