For a very long time it was believed that brain functions peak during our early adulthood and then slowly decline, causing memory lapses and other unpleasant symptoms. So, you’ve just forgot your grocery list – is it the time to start panicking now? Not really. As much as modern lifestyle and exposure to toxins can impair your brain’s functionality, healthy lifestyle and few small tricks can help your brain to start repairing itself (the process known as neurogenesis). Let’s take a look at some of the things you should do to remain sharp.
Exercise
Oh yes, mens sana in corpore sano – even the Old Romans knew that in order to preserve your mental functions you need to exercise. Keep in mind, though, that, in this particular case, you want your blood pumping throughout your body, so if your exercise routine lacks aerobic activities try throwing in few swimming, running, cycling, or HIIT sessions. The benefits you’ll get will be twofold.
Work Out Your Brain
Working out your mind doesn’t work the same way like working out your muscles, but by forcing your brain to reach out of the box and abandon the well-defined mental pathways, you can stimulate its development. One of the best ways to do this is by learning a new language. Learning hundreds of new words and forcing your brain to work under the new semantic and grammar rules is the epitome of what we can call “a brain-boosting activity”.
Eat the Right Food
Have you ever watched the movie “Limitless” starring Bradley Cooper? It’s about struggling writer who discovers a drug called NZT-48 that helps him to instantly unlock his brain’s full potential and essentially become a superman. Until this drug becomes a complete reality we’ll just have to improve our nutrition and enhance our memory one step at a time. That means a lot of broccoli, celery, walnuts, and animal-based omega-3 fats.
Stop Multitasking
Multitasking is for machines. The amount of time your PC needs to store information can be measured in milliseconds. On the other hand, your brain first needs to withhold some info in short-term memory (let’s call it your RAM) before that info can be transferred into a long-term memory. If you constantly flood your RAM with new data, nothing will ever reach the “hard-drive”. The key to good memory is called mindfulness.
Spend some Time with Friends
Humans are social animals. They can’t thrive in isolation. Besides, having a rich social life will force you to remember a lot of new people, quickly recall information, go to places where you never thought you’d go and give your brain a very serious workout. If you feel you’ve already reach your full social potential, you can always join a club, volunteer or find some other way to meet new people.
Stop Using Google
These days, it not about what you know, but how fast can you use Google. Having the knowledge of the entire human species on the palm of your hand can help you to find a way out of some very unpleasant situations. However, according to scientists from Harvard, using Google whenever you can’t recall some information can literarily numb your memory. Give your brain some credit and start using it instead.
Have a Laugh
We all know that a good laugh can have a very positive effect both on our minds and our bodies. However, being a joker carries a lot more weight than we give it a credit. Working out on your punchlines and find a way to put your embarrassing memories into a positive and funny context requires a lot of brain-power and creativity.
Our lives are too short to be wasted on irrelevant things. It is time you start caring about yourself. Begin with your brain, and you’ll have a foundation for all other pleasures a life can offer.
