How to Rewire Your Brain: 10 Hacks for Beginners

Eat, sleep, work, repeat. Eat, sleep, work, repeat.

Does this sound familiar? Building habits can be a great way to keep yourself on track for meeting goals, but sometimes we seem to just… fall into habits, rather than setting them intentionally. Our thoughts become patterns and daily habits become the daily grind, where your brain might feel offline for most of it.

And often, these daily habits aren't doing much for our health, physically OR mentally. It can mean mindlessly grazing on food, a stagnant career, or even lack of emotional connection with the people you love the most.

The good news is that your brain can be rewired to enhance mental health and productivity, you just need to know a little bit about neuroplasticity and be willing to embrace the change.

What is neuroplasticity?

Think of your brain as a snowy mountain, or soft ground. After following the same paths over and over… and over… pushing our carts through the same ruts, skiing down the mountain in our same tracks, it tends to wear a path in our brain. And the deeper these neural pathways become, the more difficult it is to forge a new path, since we keep falling into the old ones. Our brain can become set in its way, and breaking out of these patterns can be really challenging.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to grow, adapt, and change throughout life. In general, younger brains are more "plastic" than older brains (something about old dogs and new tricks, perhaps?) but there are ways that we can rewire, or "hack" our brains, to become more open to change and create new neural pathways.

These ways include lifestyle factors as well as biohacking supplements to help you break the cycle, get out of that rut, and start forging a new path.

10 brain hacks to increase neuroplasticity

1. Exercise

I know, I know. But listen, if there ever was a cure-all (or as close to a cure-all as we can get), it's exercise. Physical activity has been shown to elicit improvements in neuroplasticity in different regions of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus—that's the powerful force of the mind-body connection. You can teach your brain to adapt, and this can have wide-ranging effects on your health. Aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.

2. Mindfulness

We mentioned your body, but the other half of your mind-body connection is important too. Practicing mindfulness can help rewire your brain to pay attention to the small things. Is there a bird chirping outside your window? Does your first sip of coffee in the morning feel like it's literally reviving you? Pay attention! Take the time to consciously be in the moment and allow your brain to grow.

3. Meditation

In the same vein, meditation is a specific tool that can help you achieve a more mindful lifestyle. Regular meditation may help improve mood and neuroplasticity. Meditating doesn't necessarily need to be done sitting cross-legged, or in a pretzel-like yoga pose, all you need is a place and position in which you can focus. There are different techniques, but all involve practices that help you focus or clear your thinking.

4. Manage stress

Stress affects your mind as much as your body and can impair your brain's ability to adapt. Remember the soft ground and the path worn down by the cart? Those worries and stressors are like heavy burdens inside the cart—the path becomes even deeper and more difficult to escape. Managing stress can help rewire brain responses and lighten your load, making it easier to find a different path.

5. Get better sleep

Yes, this one is up there with exercise. Good sleep may not be a cure-all, but it is a cure-most. Sleep is essential for brain function and neuroplasticity. Aim to get between 7 and 9 hours of quality sleep each night.

6. Play mind games

Games that require thinking, learning, and lots of practice can be excellent for improving neuroplasticity. There are limitless options for brain games: chess, sudoku, even video games! Give your mind a good workout and have fun at the same time.

7. Be creative

And I mean that literally. Create things! Learn how to crochet, or bind books, or plant a garden. Make soap, or candles, or paint the next Mona Lisa. Write in a journal and doodle in the margins. Compose a symphony, or just sing out loud. The simple act of creating something gives a powerful boost of happiness while allowing you to rewire brain patterns, inducing neuroplastic changes in multiple brain circuits. But there's a catch: you must ditch the perfectionist mindset. Create for the sake of creating and forget what the final product looks (or sounds) like. Your brain will adapt.

8. Try new experiences

The grooves worn into our brains can be rewired when we do radically new things. Think about the last time you visited a new place—I'll bet every moment felt fresh and exciting, and even the "mundane" experiences become extraordinary when they're new. Time seems to be moving slower, and you're less likely to work on autopilot. Travel somewhere you've never been, try foods you've never tasted, or even make a small change like reading a different genre than you're used to. It will trick your brain into paying attention and making new connections.

