Lifestyle Choices - Mental Exercises
Ready, Set, GO!
Flexing and stretching your brain, just like flexing and stretching other parts of your body, is critical for a successful aging work out. So much so that experts suggest that people of all ages exercise both their brains and bodies on a daily basis.
Growing evidence suggests that regular mental calisthenics may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other memory disorders by enhancing cognitive reserve—the mind's resistance to damage; stimulating growth of new brain cells; and maintaining or strengthening connections between brain cells.
Scientists continue to explore the benefits of mental activities, including an increasing number of computerized brain games; not all games have published studies backing them up. But the general consensus is that brain exercise basically has no downside.
For individuals currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, a rule of thumb is to engage the person in mental activities that will not be a set up for failure.
In general, brain fitness should include these key goals:
- Be a life-long learner.
- Learn a new skill or something new every day.
- Try in with the new—novel intellectual tasks—and out with the old—repetition of over-learned tasks. Shaking up a routine makes your brain work harder.
- Embrace mental challenges.
Try these Brain Exercises
- Study a new language.
- Write letters to old friends.
- Do crossword puzzles.
- Join clubs.
- Take classes.
- Play board games.
- Become computer-savvy.
- Visit a museum.
- Go on a learning vacation.
- Play some online brain fitness games.
- Do jigsaw puzzles.
- Memorize lists.
- Take up the art of storytelling.
- Learn a musical instrument.
- Attend lectures.
- Read something entirely different.