We have all received conditioning that we must treat our bodies as temples. However, most people often forget that the mind is also a part of our life vessel, and it too needs exercise. Though this notion may be strange to some, functioning at a higher state of health requires that you maintain both physical and mental fitness. The latter can not only increase positive emotions but can also ward off cognitive decline.
It is an indisputable fact that the brain is the most complex organ we have. It is one that scientists have yet to figure out entirely. Still, they know that age is not the only factor that leads people to experience impairments in utilizing its full potential. Substance abuse, head trauma, and vast amounts of stress hormones are among a few other things that can dramatically slow us down regarding how well and how fast we can think.
No one wants to start forgetting events, continuously lose their train of thought, or become more impulsive with time. These events can lead to aggression, depression, anxiety, and apathy, which can wreck a person’s overall well-being. Thus, here are a few simple things everyone can do at home to keep themselves sharp, even at more advanced ages.
Dance
Yes, you read that right. Creatively moving your body can benefit you in ways that differ from purely elevating your heart rate, contracting your muscles, and making you sweat. It can also boost your intelligence, self-esteem and lift your overall mood. The range of positive aspects you can rake from this activity depends on the type of dancing you choose. For example, ballroom requires improvisation and memorizing long routines. Hence, it can lead to quicker and improved decision-making and maintaining a decent information retention capacity. Even the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control claims that learning dance moves can nourish your brain’s memory and processing speed. Of course, you get all this while getting in some physical exercise.
Draw Maps from Memory
According to American developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, spatial intelligence is one of nine human intelligence. It has adaptive and evolutionary importance and is the principal complement to verbal thinking. It also goes hand-in-hand with proprioception, a concept that refers to your awareness of your body in your surrounding space. Having difficulty pinpointing past locations or tracking down something you hear or see is a sign of declined spatial awareness, which mostly gets associated with the right side of the brain. Drawing maps from memory is an excellent exercise of checking your recollection ability and how well you can navigate somewhat familiar areas. All that it requires is a pen and a piece of paper.
Count Cards
Counting cards is a blackjack strategy where you can attempt to gain an advantage over your dealer by keeping a tally of compositions of the decks in play. Despite popular belief, this practice is not illegal. It only gets frowned upon by gaming establishments who do not want to see blackjack’s house edged diminished. Since most casinos use at least six-deck shoes to deal cards, adding up all the face cards played can get mentally strenuous, boosting your concentration levels and memory. The app Card counter Lite on Google Play is a great option to practice or try any of these real blackjack sites that can be played with fake money and real.
Educate Yourself
Per Central Connecticut State University, learning new things can be helpful to your brain on a physiological level. It increases the white matter in your brain, the density of your myelin. That enhances brain performance. Picking up new skills stimulate the brain to form more neural pathways, allowing electrical impulses to travel swifter. So, essentially, learning something novel increases the speed you can learn another thing in the future. Online education is currently booming. Therefore, there is no shortage of internet platforms offering to teach you virtually everything for a fee or free of charge.
Do Puzzles
Several studies show that frequently doing jigsaw puzzles can improve visual-spatial reasoning and cognition. The same holds for brain ticklers like Sudoku and crosswords. Recent research published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry that looked at data from around 19,100 participants concluded that those that regularly do puzzles of any kind have mental health that is a decade younger than their actual age. Some argue that this study only showed that people that like doing puzzles have better overall cognition, not that these games provide a cognitive boost. Whatever the truth is, it cannot be harmful to spend a few minutes per day challenging your mind.
About the Author
Shelly Schiff has been working in the gambling industry since 2009, mainly on the digital side of things, employed by OnlineUnitedStatesCasinos.com. However, over her eleven-year career, Shelly has provided content for many other top interactive gaming websites. She knows all there is to know about slots and has in-depth knowledge of the most popular table games. Her golden retriever Garry occupies most of her leisure time. Though, when she can, she loves reading Jim Thompson-like crime novels.