We all want to keep our brains active and vibrant, and the following tips may help achieve that result no matter our age. Exercising the mind on a daily basis will help ensure we maintain healthy cognitive function. Starting young and persisting with mentally stimulating habits throughout our lives will reap benefits down the road, too. And it’s never too late if you’re already middle-aged or in your senior years. Constant care and an active lifestyle are key ingredients when it comes to maintaining a healthy brain and mind.
There are a number of steps we can take to keep our brain young, just as there are several steps we can take to keep the rest of our body healthy.
What Kinds of Activities Help?
We’ve identified six activities and lifestyle practices we can all do that help power up our brain. They’re all easy to do and the results may surprise.
1. Be Physically Active
Move your body! Think about activities such as tennis, badminton, pickleball, kayaking and canoeing, skiing, skating, horseback riding, dancing. You get the message; anything that gets you up and moving around is a great way to stimulate your mind as well as the rest of your body. Activities that have an aerobic component and require thinking and concentration, judgement or decision-making are most effective at exercising the brain. We’re not ruling out walking and jogging, it’s just that they are less likely to be as effective at firing up your brain, but both do have benefits nonetheless.
Take it from an expert: “The best advice I can give to keep your brain healthy and young is aerobic exercise,” says Donald Stuss, PhD, a neuropsychologist and director of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto.
2. Keep Calm & Carry On
Meditation, yoga, contemplation, seeking out serenity, reading books, singing, playing music are all activities which can help nurture our brain’s sense of wellbeing and peacefulness while stimulating it at the same time.
3. Feed Your Brain Antioxidant Foods
Diet plays a very important role in the overall health of our brains. You’ve heard the term brain foods, right? Well, consuming them does have a positive effect. Include food items such as: fatty fish (salmon, trout, tuna, sardines), oranges, coffee, eggs, dark chocolate, blueberries and other brightly colored berries, broccoli, turmeric, pumpkin seeds and nuts. Reap the mental health benefits of following the Mediterranean diet.
4. Exercise Your Cognitive Thinking
Play games, solve crosswords and complete jigsaw puzzles. Read books, learn a new language or take up a musical instrument. Go back to school. Play cards. Teach someone else a new skill. Cook, sew, craft, create some art, build something. Visit museums and art galleries, botanical gardens, the zoo or aquarium. All these kinds of interests help stimulate cognitive thinking and enhance brain function.
5. Get Some Deep Sleep
Allow your brain (mind) the opportunity to rest. Try to get eight hours of sleep every night. It’s the biggest boost you can give it when it comes to cementing memories, ensuring efficient thought processing, the absorption of new information, regulating appetite, encouraging creative thinking, helping to keep the rest of your body healthy, and more.
6. And Last But Not Least…
Don’t forget to laugh and find the humour in everyday life. After all, “Laughter is the best medicine!” It provides our minds and souls with an infinite amount of benefits from stress release to a healthy immune system, to pain relief. Plus it just makes us all feel good!