Ready, Set, Go! Get Started Today
You can start exercising your brain today with some simple routines.
By Dave Bunnell
Monday, October 08, 2007
Jim Jacobs
Enjoying the Sunny Side of the Street
Seniors tend to emphasize the positive more than younger people do, and for good reason. As people age, they gain not only life experience but better emotional balance.
Music: It's Play Time!
The ways to get involved making music are as varied as the instruments in a symphony orchestra.
If you don't already do the crossword, Sudoku, and word jumble puzzles in your newspaper, get started; if you do only one type of puzzle, take up another kind. The more challenging these puzzles, the harder your brain has to work, and the more benefits you derive.
Be advised, though, if you've been doing crossword puzzles for years, their value in terms of brain fitness diminishes. The more familiar a mental task, the less challenging, and you wind up simply using one part of your brain over and over. When you do new things, you use different areas of your brain and generate neurons. For this reason, if you are a veteran crossword person, switch to Sudoku. Here are some more suggestions:
• If you use a calculator to balance your checkbook or for other familiar tasks, quit using it and start computing in your head. When you go to a restaurant, always figure the tip in your head. When you buy something, see if you can correctly estimate the sales tax. Volunteer to help your grandchild (or any child) with their math homework.
• The next time you go to the grocery store, write down the items you need on a list and then purposely stash the list in your pocket or purse. Only pull it out, if you must, just before you get into the checkout line. You'll be surprised at your ability to remember all or most of the items.
• Seize any opportunity to play chess or any other challenging board game or card game.
• Learn new vocabulary words on a regular basis. When you go to a movie, try to remember the name of the movie, the director, and the name of the main actors. Practice a similar routine when you read a book or even an interesting newspaper or magazine article.
• Challenge yourself to remember the name of any new person you meet, particularly if you know you'll be seeing them again. Be creative about using associations to help. For instance, if you meet someone named Jill, you might say to yourself, "Jack and Jill went up the hill." When you next see Jill, you'll likely think of the nursery rhyme, and Jill will be pleased that you remembered her name.
• Memorize the numbers in your main credit card, including the expiration date and the security code on the back. You'll be surprised at how useful this can be. Once you've accomplished this, start memorizing other essential numbers, such as the digits in your driver's license, license plate, passport, bank account, and so on. Imagine you are stranded in a foreign county and someone's stolen all your credit and ID cards. Think how great it would be if you had all these numbers in your head.
• Free yourself from stress by consistently keeping your keys and other essential items in a designated place. Keep your desk clean, avoid clutter, and maintain mundane things, like bills, where you can retrieve them.
• Re-engage with the world. Smell that flower. Listen for that buzzing bee. Deliberately refocus as a listener and as an observer. After you take a walk and an hour or two has passed, sit down and write out a list of the things you saw and enjoyed. As neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., suggests, the goal is to try to improve your level of engagement in the world just a little bit every day.
« Back to Work Out Your Brain!
'I Like to Be a Protagonist' 
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
