How we CAN keep a sharp mind as we age
We all want to keep a sharp mind as we age. Now there’s more good news on how we can do it. In fact you can get a couple of hundred fascinating pages about it in a book called The Mature Mind, by Dr. Gene Cohen, Basic Books, 2006.
This book is nothing short of inspiring. It gives great hope to those of us who are in the second half of life.
I especially liked his 10 tips on how to stay alert through the later years. As he himself says, they are not exactly new, but they work if we use them. And they are backed up by the latest findings in neuroscience.
Here is a summary of his tips for keeping a sharp mind.
- Play games that require you to use your mind and memory, like bridge, word games Scrabble and crossword puzzles
- Participate in discussion groups, over dinner if possible. Enjoyable food for the mind and the body!
- Seek new experiences. Travel across the world or across town to your local museum. Consider recording your impression of your experience, by drawing it, recording it, writing about it, photographing or videoing it.
- Take a course on something you know hardly anything about.
- Investigate hobbies and crafts. Look in the library, the local crafts store, talk to people who have hobbies. Maybe you’ll rekindle an old interest or find a new one.
- Volunteer. You can volunteer in person, and now you can even volunteer online, for example contributing to Wikipedia. (www.wikipedia.org)
- Investigate the possibility of part-time work
- Write to family and friends, either by traditional snail mail or by email.
- Start a dream journal.
- Start your memoirs or a family history
Notice that none of these tips require a lot of money or resources. They do get you using your brain power. Crossword puzzles, Scrabble, bridge, are all examples of brain games we played before we even knew about brain games like the new Nintendo Brain Age game.
You are probably already doing some or even many of them. How nice to see neuroscience telling us that we are on the right track to keep that sharp mind as we age!
Find more details in his book, along with lots of other fascinating information about aging and creativity. He also provides a list of resources that will send you down the path of other inspiring ways to practise your own versions of mental aerobics and stay mentally sharp.
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