Keeping the brain active and healthy from an early age is something that will be greatly appreciated the more you age. Doing activities that keep your mind sharp and challenged can feel like normal activities, but the brain health benefits you get from them make them even more worth it.
Here are some ways on how you can stimulate your brain every day and keep your mind sharp:
Exercise
Exercise has many benefits, including improving your brain health. You can improve your memory and cognitive skills by increasing body flow and getting movement in by incorporating exercise into your routine, even a simple daily walk.
So take the time to find an activity that you like and know that you are getting body, mind and brain benefits from exercising!
Learn a new language
When you learn a new language, it is pretty much a workout for your brain as it has to operate and process in a completely new way than it is used to.
There are incredible cognitive benefits to learning a new language, including higher levels of creativity, improved memory, and many more.
Language learning is easier than ever nowadays with online tools such as language apps making it easy to study and do language lessons with your smart device whenever you have some free time.
For example, this efficacy study of Babbel, one of the most popular language-learning apps on the market, revealed that “92% of Babbel users improve their language proficiency in just 2 months.” So, if you put in the time, you are bound to see results!
Eat healthily
Healthy food has been linked to better brain health, due to lower levels of inflammation and the brain boost you get from healthy fats from foods such as nuts and foods.
Healthy food can also give you an energy boost and offer you greater mental clarity throughout your days. Other healthy foods to incorporate into your diet to give yourself a brain boost are green tea, eggs and blueberries.
Play an instrument
Learning a new skill such as playing an instrument requires your brain to strengthen its connections and can lead to improved memory as you get older. If you enjoyed it when you were younger maybe you should pick it up again.
Read
Reading is a great form of entertainment that is also great for your brain health and helps to keep your mind sharp. While reading for pleasure also has great benefits such as improving your vocabulary and memory, you’ll reap even greater benefits by reading for intellectual stimulation.
To keep your brain engaged, switch up your reading materials from your daily newspaper to a good book, to a magazine of choice. If you mix up the tone, subject and way of writing from source to source, it encourages your brain to adjust to the sentence structure, etc.
Play games
Playing games is both fun and great for your brain. It stimulates your mind and keeps your brain active and engaged, especially if you play particularly good ‘brain games’ such as sudoku, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, scrabble and chess.
Meditate
Meditation is an effective brain exercise that can help reduce stress, improve attention, and even increase the capacity of working memory.
It is considered a practice, and incredibly beneficial if you put the time into your practice and improve your meditation skills.
Many people find that it can be challenging when just starting out, as it is hard to ‘calm the brain and mind’. But with consistent practice, you can benefit your mind and your health.
By acting early and taking care of yourself, you have better chances of being healthy in old age and throughout your life. These are also fun and enjoyable activities to incorporate into your life, even aside from the brain health benefits you get from them!
