How to Exercise Your Brain And Keep It Healthy
- 1). To prevent cognitive decline, as to prevent physical decline, you must take part in physical activity. You truly cannot get enough physical exercise when it comes to keeping both body and mind healthy and alive. As you go through life, it is important to vary your physical activity. If you are a walker or runner, vary your route. Learn new street signs, see new sights, and meet new people. Learning a new activity or gaining a new skill will benefit your brain. Joining a group activity will mean you will be meeting new people and forming new relationships. Every new activity you indulge in forces your brain to adjust and change.
- 2). Starting a new group activity has a double advantage, you are improving your brain power with the new activity and the resultant social activity in a group further benefits your brain. Social exchanges force us to think, respond to new topics of conversation and formulate new responses. Discussion is food for the brain. Join a discussion group if you can find one. Join a book club or any group where you cam hear new opinions and respond to them. Talk with family. Talk with fellow commuters. Keep your brain active, absorbing new ideas, and responding to them.
- 3). Some activities that are especially good for your brain are learning a new language, reading, games such as scrabble and bingo, and of course, crossword puzzles and jig-saw puzzles. Sometimes we are uncomfortable trying to learn new things but this discomfort is natural. It is just your brain adjusting and learning. so carry on and do not be embarrassed if you learn more slowly than others. The important thing is that you are learning, and you are staving off the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's and other conditions related to decreases in our mental abilities.
- 4). It is important that we use all our senses, all the time. Look, listen, see, taste, and smell. These senses send different messages to the brain and this is how we learn. Try using your senses in different ways. Close your eyes as you dress a salad or get yourself dressed. You will then depend on touch and taste, hone these skills and move ideas around in your brain. Try to notice new things in your environment every day, changes in the weather, new plants or animals and especially new people. Imagine how you have learned things in the past, learning to write, tying your shoes, any skill that you now possess. It has been proven that imagining exercising can actually improve physical health. So, can imagining in your mind, improve mental health. Never just sit. Think.
- 5). Improve your diet. Good diet makes for a healthy body and a healthy body makes for a healthy brain. Remember the brain foods like anti-oxidants. Just as important as diet, are rest and sleep. As your body rests, so does your mind. A good diet, rest, exercise, and stimulation all help the body maintain itself. They do the same for the mind.
- 6). As much as possible, eliminate stress from your life. If you have problems, take action. Search for solutions. If you need help, seek it and accept it. Keep your body moving and keep your mind moving. Your brain will thank you.