Mind Games
Posted by Rachel Balducci in Family on Monday, September 27, 2010 2:00 PM
I came across an article recently that touted the importance of brain exercises for retaining information and longevity. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read this article, which obviously means I need to be doing whatever it was they said to do in the first place.
There are tremendous benefits, said the article, to these kinds of mental exercise—things like doing the crossword or Soduku. The article also said to try getting dressed with your eyes closed, which would call on the other senses to work harder without the use of sight. There were a few other good examples as well (if you read the article yourself, will you remind where it was?).
The other night I was making a pot of grits and I realized, after checking the recipe five times, that I wasn’t using my brain at all. I looked up and actually thought about what I was doing, forcing my brain to reach into itself for the information it had already read over and over again. It worked! I was able to recall what I needed by paying attention to what I was doing. This has to equal ten push-ups, I bet.
Do you have mental workouts as a part of your day? I go in and out with the daily crossword. The funny thing: during each of my pregnancies I almost crave doing the crossword. Once the baby is born, there goes that.
I might start back up, though, just for the benefits of maybe being able to remember where I read about all this in the first place.
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