Are you forgetting petty things, like “Where did I keep my spectacles?” or “Why have I come to the kitchen?”, “ I cannot recall which actor acted in Titanic movie?” or many such simple things? Yes, your brain is getting old, and it is slowly retiring after all these decades of hard work, storing all big and small things, happy and sad things, and then reminding you from time to time. While no can defy age, but we can surely keep the brain active for many long years, at least longer than you expect. Surprised? Yes, the brain is an amazing organ and just like any human being, the brain can keep itself fit and fine, if you make it exercise and feed it, its most delicious diet, that is, information.
Old age is accompanied with several ailments, such as hypertension, diabetes, hypothyroidism, insomnia, and these diseases affect the memory of the brain. In such scenario, always get a medical professional’s help. Again, if your old parent is suffering from dementia or schizophrenia or neural disorder, then your parent needs medical help as well as attention.
In this article, I shall tell you simple tasks, which you can assign your brain, so that it doesn’t retire so soon. It can help you prevent dementia, cognitive decline of the brain. Besides, empowering your brain, you must have a healthy sleeping habit, get sufficient hydration and rest for your body, restrict toxic intake like smoking and alcohol, a great diet with less amount of saturated and trans fats to keep away anxiety.
Let’s have a look, how old people can sharpen their brains:
1. Learn A New Thing Everyday
This is an amazing habit for people of any age. Try to lean a new thing every day. Learning a new thing doesn’t imply learning something challenging like mountaineering or rock climbing. It can be any small thing. You can read a book and learn new things while reading the book. Or, if you have a hobby, try to incur new knowledge, no matter how small it is, almost every day. For example, if you love cooking, try to make a new dish twice a week, if not possible every day. You can repeat the preparation always. When you are learning new information, you are challenging the brain, and keeping it active. So, learn a new thing every day.
2. Involve all Your Senses
Involving all your sense organ can highly improve the activity of your brain. You can understand this information if I give you a simple example. There are certain songs or music, which make us nostalgic and we remember our good old days. Again, there are some songs which can remind us our lost love and we break down every time we hear the music. There are some smells, which take us back to our childhood days. Your sense organs are connected to the brain in some amazingly unconventional ways. In a case study, adults were shown a series of images, which were emotionally neutral, that is, the image doesn’t reflect any story which can be easier to remember. The images were accompanied with smell. Later on, when the images were shown without the accompanying odour, the adults could remember the images better, and especially the ones with pleasant smell.
3. Memorize Information By Repeating And Organization
Memorizing is an important practice, which you can adopt to remember things better. If you know that you forget things, do one work at a time. Multi-tasking can make you forget everything. Once you complete doing a task, or heard one instruction or a context from someone, make a note of it on a paper or in your smartphone. If you forget to take medicines, set alarms on your phone. In this way, you can organize your work and prevent yourself from getting lost.
4. Play Games To Rejuvenate Your Brain
Playing mind and brain games is a great source of rejuvenation and activity for your brain. Solve Sudoku, crosswords, scrabble, which come along with newspapers. You can play memory games your grandchildren or your family members. If you have a smartphone, then install puzzle and Sudoku apps from the respective app stores. There are plenty of play free online jigsaw puzzles for adults and kids. These will not only keep your mind agile, but at the same time keep you occupied throughout the leisure time.
5. Indulge in Meaningful Quality Conversations
Social connection is of great importance. The more you interact with people, the more you talk, the more your brain works. Recapitulate the good old days over a cup of coffee with your partner. Scroll through the old albums or create new ones. Visit your old friends, if possible, and indulge in quality conversations over various interesting topics.
These are the 5 ways or practices, you can adopt to sharpen you brain and yourself active.
