This is why you should be putting brain health first

Backstage at Christian Dior haute couture autumn/winter ’18/’19. Image Credit: Jamie Stoker What would you do for a sharper memory or faster cognition? Jody Scott explores why brain hacking is the latest self-improvement goal. Shoulders, legs, midriff, arms, neck, back, boobs and… brains. Just like accessories, fashion’s erogenous zones change with the seasons. But the latest must have can’t be bought or borrowed. You can’t buy a cheap knock-off on the high street, either. In fact, it may take even longer to attain than a Birkin bag (waitlist: approximately six years). Welcome to the designer brain. While slow fashion is hot, slow thinking is not. And a beautiful mind has become the most covetable accessory of them all. It’s a trend that has been building steadily. Christopher Kane caught our attention in 2013 by embroidering colourful MRI scans on silk organza tops and dresses. The same year, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney fell in love with a brilliant human rights lawyer called Amal Alamuddin. And his buddy Brad Pitt is apparently smitten with Neri Oxman, an American–Israeli architect, designer and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MediaLab. On the red carpet, the most impressive arm candy now has serious cognitive credentials. The arrival of these brainy days heralds a welcome shift of focus in the wellness world, too. Lately, the race to be our best selves has become a little too brawny and back-bendy. After all, don’t we want to be smarter as well as better, faster and stronger? And surely being calm, compassionate and more content are equally important markers of good health? The recent rise of meditation and mindfulness studios, e-courses, apps, podcasts and retreats signalled a collective craving to go deeper, offering internal transformation (including a thicker prefrontal cortex) with a side serve of enlightenment – and […]

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