Dear Lifelines,
As I get older and get out less, I find that I just am not as sharp as I once was. What can I do?
Signed,
Concerned
Dear Concerned,
As with our bodies, it’s also essential to keep our minds healthy through exercise and nutrition in order to get the maximum potential we can from ourselves. While you can check with your physician or nutritionist to see which foods provide the best nutrients for your brain, you can also experiment with brain exercises to see what specific activities might work for you. There are many ways to exercise our brains such as through computer brain games, socializing, hobbies, doing mental math, memory games, crossword puzzles, word searches, Sudoku, reading, writing a country song, board games (scrabble, clue, mastermind, boggle to name a couple), playing or learning a new instrument, writing stories and poems, strategic computer and board games (risk, chess, backgammon, battleship), card games, and so forth! See if you can incorporate one new activity every day in order to challenge yourself and feed your hungry mind. Lately there have been many applications made available for smart phones so that you can even feed your brain on the run. Why not try keeping a brain diary and see how you improve over time? Once you get into the habit of exercising your brain in a deliberate fashion, it might even become enjoyable! So crack open that dusty old thesaurus, grab your Rubik’s cube, join the local book club, visit with your neighbours and get your hungry brain a healthy fixing of comestibles.
Good luck and stay sharp!
Lifelines
“We can start our day with the happiness of a smile and the aspiration to dedicate ourselves to the path of love and understanding. We are aware that today is a fresh, new day, and we have twenty-four precious hours to live.” Thich Nhat Hanh, from his book, Happiness.