13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp
Post by Eric HELP!
You already know the importance of staying physically fit, but did you know it’s just as important to stay mentally fit? Exercising your brain on a regular basis keeps you mentally sharp. More importantly, it can help fight off memory loss and other mental ailments. People of all ages can benefit from following these mental fitness exercises.
1. Use Your Other Hand- Whenever basic tasks become second nature (requiring no concentration,) our brains fail to get any exercise. One way to give your brain a workout is to use your other hand for common tasks. If you’re right handed, try eating with your left hand. Brush your teeth with your other hand too. This might sound easy enough, but you’ll find yourself actually focusing on accomplishing these simple tasks. As a result, your mind gets a good workout.
2. Shop without a List- Sometimes, we make things a little too easy on ourselves. Shopping with a list of everything you need means you can mindlessly coast through the supermarket without lifting a mental muscle. Instead, why don’t you try hitting the store without that list in hand? At the very least, hide the list in a pocket and see how much of it you can remember.
3. Engage in Conversations Each Day- Between social networking and text messaging, does anyone actually have conversations anymore? It’s good to chat it up with friends because it causes you to focus on what others are saying and to instantly think of your response. This exercise works best when you get past meaningless conversation and into deep, insightful discussions.
4. Read New Books- If you usually read fiction, try reading a history book. If you usually read magazines, try picking up the business section of your newspaper. Reading new things expands your mind, giving you a great mental workout.
5. Exercise Your Body- Physical exercise doesn’t just make you big and strong; it also keeps your brain active. Studies show that regular exercise fights depression, reduces stress, and improves self-confidence. All of these things help your mind operate more efficiently.
6. Change Your Daily Routine- Remember what I said earlier about when things become second nature, your brain stops working? Keep your mind working by constantly shaking up your daily routine. Maybe you can take a different route to work. Or instead of coming home to relax every day after school, maybe you can join a club that meets weekly. Change it up!
7. Start a Project- Working on a project is good for a couple of reasons: a) It gives you a sense of purpose as you do something productive; b) More importantly, it forces you to focus on completing a large task over a long period of time. Whether you want to build a model car or write a book, a long-term project is essential for mental fitness.
8. Use Your Other Senses- The ultimate goal of mental fitness exercises is to stimulate all of your senses. There are several ways you can do this. For example, as you enjoy your meal, try identifying all of the ingredients as you chew. Or, try eating with your eyes closed without making a mess. If your senses are sharp, your mind will be too.
9. Expand Your Vocabulary- Learning new words doesn’t just make you sound smart in social settings, it keeps your mind fit as well. Try learning a new word every day.
10. Pay Attention to the Tiny Details- When you walk into a room, take notice of the little items that decorate the space. Likewise, when you meet someone, take note of their complete outfit down to the tiniest details. This constant attention to detail means your mind will always be working.
11. Ditch the Calculator- Again, stop making things so easy on yourself. Put your math skills to the test by ditching the calculator. Better yet, get rid of the pencil and paper too. Try solving complex math problems in your head with no help.
12. Play a Game- Who said video games rot your brain? Strategy based games, like Halo, can actually be highly effective at exercising your problem solving skills. Same thing goes for board games. Remember, mental fitness can be fun!
13. Try Multitasking- If you’ve seen the game show Distraction, you know how difficult it can be to perform the simplest tasks when there are other things pulling at your attention. Multitasking is like a full body workout for your brain.
Which brain exercise is your favorite? Share your tips with us in the replies!
Tags: brain exercises, mental fitness
March 5th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Great tips on keeping mentally fit. I’ll have to give some of these a try.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Love your tips. I had heard about many of them before as it is an interest of mine having been out of work for a while. Now I am studying again I am not so worried. My Mum was just diagnosed with Alzheimers disease and I am desperate to find an affordable program that she can use on the computer as brain exercises. One I found at Positscience.com is fantastic but really expensive and only usable on a PC. Any thoughts for me?
Thanks,
March 5th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
As an older person myself, I am always on the lookout for tips for keeping the brain healthy and sharp as we age. I also have blogs that are aimed at babyboomers and retireds; so I look for information to pass on to them. Your 13 exercises for mental fitness will be one of those I pass on.
#7 is one of the hard ones for me. Hard, not because I can’t start a project, I start projects all the time. Hard, because I don’t finish them. I end up with a lot of things that, I guess, are like me: Works in Progress.
Thanks again; these are great tips.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Great tips. Some I never thought of before.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Memorize a short poem every day.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Man, I knew about most of these… but reading the list makes me realize that I violate or neglect a good 5 of them. Thanks for posting a check-list!
March 5th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
@Maria- Unfortunately, I don’t know of any great brain exercise software. That’s not to say there aren’t any out there; I just havent really looked into the software side of it.
@Carol–Thanks! I hope your blog audience finds this post useful.
@Michael– That’s a great point. Even something as simple as memorizing the lyrics to song you like is good for your brain.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
NICE!
March 5th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Thanks for the tips, they are very practical and easy to integrate to daily life. BTW, multi-tasking does not have to be on this list, it is something we all do everyday!
March 5th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I’ve always preffered smoking & drinking… anyone else feel as those are missing off the list?
March 5th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
@Maria-Try out SuperMemo (http://www.supermemo.com/). It’s about $20 and made for improving memory substantially. It was featured in Wired here: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak
@OP-Halo isn’t a strategy game. It could be called a tactic game but not strategy because the decisions you make are all immediate. Try Civilization IV for a good turn-based strategy game or Starcraft or Complete Annihilation for a real-time strategy game. Halo might be good for improving spatial awareness, though Mirror’s Edge is probably the best for that.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
@Robert- First, thanks for the links to the software. Second, the “strategy based” was a poor choice of words on my part. Believe me, I’m a video game geek so I didn’t mean to imply it’s a strategy game, per se. What I should have said was “all video games require strategy and critical thinking, even games like Halo.”
