How This Restless Organ Shapes Every Part of Who You Are
Key points
- Your brain can change, grow, and adapt at any age.
- Your brain never stops working even while you sleep.
- Healthy habits keep your brain sharp and resilient.
The brain controls every bodily function, but it is so much more than a control center. It is the source of every memory and thought, whether you have just eaten, remembered your first kiss, or had a weird dream. Think about how many things happen in the brain. If you have a good understanding of how the brain works, it will help you be patient with yourself and better understand where you are coming from.
Even when you fall asleep, your brain stays busy. For something so small, it uses a shocking amount of energy, close to 20 percent of what your body burns in a day. This fuel supports your ability to breathe (for example, by supporting the actions and movements of your heart), keeps you balanced, and helps develop thoughts before you consciously have them (Padamsey & Rochefort, 2022). In addition, it is easy to think of the brain as just a place to think, but most of what the brain does is beyond just thinking. It never shuts down. While you sleep, it sorts memories, clears out waste, and prepares for the next day. You rest so it can keep working.
Billions of Conversations at Once
When people picture the brain, they often imagine a lump of gray matter. In reality, it's more like a crowded room full of conversations. Billions of neurons send signals back and forth every second, each connected to thousands of others. Glial cells quietly support this activity, keeping everything running smoothly. Together, these cells allow you to read a sentence, recognize a familiar smell, or feel close to someone you love.
The mind does not have a single location from which emotions or thoughts arise. Instead, through conscious awareness, multiple areas of the brain work together to create a unified experience. By studying the brain, scientists can learn how it operates on a chemical level, how the mind integrates all areas into a cohesive unit, and what models describe how these areas interact with one another. Further, each study completed by scientists has led to more questions than answers (Edge, 202). Researchers have found that the more they investigate this process of conscious awareness, the more shocks they experience when faced with the amount of complexity required to generate a relatively simple phenomenon of awareness.
A Brain That Keeps Changing
Only a short while ago, scientists believed that all adult brains stopped changing after childhood. This proved inaccurate. Throughout your life, the brain continues to adapt and form new connections to acquire new knowledge. Through neuroplasticity (Gazerani, 2025), the brain's physical structure changes in response to experience, and these changes are remarkable! We can build on the many existing connections in our brains by learning new things, mastering a skill through practice, or confronting a challenge. Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well. Long-term stress, sleep deprivation, and poor nutrition affect how our brains develop and how we live in the world today. Each experience we have leaves a mark on our brains, which is why developing good habits is so important. Reading, staying active, getting adequate sleep and rest, and maintaining social ties are very important for brain health over time.
The Brain Lives In the Body
Everything that happens to your body affects the brain. For example, if you skip a meal, stay up too late, or sit still for too long, your brain is aware of it. When you are active, your brain adapts and becomes stronger. On the other hand, if you eat healthy, your brain's nutrients help with mood, memory, and attention. Sleeping is how your brain removes all the junk that accumulated during the day and resets itself for the next day.
Previously, advice on exercise, diet, and sleep was primarily for your physical well-being; however, the brain plays an active role in this process as well. A post-dinner walk supports both digestion and memory. Laughter helps relax your nervous system in ways that medications cannot. Essentially, your brain exists within your body; therefore, it relies on your physical state and activity level.
Perhaps this is not a failure but a reminder: Your brain is not merely mechanical. It holds the full range of your experiences, including memories, fears, habits, and the quietest joys. Your brain transforms sensory input from your five senses into something meaningful to you. Therefore, it is essential to take meaningful yet straightforward steps to care for your brain. You can do that by getting adequate sleep and exercising enough to keep your body fit; by eating nutritious food; and by spending time with those who genuinely know you, sharing laughter. You may also read a deep or thought-provoking book or otherwise stimulate your mind. Pursuing small activities like these will accumulate great value in your life. Your brain will retain these small, valuable experiences until you can no longer recall them. ◆
References
Gazerani, P. (2025). The neuroplastic brain: current breakthroughs and emerging frontiers. Brain Research, 1858, 149643.
Padamsey, Z., & Rochefort, N. L. (2022). Paying the brain's energy bill. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. Advance online publication.
Rae, C. D., Baur, J. A., Borges, K., Dienel, G., Díaz-García, C. M., Douglass, S. R., Drew, K., Duarte, J. M. N., Duran, J., Kann, O., Kristian, T., Lee-Liu, D., Lindquist, B. E., McNay, E. C., Robinson, M. B., Rothman, D. L., Rowlands, B. D., Ryan, T. A., Scafidi, J., & McKenna, M. C. (2024). Brain energy metabolism: A roadmap for future research. Journal of Neurochemistry, 168(5), 910-954.
Edge, L. (2024). The expanding world of neuroscience. Cell, 187(21), 5797-
