How to Train Your Brain Like an Athlete (The Science of Deep Thinking & Mental Strength)

Can you train your brain to think more deeply, creatively, and strategically?

In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores the neuroscience behind deep thinking, cognitive growth, and how great thinkers train their minds like athletes train their bodies.

If you’ve ever felt mentally scattered, creatively blocked, or stuck in reactive thinking, this episode will help you understand how to strengthen your thinking skills and create intentional space for deeper insight and clarity.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

•  How neuroscience proves the brain can rewire itself 
•  Why deep thinking feels uncomfortable at first 
•  How great thinkers use deliberate practice to strengthen their minds 
•  Why writing improves clarity and creativity 
•  How cross-disciplinary learning expands intelligence 
•  Why recovery and rest are essential for cognitive growth 

Key Takeaway

Your brain adapts to how you use it.

This Episode Is For You If:

•  You feel mentally overwhelmed or distracted 
•  You want to think more clearly and creatively 
•  You struggle to focus deeply 
•  You want to improve your mindset and problem-solving skills 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

What if I told you your brain works a lot more like a muscle than you realize? That intelligence is not just something you're born with, but something you train. Because the truth is great thinkers don't accidentally become great thinkers. They train their minds the same way athletes train their bodies. They do reps, they push themselves mentally, they deliberately stretch their thinking. And most importantly, they stay in the discomfort long enough for their brain to grow. Now, before we dive in, if this episode helps you think differently, my friend, share it with someone who needs it and subscribe to the podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode and leave a review if you haven't already done so. That would mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you and understand if the messages that I'm sharing with you are resonating because these conversations want to be the conversations that matter to you. So let me know. But now stay with me until the end because I'm going to give you one brave move that will help you start training your mind differently, immediately, and honestly. It's something most people never do. I've been thinking a lot about how we live in a world that trains us to react quickly, but not necessarily to think deeply. We scroll, we skim, we consume, we distract ourselves. And because of that, many of us are underusing one of the greatest tools we have. And that it's our mind. You know, neuroscience is very clear on this. The brain is moldable. It rewires itself in how we use it, and honestly, how we don't use it. And this means intelligence is not fixed. Your creativity isn't fixed. Your ability to problem solve is not fixed. Your ability to think deeply is not fixed. These are things that can be developed, trained, strengthened. And I think that's really empowering because so many people walk around believing, well, I'm just not smart like that. I'm not creative. I'm not strategic. No. Maybe we just haven't trained our brain the way that it will make us creative or strategic. And that part of the brain needs to really be able to be molded to what we want. Now, schedule, deliberate thinking, my friend. And this is something that I haven't done in a while. And I was thinking the other day that lately I've been spending a lot of time just filling the white noise. And to tell you the truth, I think that this definitely affects us when we are not scheduling time to just think. We avoid it sometimes. We think, oh, I don't want to be ruminating. And yes, there is a chance of that. But great thinkers do this, they intentionally create space to think. And honestly, I think that we need to bring it back. We need to make it in vogue and not make it a rare occurrence in which we are actually thinking. Most people never like to be alone with their thoughts. And the second of their silence, we want to fill it. We grab the phone, we turn the TV, we open another tab. And great thinkers, they protect their thinking time, not reacting time, not consuming time, thinking time. Time to sit with a problem, an idea, a possibility, a question. I used to do a lot of thinking when I was commuting into the city from Connecticut to New York. When I first moved here, I still worked in New York. Wait, for almost 10 years I did that. And I spent a lot of time just quiet, not listening to a book or a podcast or jamming to my music, having a car karaoke party, but really just going through and trying to, well, map out things. And I will tell you that the greatest personal growth happened many of those drives, in which I was able to just sit with the problem, the idea, the possibility, the question without distraction, without noise, and without immediate, you know, searching for somebody else to give me the answer. And yes, it does feel uncomfortable because our brain has trained us to be stimulated and not for depth. But deep thinking is like diving underwater. Think about this. I keep thinking about the image of deep thinking is that place where we can go deeper and deeper. Now, I am not a diver, but I do love snorkeling. And one of the things that I love is that you are going to probably see more in the ocean the deeper you dive. You know, my sister and brother-in-laws are both divers and they have some incredible pictures. And the clarity and the beauty of what can be found deep inside the water underwater is amazing and is definitely much more beautiful than a lot of the things that I've seen by just uh snorkeling in that shallow water. But think about it when you first dive down, there's going to be also pressure and it's going to be uncomfortable. And your body is going to want to go up quickly, right? And honestly, that's what happens mentally too. And most people think deeply right when it starts getting uncomfortable. But if you stay there a little longer, that's again where we're going to find the beauty. That's where