"It's like having more cell towers in your brain to send messages along. The more cell towers you have, the fewer missed calls,"Exercise is emerging as an extremely valuable way to enhance brain health. Studies show that even 30 minutes of brisk walking daily can improve blood flow to the brain, boosting neural growth factors and brain connectivity, perhaps as much as mental cross-training does.
Mental stimulation is one key. The more you challenge your brain, the more new nerve pathways you form. A mini-industry of brain teasers, puzzles and computer games has sprung up to help worried baby boomers do just that. But you can give your brain a good workout with just a few modifications in your daily life.
Stress has the opposite effect. The stress hormone cortisol depresses the growth of nerve cells and the connections between them. Yoga, meditation, exercise and social interaction can all help alleviate it
Getting sufficient sleep is also crucial. "REM sleep is when we consolidate memory and cement it in the brain,"."Let's put it this way: the brain represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy."
Examples Of Neurobics
- Spend time in a new environment. Go to a new park, or a new store. Travel, by the way, seems to slow down age-related mental decline.
- Try some aromatherapy. Smell new odors in the morning. Have new odors, like a bottle of mint extract ready to smell first thing in the morning, to "wake up" your brain.
- Take a shower with your eyes closed. Your other senses become more active when you cannot see, and a shower engages several senses.
- Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. This is difficult for some of us, and requires full attention the first time you try it.
- Put on different clothes. Ever notice how you feel differently when you wear different clothes? You may think differently as well. Give it a try.
- Learn to read braille. This is a tough one, but learning to read with your fingers definitely involves one of your senses in a new context.
- Respond to a situation differently. Catch yourself in a normal and mostly unconscious response to a situation, and choose to respond in a different (and preferably better) way.
- Find a new route to work. It doesn't have to be a longer route - just different. You may even find a faster way to work once you break your routine.
- Act confidently. In a situation you are unsure about, choose to act confidently. You'll notice that your mind gets very active once you adopt the assumption that you will know what to do.
- Distinguish coins using only your sense of touch. This brain exercise can be a way to kill time when waiting for an appointment. If you really want a challenge, see if you can distinguish paper currency denominations by touch.
- Leave the lights off in the house. Get around your home by memory and feel. This certainly fully engages your attention, but be careful of course.
- Television Fun This one is not only fun, but good for stimulating creativity. You simply turn the volume off on television and invent the dialog based on what you see the characters doing. If you do this with a friend you can each play various roles. Most shows become comedies when doing this.
- Read A New Magazine Find a magazine you normally wouldn't choose, and read it for a while. It should be a topic that you don't know much about. If you normally read about money-related topics, you might pick up a fishing magazine. As you read, relate what you are reading and learning to what you already know. This is another good creativity booster. It gets you out of your usual thinking patterns.
- Shop In New Places Try a new store when you go shopping. It could be a new grocery store, just so you have to think to find your way around. It could also be a different kind of store that you would normally never visit
- Have A Half-Speed Day Try this one on a day when you aren't going to work. The idea is to move at half your normal speed (if you are normally slow, you may want to try a double-speed day). This obviously requires concentration. You will become much more aware of actions that normally are mostly unconscious, such as brushing your teeth or sitting down.
- Learn Sign Language Learning to talk with you hands definitely "involves one or more of your senses in a new context" (one of the rules of good neurobic exercises). If time is limited, you can learn just the basics, like how to say hello, tell someone your name, and spell out words. In larger cities, some deaf people sell a small pamphlet that teaches these basics.
- New Recreation If you normally go to the city on the weekend, go camping instead. If you are normally an outdoor person on weekends, take a visit to the city for a change. In either case, find a way to make it interesting for you.
- Garden Gardening, especially if you haven't been doing it regularly, meets all three criteria for a good neurobic exercise (see the page "Neurobics for the criteria). If you don't have the space for a garden outdoors, you can start a small herb garden in pots.
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