Re: 10 Easy and Natural Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp and Active

Hello Tony,

To expand on exercising your brain, I was listing to an interview with someone that had written a book on this. If I am able to find out who it was and what the book is, I will add a link to it.

His idea was to make changes to your normal routine. If you take the same route to work every day, change and take a different route. This will stimulate new areas in the brain and keep it active.

He also mentioned picking up a new hobby, and to consider learning a new language.

While some may think that learning a new language such as French or Spanish is too hard to do, I think you can exercise your brain in a similar way by just sitting down and having a conversation with a teenager, making your way through a page or two of Twitter, or reading an article on medicine and health and taking the time to stop and look up and understand the words that you don't know.

The same goes for hobbies. If you enjoy working with wood, take a class on metal working, or knitting. If you enjoy football, make an effort to take in a hockey game or two.

One of the most interesting exercises to keep your brain active is to do routine tasks with one of your senses deprived.

When you get up in the morning, pick out and lay out your clothes that you want to wear. Then, shut your eyes, take a shower with your eyes shut, brush your teeth without looking, and keep your eyes shut while you dress yourself. OK, now you can open your eyes and let's go into the kitchen. If you normally use your right hand to prepare breakfast, hold your right hand behind you and try doing it with your left hand.

It seems that when you deprive a sense and carry on, your brain actually makes new pathways and you grow.

It was mentioned that you can carry this on to the actual meal. Have everyone sit down, then communicate throughout the meal time without talking. Depending on the dynamics of your family, you may have to set down some ground rules, such as No throwing food or you will have to clean it up using only your feet... [smile icon]

At any rate, I thought these were excellent suggestions.

Tom Tweet