You may have heard the phrase "Use it or lose it." This goes for your brain, too. The brain must be exercises for optimal reasoning skills and speed, perception, thought processes and to help prevent decline in cognition and memory, according to the Franklin Institute. Such exercise helps create new neural growth and pathways within the brain that help prevent memory loss caused by lack of activity and stimulation.
Enhance Coordination
At home or at work, challenge the brain to coordinate movements by opposite sides of the body, suggests Dr. Paul Lanthois in American Chronicle. March in place and tap your right hand against your left knee and then your left hand against your right knee. This move is designed to wake up the brain and engage both hemispheres of the brain, which control creativity and logic, respectively. Tap your head with one hand and rub your belly with the other hand at the same time. Right and left movements and exercises are appropriate for enhancing coordination and exercising both sides of the brain at the same time.
Use Your Voice
Several times a day, even if you're by yourself, use your voice to stimulate your brain, suggests Dr. Lanthois. Hum a new song or sing along to a new song that you don't know all the words to. Talk to yourself while you're engaged in household or office tasks, or work out a problem verbally, weighing pros and cons while you discuss potential solutions to yourself. Do this at least once a day to help you think and process information faster.
Physical Exercise
Your brain may benefit from physical exercise, according to the University of Illinois, whose experts state a distinct connection between cardio fitness and exercise and brain health. The university states that older people who exercised regularly showed less degeneration of gray and white brain matter than those who didn't. Physical exercise can include aerobic exercise, which increases the heart rate and provides optimal cardiovascular benefits, including increased blood flow to the brain. Such exercise includes walking, jogging, active sports like tennis or swimming, kickboxing, stepping or dancing.
Learn New Things
Challenge your brain to exercise by learning new things, suggests eMedExpert.com. Take up a new language, hobby or sport and practice for 30 minutes to an hour every day. Active brains continually create new cell growth and neural pathways and functions, which helps the brain maintain and store information more efficiently.
Engage Your Memory
Keep the brain active and stimulated by engaging in daily problem solving activities and games, suggests eMedExpert.com. Try to play a memory game or engage in activities like brain teasers, math games or word problems that require you to think and remember to help keep the brain sharp. Read books, play word games, engage in creative crafts or do math in your head, not on a calculator, to help engage memory skills and prevent or slow cognitive decline.
