Get Mentally Fit: 7 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

Do you often feel forgetful, sluggish, or distracted? These are signs your brain needs a pick-me-up. While there is no direct cure for memory loss or for people with Alzheimer’s, there is a way for the average person to increase brain function and feel more alert. A healthy, stimulating lifestyle will help reduce your risks for both mental and physical health problems. Below are just 7 ways:

Photo by: Paul Bence

1. Exercise Your Mind

Teaching yourself a new language, working puzzles, discussing and debating, taking a new route to work or even reading a book will boost your brain power. Just like exercising your body to build up your endurance and strength, exercising your mind by learning new things will strengthen and improve the functioning of unused areas in your brain.

2. Eat Healthy

Eating healthy will keep the functioning of your brain in optimal condition. If you feed your mind junk, the result will be junk. Your mother was right, there is such a thing as brain food. Drink plenty of water and eat fish, vegetables, and fruit. The antioxidants in these foods combined with a balance of lean protein, fats and complex carbs will reduce your risks for cognitive impairment as well as other unhealthy conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol. Adopt a brain-healthy diet and only bring healthy foods into your home.

3. Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

Get out photo albums or your diary from high school and remember the past. One of the jobs of your brain is to hold memories. Stimulating your brain and remembering things that you thought you had forgotten will help you make new connections, and it just might make you happy to think of the past, and that’s good for your brain, too.

4. Get Physical

Exercise – you’ve tried it and you hate it, or it’s just another thing you can’t fit into your day. However, it’s proven that exercise is good for your physical health. An article on webMD “Train Your Brain With Exercise” says that exercise is good for the mind, too. Those who exercise regularly are happier, think clearer, and are more alert. Learn how to start exercising today to increase your brain fitness.

5. Avoid Stress

A little bit of stress never hurt anyone, but bottling up your anxiety and frustration isn’t good for your physical or mental health. Avoid stress or learn how to deal with it in a healthy way. Talk to someone about your feelings, remove yourself from a situation that could possibly upset you or stress you out, and exercise regularly to release stressful emotions. Everyone deals with stress differently, so if you know someone going through a hard time, be patient and listen.

6. Play or Pick up a Hobby

Playing a sport and knitting are just two activities that stimulate hand-eye coordination in the brain. Find something that you love doing and do it. Playing a team sport not only improves your physical and mental health, but it also helps to build and strengthen relationships. Knitting, sewing, painting, etc., stimulate your brain’s centers for creativity and coordination, and creating something new gives you the satisfaction of accomplishment.

7. Reduce Your Alcohol Intake

Some studies have shown that drinking red wine is healthy. Drinking a glass is ok, but downing the bottle by yourself is not. Alcohol obviously impairs your judgment and brain functioning or else we’d be allowed to drive and operate heavy machinery under the influence. Getting drunk damages cells in the brain, and it blocks your body from absorbing vitamin B12, important for maintaining normal brain functioning.

These are just a few ways to increase your brain power. Anything that gets you out of your TV coma state and makes you think or work is stimulating your brain. Take care of your body and your brain by exercising and eating right to reduce your risks of cognitive impairment and early onset dementia.

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