Strengthening Your Mind

We all know that the more we work our bodies, the stronger it will get. Well our Brain is very much the same thing. I have heard someone say, “use it or lose it”, we must use our brains, or it may deteriorate. Our brains can do incredible things, it can change and learn new things. This tends to create and strengthen the neural pathways and network. These exercises help make the brain stronger, more flexible, and better to deal with change.

The first step of taking care of our brain is taking care of our body. There have been a lot of studies that suggest that if we engage in consistent exercise the brain will have less of a chance in shrinking. Some researchers have even stated that healthy behaviors may decrease the chances of experiencing dementia or impairment of the brain by 60%. These healthy behaviors are eating healthy, exercising, no smoking and minimal alcohol.

Another great practice is to do memory games or something that causes you to remember something. Naming the states, drawing a map of an area, reciting a poem or story. Anything that causes you to thing or remember will help to build and strengthen the brain.

You may also learn something new, learn a new language, do puzzles, build things or anything that causes you to learn something new. Part of this learning could come from reading a book, taking a class, or learning from online videos. Learning something new can be fun and rewarding, a great example is learning photography, this is some thing you can use the rest of your life.

What about just talking with others, yes socializing! Having a good conversation makes our minds work, and socializing can be fun and entertaining. You can join a club, volunteer, golfing with friends or just having people over to visit.

The last thing that I think can be beneficial is meditation. Mindful meditation can engage new neural pathways, this could result is growing self-observation skills. It has been said that meditation may help improve attention, focus, empathy, and immunity. Meditation can help relieve stress that can have a big impact on the brain.

These are some good examples of ways to help keep our brain functioning as we age. My Dad is 89, he tries to get out of the house and do some chores every day, he likes to read and is very much a social person, his mind is strong.