Muscles need exercise to be strong.
Your brain is no different – challenges sharpen its skills.
So, to maintain mental fitness, it’s important to continually take on new activities.
This stimulates brain structures strongly subject to age-related processes and can help prevent dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Research Initiative (AFI), a Germany-based non-profit organisation.
Taking up a new hobby, learning a foreign language or joining a local theatre group will therefore not only spice up your life, but also boost your brain.
When we think of ways to train our mind, doing crosswords and Sudoku puzzles often come to mind.
But they’re not very effective, the AFI says, because they only require you to call up information you already know.
Watching television isn’t mentally demanding either.
This can’t be said, however, about reading, doing jigsaw puzzles or playing parlour games.
Listening to music, making music and dancing to music also stimulates the brain.
The AFI recommends that you not listen to the same songs over and over, but frequently change your personal playlist, giving your brain more variety.
ALSO READ: Make music to keep the brain healthy
Cultivating old friendships and building new ones not only pays emotional dividends, but mental ones too – social contact, conversing, and reading your interlocutor’s facial expressions and body language all exercise your brain.
ALSO READ: Be social for your brain (and ward off dementia)
Breaking up routines is beneficial as well.
“When you take a walk, run errands or go on an excursion in your area, choose unfamiliar routes and destinations,” suggests Alexandra Borchard-Becker, a consultant with Germany’s Consumer Initiative Association.
Other things you can do for more variety include brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand or going to an unaccustomed shop or supermarket for your grocery shopping. – dpa