9. Learn a new skill

Learn a second (or third, or fourth!) language or a new musical instrument. Or have you always wanted to cook like a pro but can't get past burnt toast? Take the time to learn. What about improving your writing skills, or learning how to juggle? Some skills may be more obviously useful, but this is about the act of learning, not about how useful the skill may be. Choose a skill that you personally find interesting, look up some free online resources (or enroll in a course, or find a mentor, or…) and then just start.

10. Consider brain supplements

There are lots of supplements that can help give your brain a little extra nudge in the right direction. Citicoline, for example, encourages synthesis of neurotransmitters in the brain as well as supporting healthy cognitive function and attention. Other brain health supplements can also offer that added support and help you get going in the right direction.

Now, you may have noticed that many of the items on this list have the same goal, albeit with different approaches, and that is to force your brain to pay attention! You want to stretch those cognitive muscles. Whether it's with practices like mindfulness and meditation, or with attempting new skills and experiences, the goal is to break yourself out of the rut and help your brain make new connections. You can teach an old dog new tricks, it just takes some effort.

How do bad habits change your brain?

While our focus has been on positive ways to rewire brain pathways, there are, of course, many ways to negatively rewire it. We touched on how feeling stressed can have a negative impact, but other lifestyle factors like eating lots of hyperpalatable foods (excessive added sugars and salt, excessive fatty fried foods, etc.), consuming too much alcohol, and spending too much time on social media can all rewire your brain in a negative way.

Spending time ruminating on negative thoughts and other bad habits will only sink you further into the rut. Give yourself some credit: you can learn, adapt, and grow.

(Not-so) final thoughts

Old habits die hard. Change is not easy, especially when the goal is to improve your way of thinking. Thoughts can feel immutable, and the neural trenches may run very deep. But you can rewire your brain to improve your mental, cognitive, and physical health. Through lifestyle changes or supplements (hint: take a quiz for personalized suggestions), you can try new things and enjoy novel experiences. Grab a friend and get juggling!

References

• Boa Sorte Silva NC, et al. "Physical exercise, cognition, and brain health in aging." Trends Neurosci. June 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38811309/
• Coronel-Oliveros C, et al. "Gaming expertise induces meso‑scale brain plasticity and efficiency mechanisms as revealed by whole-brain modeling." Neuroimage. June 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38704057/
• De Filippi E, et al. "Meditation-induced effects on whole-brain structural and effective connectivity." Brain Struct Funct. July 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35524072/
• Embang JEG, et al. "Role of sleep and neurochemical biomarkers in synaptic plasticity related to neurological and psychiatric disorders: A scoping review." J Neurochem. January 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39676063/
• Guidotti R, et al. "Neuroplasticity within and between Functional Brain Networks in Mental Training Based on Long-Term Meditation." Brain Sci. August 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34439705/
• Karns CM, et al. "The Cultivation of Pure Altruism via Gratitude: A Functional MRI Study of Change with Gratitude Practice." Hum Neurosci. December 2017. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00599/full
• Kini P, et al. "The effects of gratitude expression on neural activity." Neuroimage. March 2016. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811915011532
• Liu D, et al. "Learning a Second Language in Adulthood Changes Subcortical Neural Encoding." Neural Plast. October 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33144853/
• Mora Álvarez MG, et al. "Effects of web-based mindfulness training on psychological outcomes, attention, and neuroplasticity." Sci Rep. December 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114554/
• Price RB, Duman R. "Neuroplasticity in cognitive and psychological mechanisms of depression: an integrative model." Mol Psychiatry. March 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31801966/
• Samuel S. "Giving thanks may make your brain more altruistic." Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/11/27/20983850/gratitude-altruism-charity-generosity-neuroscience
• Strang CE. "Art therapy and neuroscience: evidence, limits, and myths." Front Psychol. October 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39417019/