Mental exercises to sharpen your brain, Mind - Mind Power,Times Wellness Online

Mental exercises to sharpen your brain, Mind - Mind Power,Times Wellness Online: "“Mental exercises are a must to stimulate the neurons; brain cells. It is like if you do not use your eye you get a lazy-eye syndrome. Similarly, if you do not use your brain, you may end up with lazy-brain syndrome”, says Dr Hemant Thacker, consultant physician at the Jaslok and Breach Candy Hospitals, Mumbai.



Exercising ‘tiny’ brains



Mental exercises can begin right from childhood. Says Dr Prakash Vaidya, consultant paediatrician at the Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai, “These help children as a sort of training modality and any number of hours spent on practicing a particular skill would certainly translate into better peformance.” According to the educational and cognitive scientists, certain mental exercises can teach children to become more self-possessed at earlier ages, reducing stress levels at home and improving their experience in school.



A variety of exercises can help improve working memory and intellectual flexibility as well as improving motor skills in children. These include reading to a child while continually keeping an eye contact, by tilting the book so that the pictures become difficult to understand and ask the youngsters to follow the words carefully, holding more of them in mind at one time, which is a function of working memory.



Memorising helps children use their brain to focus and retain the information. Word searches and crossword puzzles are great activities for children to exercise their brains by using the focus and thinking that they require. Working with modeling clay or play-dough is good for children as it helps develop agility and hand-brain coordination.



Young adult minds



As such young minds are curious and eager to learn, learning novel tasks can be a good exercise for the brain. For instance, you can learn a new language, learn square dancing, chess, perform tai chi or try and control the computer mouse with your opposite hand.



Pick out new challenges for the brain and it will turn sharper. Challenging the brain early in life is crucial to building up more cognitive reserve to counter brain-damaging diseases, adds Dr David Bennett, Rush University, Chicago, USA. And reading-habits prior to age 18 are a key predictor of later cognitive function.



Keep your brain sharpened



You have a vibrant enthusiastic 70-year old on one hand and a serious thinker at the age of 30 on the other. Experts vouch that mental ability is genetic but they also say that brain exercising can improve mental acuity and agility.



Intellectual activity during middle-age puts you at a lesser risk of Alzheimer’s disease. So breaking your brain over brain teasers, scrabble, crossword puzzles or playing computer-based games will not go in vain any more. They will all help sharpen your brain. Reading, playing scrabble, learning a new language or starting a new hobby stimulates the brain to think. Interestingly, travelling is also stimulating.



Practicing ‘neurobics’



According to Dr Lawrence C Katz, professor of neurobiology at the Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, NC, USA, just as you can exercise your body to fight off the effects of physical aging, you can keep your brain stronger longer with special mental exercises called neurobics. Neurobic exercises involve one or more senses in a novel way, which helps you shake up your daily routine. “Use all your senses as far as possible. And these may be more important for the mentally disabled, for instance those with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease”, adds Dr Thacker. The fun part is that neurobics can be done at any time and anywhere.



Get going

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Get dressed with your eyes closed
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Communicate using only visual clues at the dining table
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Listen to the music while smelling flowers
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Tap your fingers while listening to rain drops fall
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Play with modelling clay while looking out of the window admiring clouds
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Try eating or writing with the opposite hand
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Break your routine. Go to work on a new route

Physical exercises are good for the brain in the elderly



Physical exercises have a protective effect on the brain and may also help prevent Alzheimer's disease. Studies have shown that senior citizens who walk regularly show improved memory skills, learning ability, concentration and abstract reasoning. Elderly women who walked regularly are less likely to experience age-related memory loss.



Morning exercises in the bed such as wriggling toes, stretching activate the nerves in your brain making you alert and energised. ‘Elderobics’ – cardiovascular exercises as in aerobics can improve memory and reasoning skills even beyond the age of 70.



Your brain is the boss of your body. And it needs to be taken care of. Inactivity and lack of mental exercises can result in mental decline. Your brain learns by interacting with the worldly matters through perception and action. The good news is that the brain has the capacity to rewire itself and thus even in old age it can grow neurons. So start using your brain; keep it active all through your life with stimulating mental exercises."