Have you ever thought about giving your brain a workout? The mind is critical to the entire body’s health and functioning. It may not occur to you that it’s crucial to focus on keeping your brain active and functioning at top efficiency, too. Below, we’ll cover some helpful habits you can enlist to improve your brain health. Working these into your daily routine will benefit your long-term health and reduce the effects of ageing in the future.
1- Play brain games
An easy and entertaining way to challenge your brain’s health and cognitive ability is with brain games. Games like crosswords or Sudoku rely on word comprehension, math skills, logic, and more. The best part of brain games is their entertainment value. Plus, you only need to play for 15 minutes a day to see a benefit.
2- Meditate
If you aren’t already meditating daily, it’s an excellent practice to strengthen your mind. Meditation is a relaxing brain workout. Daily meditation challenges your brain to switch into a different mental state, improving your concentration and focus abilities.
3- Eat brain-healthy food
Many people don’t realize that it’s possible to create a brain-conscious diet. Healthy fats are incredibly beneficial to your brain’s functioning and health. To increase healthy fats for your mind, eat a diet rich with fish oils, walnuts, olive oil, and other seeds. These fats will serve your brain function much better than saturated fats and trans-fats.
4- Take cognitive supplements
Besides changing your diet to benefit your brain’s health, cognitive supplements are also an option for improving mental functioning. Our brain is an organ that benefits from an extra boost. Look for supplements that offer nootropics. Many supplements are vegan-friendly, GMO-free, gluten and soy-free.
5- Tell stories
Storytelling is a vital tradition in many cultures. Historically, storytelling helps to pass knowledge and wisdom down through generations. Oral storytelling with an attention to detail is an excellent way to exercise your brain’s language and comprehension function. The ability to tell compelling stories has proven to aid patients who have dementia as well as depression.
6- Exercise your body
We know that exercise benefits our bodies, but it’s crucial to remember that it’s aiding our minds as well. Fitness training requires the brain to practice new motor skills, practice balance, among other things. Plus, the endorphins released during exercise do positive things for our minds as well.
7- Read
Books are rich with characters, stories, and information that stimulate our cognitive functioning. When you branch out from the typical stories you’d gravitate towards, you’re expanding your comprehension skills. Your brain has to work when you imagine and visualize the words you’re reading.
8- Take a break from screen time
On average, people spend about four or more hours in front of the TV in a day. The more hours you sit in front of a screen, the less active your mind will be. Instead of binge-watching another favorite television show, use some of that time to put the other strategies in this list to use.
The Takeaway
As you can see from the list above, exercising your brain is a lot of fun. Whether you’re telling a captivating story, solving a word puzzle, or reading a good book, there are many ways to entertain yourself and keep your mind active and engaged. You’ll be surprised at how good you feel when you focus on enriching activities that enhance your cognitive abilities over time.
