Are You Doing Enough To Keep Your Brain Young?

When we think of ways to keep ourselves healthy, vital, and youthful, we often focus on the purely physical side of things. Make no mistake, exercise and proper eating are all important, but are you neglecting the mental side of your health? As we get older, or other health issues factor in, it can feel like we’re getting less sharp, slower in our thought, and a little less like the smart selves we’ve thought ourselves to be. However, there are ways that you can bring things back into balance.

Sit back and listen to music

Music is more than just a great mood lifter, more than a motivator, and more than a way to spread your creative and imaginative wings. It’s also great for giving yourself a mental workout, as well. There are a lot of mental benefits of listening to music, which include improving your memory. and mental alertness. The complex mathematical and architectural structures that makeup music also activate the brain, and the relationships between notes in the music require computing for your brain to be able to keep up. Even if it feels like you’re just enjoying listening to music, so long as you actively listening to it, your brain is getting a bit of a workout in the process. Of course, learning an instrument can take these benefits to whole new levels.

Use puzzles to keep your mind active

Use it or lose it, is how the old adage goes. While the brain is not a muscle, it does work like one to a degree, and you can better keep your brain in shape by ensuring that it gets a variety of activities to test it out. This can include doing crossword puzzles, which helps you keep your vocabulary sharp. It’s been shown that a wider vocabulary also allows for a wide range of thought since you’re able to put a more complex range of thoughts into words. Sudoku, on the other hand, is a fantastic test of the logical side of the brain, improving memory, pattern recognition, and general puzzle solving. Jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, and anything else that actively uses the brain all help.

Maintain your social circle

It might take more energy and effort to plan a get-together with friends as you get older, but it is worth it. One of the leading contributing factors in cognitive decline as we recognize it today is isolation. As such, taking the time to meet up with friends, whether it’s simply to chat and spend time with them, or you’re getting involved in some sort of group activity, does a lot to keep your brain active. The parts of the brain that socialize, communicate, and recognize human expression are just as important to keep active as the logical sides of it.

​Take the time to relax

Sometimes, you don’t need to do more to sharpen your mind, you need to do less, instead. Stress has a serious effect on a wide range of aspects of mental health, and this includes your ability to think quickly and concisely. Stress is a leading cause of brain fog, for instance. Find the time to fit rest and relaxation into your life. Some of the exercises mentioned here could be a moment of rest for you, but otherwise, you can try meditation, or simply taking a break to enjoy a cup of tea and some recuperation. Things can be hectic enough in a modern lifestyle, you should ensure that you’re not making things harder on yourself by never giving yourself a break.

Yes, diet and exercise matter here, too

When we mentioned physical activity and healthy eating as if they were only relevant to physical health, we were being just a little intentionally facetious. The truth is that physical exercise can play a huge role in developing new nerve cells and building connections between brain cells, while also improving how efficiently we get oxygen to the brain. Similarly, your diet can be vastly improved to reduce the chance of brain fog, and even long-term cognitive issues such as dementia. In particular, the Mediterranean diet, strong on fruits, vegetables, fish, unsaturated oils, and animal proteins, is now thought to be particularly good at keeping the brain younger and more active for longer.

Our brain is much like a muscle. If we don’t use it effectively, it also becomes less effective. Take the time to implement the tips above, and ensure that you’re as quick as you ever were, or at least close enough.

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