Royane Real
Exercising Your Brain
By: Anthony Tripodi
Introductory comments
By Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”
On this website, I have included a lot of different articles to help you boost your brain power. If you read quite a few of these articles, you will notice that every person has their own suggestions for how you can improve the performance of your brain.
In the following article, the writer Anthony Tripodi says the brain is a muscle. I’m not sure if he really means to say that the brain is actually a muscle. Or, is he saying that in a lot of ways, the brain is like a muscle ?
In case you don’t already know, the brain is not actually a muscle. The brain consists mostly of nerve cells, while muscles are made out of muscle fibers.
But it is true, that in a way, the brain is like a muscle. There are a few similarities.
If you’re familiar with building muscles, you know that you have to keep giving your muscles a regular workout, and you have to vary the workout a bit from time to time. That’s how you get your muscles to grow and develop.
The brain also likes to get a workout. Your brain responds well to new challenges, and your brain will start to get lazy if you never give it a good workout. The more you use your brain to do new and difficult things, the more you will develop new connections between your existing brain cells.
It’s the strength and complexity of your brain cell connections that influence how well you can think and remember, and how creative you are.
Brains are always on the lookout for novelty. When things stay the same, the brain stops paying much attention. When things are too easy, they won’t develop.
Just like we can become physical couch potatoes and stop exercising our bodies, we can also become mental couch potatoes and stop exercising our brains.
In this article, Anthony Tripodi offers a few suggestions you can use to keep your brain active and challenged.
Can you think of anything you could add to his list of suggestions? Here are a few more for you:
- Start learning a new language.
- Join a club that does something active in the community.
- Write some poetry.
- Compose a new song.
- Create new software.
- Invent a new game.
Make your brain workout fun, and make sure you keep offering your brain some interesting new challenges. Don't be afraid to do something new you've never done before, even if you aren't any good at it. This will help you to develop new brain cell connections in previously unused areas of your brain.
( The above introductory comments were written by Royane Real, author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” available at http://www.lulu.com/real )
Feature article:
Exercising Your Brain
By: Anthony Tripodi
Staying fit is a great goal that will help you lead a longer, healthier life, but if your brain can't keep up, then what's the point? The brain is a muscle too and it follows the same "use it or lose it" policy as your other muscles. So how can you keep your brain fit?
Brain exercise is the answer.
Two of the most important factors in keeping your brain healthy are traditional exercise and nutrition. Keep your body healthy and your brain will follow suit. But after that there are other ways to exercise your mind.
You've probably heard people describe one of their older relatives like this, "My Uncle Larry is a sharp as a tack, he does the New York Times Crossword puzzle everyday."
Well, Uncle Larry has the right idea but his execution is a little off. You see the best way to stimulate your brain is to break free of everyday activities and challenge yourself in new and unexpected ways. By doing the crosswords everyday, he has created a familiar routine that becomes less challenging everyday. Uncle Larry, it's time to add Word Searches and Sudoku for some variety.
Activities to exercise your mind:
* If you're right handed, trying brushing your teeth with your left hand.
* Try accomplishing something with your eyes closed, such as putting the key in your front door or walking to your fridge.
* Try a different route on your daily commute.
* Reconstruct your day by writing down what you did. For example, if you take a trip to the zoo, when you get home try to write down all the animals that you saw in the order that your saw them.
Your mother may have told you that playing too many video games will turn your brain to mush, but she was wrong. The Nintendo DS Lite has a few games that are designed to exercise your brain and they are quite good. They're varied enough to avoid becoming routine and continue to challenge even after repeated playing. But the best part is that they're fun to spend some time with.
I recently played my cousin's copy of Big Brain Academy on her Nintendo DS. The game consists of a bunch of fun puzzles that you try to finish in a set amount of time. Just as you get the hang of the puzzle, it's over and there's a new one to try. When I finished, the game informed me that my score was that of a hair stylist.
If you’re trying to fight off the effects of old age, exercising your body is great, but don’t forget to exercise your mind.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author: Anthony Tripodi blogs about health, dieting, nutrition and anything else that will help him feel great at the age of 38. For more information about brain exercise as well as other health related topics at http://feelinggreatat38.blogspot.com
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