Exercising Your Brain As Well As Your Body

I know I've talked about this before, but I'm going to bring it up once again. If you're lifting weights, walking, jogging, or doing strenuous physical exercise, don't forget to exercise your brain.

I have a patient who is 105 years old. She is sharp as a tack and knows more about the world and the affairs of the US then I every thought of knowing. So how does she stay so sharp you might ask? She exercises her brain on a daily basis. Her body is actually getting pretty frail, but she uses her brain daily. She reads the newspaper from cover to cover every day. When we had 2 newspapers in this city, she read them both. Then she talks to people about what she has read.

Another thing she does is to learn a new word every day. Not just the word and what it means, but also how to spell it. She is always the champion at the spelling bee each month in the senior highrise that she lives in.

Some other things you can do is to change things up every couple of days. Take a new route to work, brush your teeth with the opposite hand, put your clothes on differently than usual. If you put your shirt on first, put it on last. Obviously you can't put your underware on last, but for women if you put on your panties first, put them on after you put on your bra.

Do mind games. One of the things I have always done is the crossword puzzle every morning. Now I have added a second crossword and the Sudoku puzzle. Any kind of brain game will help exercise your brain and keep you young.