Your brain is incredible! It's the master command center for all the functions that happen in your body, which is saying quite a bit. Not only does it manage the processes that keep you living and breathing, but it also stores memories and helps us learn new things regularly.
While technological advancements have been made to approach simulating the intricacies of the human brain, there just isn't quite a match. Somehow our brain manages to process several tasks at once and researchers still don't quite understand how. Our brain function is sophisticated and detailed and so incredibly intricate, yet these functions happen so quickly from moment to moment. It truly is a marvel.
In fact, at any given moment, the human brain is processing around 50 tasks at once. Fascinatingly, these seemingly simple tasks involve complex groups of neurons working collaboratively together to achieve higher tasks. The brain is truly amazing!
But just like the muscles in our body, the brain must be challenged, worked and put to task to keep it in shape. Certain activities are particularly beneficial for brain fitness. Here are just a few.
- Learn a new language – Learning a new language has been shown to help strengthen memory and brain development while slowing the process of dementia. When we exercise the brain with new learning, it's like sending our brain to the gym. You can grow neural connections at any age provided you continue learning.
- Play a musical instrument – Learning a playing a musical instrument activates brain cells, some in areas that are not activated by other activities. This stimulation helps with functions such as abstract reasoning and memory.
- Do logic puzzles and games – When working on puzzles many skills are required. These include concentration, spatial reasoning, logic, short-term memory and problem-solving. Regularly working on logic or even jigsaw puzzles is akin to sending your brain to the gym. It's good to have that kind of mental workout regularly.
- Read – Reading can not only improve your memory, but it activates parts of your brain with tasks such as maintaining concentration, processing information and activating learning and retention.
- Exercise – Physical movement in any capacity releases a whole host of feel-good hormones not to mention the physical benefit to your lungs, heart and muscles when you exercise. And the icing on the cake, exercise helps form new synapses in the brain that mediate and encourage making memory and learning.
When you really think about it, your brain is truly one of your most important assets. Don't neglect time well spent exercising and training your mind to be the best that it can be!