the new ideas are going to come from, and insights are going to begin to happen. And our creativity, of course, is going to span because breakthroughs are going to occur. And scientifically, that discomfort matters because when your brain stops relying on old default thinking patterns, it begins exploring new neural pathways. And that's literally how thinking evolves. And the other piece is great thinkers use writing to sharpen their thought. And this is huge. Now, if you know me, you know that I love to journal. And I would say in the last few weeks, I haven't been journaling as much. And I'm going back to it because again, this is huge. Not because all great thinkers are authors or want to become authors, but writing forces clarity. Now, if you haven't done a brain dump, but my gosh, sometimes you'll be surprised what comes out. But it really writing forces clarity. You think you understand something, and then you write it down. And suddenly, my friend, you're going to realize wait, I don't actually know that I was thinking that. And I have been able to really unpack a lot of the things that sometimes are just ruminating and gurgling under the surface for me. And writing also, it's going to slow your brain down enough to organize your thoughts. And honestly, some of the best ideas I've had didn't just happen while scrolling Instagram, honestly. They happen when I was brainstorming, dumping all of these thoughts out of my brain, journaling, or you know, the other thing you can do too is send yourself a voice note. Sitting in messy thoughts long enough to untangle them is one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself. I want to take a quick minute, though, to tell you something about a sponsor. And I know that it's weird to have a sponsor in a small, uh, not so long of a podcast, but the sponsor, it's me, me, myself, and I. And outside of this podcast, I help women entrepreneurs build confidence, visibility, and businesses that actually align with their life and the life that they want to continue to live and create. And whether it's through coaching or the confident you co-op or the community or my thought visibility accelerator, I teach women how to stop hiding, overthinking, and start building with strategy and confidence. So if you're ready to grow your business or your life and be more visible without losing yourself in the process, head over to my website and let's connect. Goconfidentlycoaching.com. Now, let's get back to the episode. Here's a question for you. You know, another thing that thinkers do, you won't believe it, they question things. It's not just thinking, but it's questioning. Now, in an exhausting conspiracy theory way, it's not the way that they're questioning things, right? When we question things, it can't be like, I'm gonna question this as a conspiracy theory, but in a curious way, a lot of great thinkers ask, why do I believe this? Is this actually true? Is there another perspective? What am I missing? And honestly, most people inherit their thinking from family, culture, fear, society, while ever without ever examining it, but growth requires curiosity. So I'm gonna talk about a little bit of my inherit thinking more on tomorrow's episode. I think the last thing that I wanted to leave you with is that great thinkers also use cross-disciplinary thinking. And what does that mean? One of my favorite people in historic um contexts is Leonardo da Vinci. Now, most people know him as the artist, but he wasn't just an artist or a painter, he studied anatomy, engineering, military design, science, architecture, and that cross-disciplinary thinking made him brilliant. And I love that. If you have seen anything about Leonardo da Vinci, you will see what a well-rounded person he was. Because listen, innovation often happens at the intersection of ideas. I know many times for our business, it's the thinking of Dan and I coming together and kind of like melding our thoughts together. But really, when I deep dive into things that maybe are not in my wheelhouse, I have been able to also figure out some of these great solutions to not only our business, but perhaps how to be able to manage through relationships. And sometimes the answer in the thing that we are looking for for a problem, whether it's business or personal, is not in a business book. Maybe it's going to be in art, psychology, neuroscience, nature, music, philosophy. And your brain grows when you expose it to different ways of thinking. And remember, as you're doing all of this thinking, you are going to need to set time to recover. And this is important. Your brain needs recovery after decognitive work. Just like muscles need to recover after training. You know, you cannot constantly consume or produce or constantly push out new ideas. You need to rest. You need to stop trying to let your mind um always go be go, go, go. Rest also is not laziness. And that's something that I need to remind myself often. Some of your best things happen on walks, in the shower, driving, or resting because your brain finally has space to connect to ideas. And my friend, here's your brave move this week. You're ready for it? Honestly, I want you to do this. Schedule 20 minutes of deliver thinking time. Now, if 20 minutes seems like a long time, then break it up into five minutes or four days this week. You have seven days in this week. So pick four days in which you're going to take five minutes, right? No phone, no scrolling, no multitasking. Just you. A notebook and one question or problem that you want to think through deeply. And stay there longer than feels comfortable because your next breakthrough might exist on the other side of mental discomfort. And of course, my friend, you are capable of deeper thinking. And this world often gives you space for it. But you have to train for it. You have to practice it. You have to protect it because the quality of your thinking shapes the quality of your life. And that is your brave move. Until tomorrow, my friend, stay with me. We are going to have fun exploring the thinking, the brain, and all of the things can continue to support our lives so that we can go confidently in the direction of your dreams. I love you so much.