Nine Simple Habits That Can Boost Your Brain Power
New research suggests that there are things that can be done to add to your brainpower. Regular exercise, social interaction, and a healthy diet are crucial. But so is doing familiar things in unfamiliar ways. Disrupting routines can stimulate new nerve cells to create new activities. Cognitive exercise also enhances blood flow and increases the production of chemicals called neurotrophins that protect brain cells. There are many ways this can be done, but here are some suggestions:
1. Take a Walk:
Older adults who start a regular walking program improve significantly on tests of high-level “executive” functions such as planning, scheduling, and task coordination.
Aerobic exercise raises the level of a chemical called ‘brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which protects nerve cells from the damage caused by free radicals. It also boosts the number of connections between neurons, promotes the formation of new capillaries in the brain, and may even be involved in the construction of new neurons from adult stem cells.
2. Switch Sides:
Use your non-dominant hand for routine activities such as brushing your teeth
Put the mouse on the other side of your computer
Try buttoning your shirt one-handed
3. Change the Scenery:
These changes alter cognitive and motor pathways in your brain:
Rearranging a room is a good way to re-map the visual and spatial networks in your brain
Try rearranging the items in your kitchen cabinets or dresser drawers
Take a new route to work
Move the waste paper basket to a new spot
4. Make Hand Signals:
Learning to spell using the manual alphabet will work out your motor and visual cortex at the same time.
You can find illustrations of the 26 hand positions alongside the definition “manual alphabet” in some dictionaries or online.
5. Do It Blindfolded (Be careful with this one!):
Try familiar activities with your eyes closed
Sort coins using only your sense of touch
Savor a bowl of blueberries (or some pistachios), focusing on your senses of smell and taste
6. Puzzle It Out:
Crosswords are great for sharpening language skills, but working on your spatial intelligence with a jigsaw puzzle is more likely to activate new pathways in your brain
You don’t have to do it all at once- try putting a few pieces in place a day
7. Share Story Time:
Take turns reading aloud with a friend, or a loved one, or your book club.
Both reading out loud and listening promote the interaction of your brain’s left and right hemispheres and activate little used pathways
8. Catch a Whiff:
Smell is the only sense that connects directly to a part of the brain called the limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and storing memories.
That is why certain odors can make you feel nostalgic.
Listening to music while burning a scented candle will build brain connections by combining two senses- hearing and smell- that don’t ordinarily collaborate.
9. Report the News:
Describing things to others is an excellent way to improve your visual memory.
Make it a goal to notice one new thing every day and then tell someone about it later- this will help you improve both attention and memory skills.
