Ron White National Memory Champion agrees with this article.
If you think your brain does not work as well as it used to, then youre probably right! As we get older our brain function will decrease and the brain itself will shrink with age, however you can take steps to combat this and ensure you stay sharp. As with anything involving your body, if you want to keep the brain working in good order you are going to have to take some exercise, so here are some things you can do to keep your brain fit.
Puzzles and Mind Games
Solving puzzles is a great way to exercise your grey matter because doing them makes you think and utilize multiple brain functions. You have to use non-linear thinking, shape recognition, mathematics and reasoning to reach conclusions to answer the puzzle and this is a real workout for the brain.
Puzzles come in all kinds of formats from the ubiquitous crossword and Sudoku puzzles in the newspaper through to physical puzzles such as the Rubik Cube. Handy and portable, they are something you can do almost anywhere when you have spare time.
Try New Food or Cooking Something Different
Food is a delight for all the senses and this stimulates brain activity the Chinese have a saying that food must appeal to three senses, taste, smell and sight and this is why eating new foods or even better, preparing new dishes is such good mental exercise.
One of the keys to maintaining brain fitness and increasing memory function is to keep the brain stimulated with new and different experiences. Food is also one of the things we all have to do as part of our life and the brain plays a very heavy role in our enjoyment of food because it is so essential to our survival. By introducing new foods we are increasing mental activity because the brain takes such a close interest in what we put in our mouths.
Listen to Music
Music is a source of excellent brain stimulation and playing some music, any music, for even a few minutes each day is a great brain workout. Classical music is believed to be the most effective form of musical intellectual stimulation but its best to play different types of music and create variety and interest for your listening enjoyment.
Add a Splash of Color to Your Life
Bright and varied colors stimulate the brain so try painting your home with different and interesting color schemes. You can also use patterned wallpapers and add to the overall effect with floor and curtain treatments. Adding flowers is also a good idea because you not only add color to your life but are stimulating your olfactory senses to with the smells.
Dont forget to bring the same color and variation to your garden and add bird feeders and food to attract wildlife.
Socialize
Building and maintaining strong social relationships is good for your brain because you are interacting with other people and this is unpredictable activity when it comes to your brain function. You constantly exercise your brain when you are engaged in a conversation and thinking about friends and loved ones is good for your general sense of well-being in any event. People who tend to be loners are also thought to be more prone to depression and Alzheimers.
By now you will see there is a common factor in all of these activities; variation, novelty, constant change, uses multiple senses and so on. The key is to continuously seek new ways to use your brain and to feed it new experiences and sensations.
Mark Fjord is a freelance writer. Brain injury lawyers and hypoxic brain injury attorneys understand how brain injuries can affect all aspects of your life.