A quick and sharp brain is important to be effective in everything from work, school, and even playing games. We rely on our brains for pretty much everything — and we generally perform the best when our brain is firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, if you don’t use or challenge your brain as much as you once did — it might not be as quick and sharp as it once was.
Whether you are aging, or simply feel like your brain hasn’t been challenged enough recently, we’ve put together a few tips to keep your mind and brain sharp and healthy.
Consume Helpful Media And Educate Yourself
Media is all around us. There are television shows, songs, streams, movies, YouTube videos, and podcasts. They are available on just about every topic and niche under the sun. While this media can be entertaining in nature, you should also find things that can educate you or open up your world view as well.
Staying educated and knowledgeable about the world can do wonders for keeping your brain sharp, as you are learning a variety of useful information from different sources. For example, podcasts such as The Re-engineered You helps you empower yourself by learning the various myths and narratives that people can tell themselves.
This type of media is helpful to challenge the way you think — and identify great ways to improve your thinking. There are many useful and practical resources you can find online that will provide daily exercises for your brain — to keep it sharp.
Live A Healthy Lifestyle
Our brains and bodies are connected in many ways. As a result, the healthier our lifestyle is — the healthier and more sharp our brains will be. Be sure to eat a variety of healthy foods that will nourish your mind and body. Go for a balanced diet rich in fruits, veggies, proteins, and grains to ensure you are getting all of your vitamins and minerals. In particular, try and regularly eat fish and nuts, which are great for your brain health.
In addition to eating well, you should also be sure to exercise regularly, as it can be great for both your memory and overall cognition. This could be something as simple as going for a walk, or signing up for something as challenging as a triathlon. Of course, be sure you are safe while exercising and working out, and only take on the challenges you are comfortable with.
Finally, sleep is an incredibly important tool for keeping our minds sharp. If you get inconsistent sleep — or simply don’t sleep enough — you may find that your memory and attentiveness is suffering. Sleeping allows your brain to undergo vital restorative functions and can help with your overall mental health.
Find Ways To Use All Of Your Senses
Our senses of touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing play a critical role in just about every part of our lives. But did you know that these senses can also have an impact on your brain — and how well you retain information and learn? That’s right — using all of your senses can help you build brain power and improve working memory.
The more senses that we use, the better our brains retain information and the more of our brain is involved in the process. As you can imagine, using more of your brain is always better than using less. As a result, try, and do activities that involve multiple senses, whether you are attempting to learn to dance or paint, or simply during your day-to-day activities.
Try New Things
One of the single best ways to keep your brain sharp is by challenging yourself to try new things. Building new skills and attempting to do things you are unfamiliar with helps to form new connections between brain cells. If you simply do the same things each and every day — your brain may become complacent — as it does not need to work very hard to accomplish tasks that you already know how to do.
Choose something you have always wanted to learn, such as learning a new language, taking an online cooking class, learning how to code, studying history or anything else you enjoy. Not only will you learn something new and useful, it will help build a stronger and more resilient brain.
Practice Meditation And Mindfulness
Practicing meditation is a great way to reduce stress, worry less, and generally help you calm down. In addition to those benefits, meditation is also great for your brain. It can help you improve your memory — and also assist with how quickly and accurately your brain can process information.
Even a couple of minutes a day meditating or practicing mindfulness can have benefits. When meditating, find somewhere quiet where you can focus on your breathing and the present, and not allow stress and worry to affect you during this time. If you are new to meditation, there are many apps and programs online dedicated to helping you learn this new and important skill.
Keeping Your Brain Healthy And Sharp
Keeping your brain sharp over time is important — but isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are increasingly more in-depth and targeted ways to keep your brain healthy. Healthcare professionals today know more than at any point in our history about human activity and illness through the use of data analytics. We are living at a time in which analytics in healthcare industry is revolutionizing treatments for all ailments. By trying out some of the ideas that are presented here — you will be on the path to keeping your brain in great shape for years to come.