March 5th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Maria, check out http://www.lumosity.com , it’s a great website
March 6th, 2009 at 12:17 am
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Great list.
I’d add that there are certain kinds of brain training that have been scientifically proven to increase brain power. Just last month scientists from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet used brain scans to show that intensive working memory training generates new brain cells.
Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl’s study on Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working Memory (PNAS April 2008) which recorded increases in mental agility (fluid intelligence) of more than 40% after 19 days of focused brain training.
I was so impressed that I contacted the research team and developed a software program using the same method so that anyone can achieve these improvements at home.
Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro
Martin
http://www.mindsparke.com
Effective, Affordable Brain Training Software
March 8th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog (tags: health brain lifehacks fitness exercise) [...]
March 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
[...] [...]
March 11th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
It’s so nice to see a post that emphasizes the need to exercise one’s mind in addition to exercising the body. Our culture seems so fixated on physical appearance that mental fitness is often devalued or overlooked.
These are some great tips for keeping our minds alert and continuing to learn throughout the day, even from something as seemingly benign as the accessories that make up someone’s outfit or the decor of a room. I even try to avoid using a calculator whenever I can…and in fact, keep it in a drawer across the room from my desk which often makes the effort of going to get it more trouble than actually doing the math on paper or in my head.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Great ideas. A few more ways that are also fun: crossword puzzles, brain teasers (there are lots of books on the market that have them) and for a real challenge, try coming up with palindromes.
March 12th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Jumping also helps
March 13th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
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March 15th, 2009 at 12:10 am
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March 16th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Mental fitness is for everyone. I need this to exercise my aging mind. I am not getting younger so this is a timely post.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I find that the best way to keep my own brain sharp is to find some sort of activity that makes me think out of the box. Learning a new programming language often does the trick, or trying a new game. I recently learned to play Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) and Go to force my brain to think in different ways.
Gaming is also great. Strategy games, puzzle games, and roleplaying games are fun and work your brain. Pen and paper roleplaying games are even better, as they challenge your creativity as well. Try Civilization IV, Lumines, Disgaea, Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS…
March 18th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
nice to read that you think, as we actually have professional writers,not the other way around
March 20th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I enjoyed reading your work! GREAT post! I looked around for this… but I found you!
Anyway, would you mind if I threw up a backlink from my site at whiterabbitcult.com to your site?
March 21st, 2009 at 11:22 am
@Personal Trainer Sydney–Thanks for the kind words. I would love for you to include a backlink from your website.
Thanks!
March 21st, 2009 at 10:48 pm
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog [...]
March 24th, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Great ideas, is there a place to elaborate on this all?
March 27th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
It seems like something is missing, no?
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:27 am
Great post. Nice to see a good balance of ideas; and some of the comments are most inciteful.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Were did you find these informations?
April 7th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Thanks for the tips…..good tips for doing something when there is nothing to do
April 17th, 2009 at 4:23 am
I have been talking to lots people about their failing memories recently. One of the themes that comes through time & again most strongly is just how important exercise is in helping to keep your memory sharp. Those that get up and get active seem to be much the better for it; even if its just the fact that they are more energised.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I keep fit with milk.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:51 am
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
[...] 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp | HELP! Educational Blog. [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Am a student and I badly need it for improving my memory power. Thanks!
June 10th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Excellent tips! I like to quickly move around the house, touch and name at least ten objects. Then, quickly again, touch and call out the wrong name for the object….Like touch the lamp the first time around saying “Lamp.” Then on the second go, call it a “Toaster.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
To Carol Re: her mother: Write your own “program” for her and schedule the activities into her day for her. Base it off interests. If she liked to travel, have her learn conversational phrases in another language, take up drawing if she never has, or sketching, begin listening to new artists and/or new styles of music, learn a new game such as dominoes, a card game or some other game she has never tried…scattergories would be good… Pick one thing from each of the suggestions given by Eric and work a nd schedule it into her monthly schedule. Take her shopping without a list after planning a meal together….Be creative. on’t rely on some expensive computer program to keep your mom’s mind active. Besised, it is difficult to have a conversation with a computer. She should have a daily or weekly tea time with a diferent person each day or week. Have the friend bring over the tea and cookies if your mom cannot provide. Take her to the senior center etc etc etc
July 24th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Excellent tips. Thanks for your tips. I would follow few of the tips mentioned in this post before visiting to this post.
Brainhealthandpuzzles - Brain Fitness Exercises
August 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Wow - what great tips! i will be sure to pass these along to my clients.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
[...] (from Helptutorservices.com, post by Eric Brain) [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Also, try getting the proper nutrition (brain food). Some of these are:
Vitamin C is an antioxidant and it prevents damage leading to different types of diseases.
Vitamin B can improve our thinking ability.
Vitamin E can help preserve brain function and protect nerve-cell degeneration. It is also one of the important antioxidants that our brain needs.
Carbohydrates are good for the brain, because they contain Glucose which are known as the brain fuel. It gives off energy for us to concentrate, remember, learn, and other activities.
Then there’s your protein. Amino acids are obtained from protein. Neurotransmitters need those amino acids to relay or become a messenger from one nerve cell to another. A high protein meal can make us feel energized because it increases the tyrosine levels of our brain and blood. Tyrosine and tryptophan are some of the different types of amino acids. And because tyrosine can make us become more energized, our brain can concentrate more.
November 17th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
This is such a great post. Definitely putting some of these into practice.