Chime School

Posts Tagged ‘active’

Your brain is an organ and just like the heart and lungs, it requires oxygen and exercise in order to operate at an optimum level. You may be too young to yield to middle-aged worries about ‘ use it or lose it’ or even to start fretting about Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases – however, it’s still important that you focus on keeping your brain in shape.

By regularly engaging in the right types of activities, you can increase your memory, improve your problem-solving skills and boost your creativity. Here are some tips on how to keep your mind active:

Quit smoking

If you are a smoker, quitting is top of the ‘to-do’ list for better mental acuity. This is because smokers can add memory loss to the long list of health problems that come from smoking. Smokers may have twice the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease as do people who have never smoked. Therefore, if the state and health of your mind are so important to you – stop smoking now — it is never too late. If you quit smoking now, you can still reduce your risk of memory loss later in life

Learn a language

Say ‘Ciao!’ to a whole new language. Learning to speak Spanish or Mandarin will keep your brain flexible and your mind sharp, helping to reduce the slowing of the thought processes that come with ageing. Attend classes, listen to tapes or seek out friends with whom you can converse in your new chosen language. Instead of watching the same television programs you always do, take in a foreign language movie with subtitles and immerse yourself in your new experience.

Play games

Thanks to an ageing baby-boom generation, there are now plenty of mentally stimulating games. As their name implies, brainteasers and other such puzzles are good exercises for the brain. At sites like at sites like Free Printable Sudoku you’ll find the best print sudoku puzzles. Always have a crossword book in your purse or briefcase and scribble in it while you commute, while you wait for an appointment or when you relax on your coffee break. You will improve your cognitive skills and creative thinking as well as your word power and vocabulary. Try also games that force you to strategize – for example, chess, bridge and solitaire.

Learn a new skill

A long-term goal like learning to play a musical instrument stimulates your brain on many levels over an extended period. A skill like learning to tango or foxtrot is great for the brain because it combines music and movement. Make everyday activities harder You can stimulate your brain just by mixing up your daily routine. If you are right handed, brush your teeth with your left hand, shower with your eyes closed — anything that will force you to use more of your senses.

Read

Whether it is a website, a novel or a newspaper, keeping your mind engaged in intellectual activity and expanding your vocabulary are two important ways to keep your brain thinking and working. As an added exercise, repeat facts you want to remember a few times aloud – then later, try to recall them again later.

Socialize

Your brain is the ultimate party animal and loves social activity. Join clubs or seek out other social activities that will surround you with many people and have you interacting. New scenery, new topics of conversation and other multi-sensory activities force the brain to literally form new connections, thus increasing memory capacity.

Building a Swing Slide Playset

As parents we are constantly reminded that it is our responsibility to encourage our youngsters to be active, to get exercise and not to lie around eating burgers while playing computer games. Many parents will probably agree that tearing their children away from their televisions and computer games can be tougher than pulling teeth.

Last year I invested a significant amount of hard earned cash in a few pieces of outdoor play equipment, chosen by my two youngsters. They always enjoy a visit to our local park where they can race around, swing on the swings, slide on the slides, bounce on the bouncy things and climb the climbing frames. Unfortunately our nearest park is about 3 miles away so these visits are not as frequent as they or I would like. So I bit the bullet and shelled out quite a bit of money on a wooden swing slide playset and a good quality wooden climbing frame for our garden.

Now I would like to report that my generosity has paid off and my children are now fit and active and can’t get enough of their new outdoor toys. But that is far from the truth. Since I installed the equipment (which presented many headaches, took a lot of hammering and quite a bit of swearing) they have probably only played on it three times. Admittedly I didn’t get the equipment until the Autumn of 2008 and since then the weather has been appalling.

At least that is the reason they give when I try to convince them that they’d enjoy a little outdoor play. It’s too cold, they often say. Or they say ‘the swings are too wet to sit on’ when it’s been raining.

I’m hoping that, as we move into spring and the weather improves, they will naturally want to get out into the garden and get some much needed exercise on their new outdoor toys. I’m dreading another miserable, wet summer as this will result in my expanding children just expanding even more instead of working off those excess pounds with a little outdoor adventure. Nobody ever said that being parenting was easy.