The brain plays a central role in performing physical and mental tasks, regulating emotions, and maintaining memory and cognitive abilities. As it ages, its ability to carry out these tasks becomes more difficult, often resulting in slower memory and cognitive function. This decline is often associated with conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. To prevent these conditions, it is important to care for your brain health and keep it sharp, throughout the years.
Contrary to popular belief, maintaining mental clarity is crucial at every age not just as we grow older. Keeping your mind sharp is a lifelong practice that supports an active and vibrant lifestyle. In this blog, we’ll share practical tips to help keep your mind sharp and clear while also preserving a healthy brain.
Challenge your brain
To keep your mind sharp, you have to consistently use your brain. Although it is performing functions every day, it is good to challenge your brain to keep it in peak condition.
You could do this by picking up new creative skills, such as knitting or painting, since being artistic can strengthen the neural pathways responsible for focus and attention. Mentally stimulating activities, like puzzles, sudoku, and games, can also improve the efficiency of the regions of the brain responsible for attention and visuospatial skills. Other challenges you can try are learning a new instrument or language, finding new hobbies, and volunteering.
Doing things you’ve never done before can challenge our brain in new ways which can result in improved memory, and improved attention and focus.
Stay social
Building and maintaining relationships is extremely important for keeping the mind sharp. Social connections allow us to meet new people, engage in different perspectives, exchange ideas, and learn new things. The social connections with people different to ourselves benefit the brain’s mental growth and stimulation.
Getting quality sleep
As an adult, it is recommended to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night to ensure a refreshed and rested body and mind. A good night’s sleep can positively impact the brain, allowing it to “deep-clean” using the glymphatic system to flush out old fluids and keep the brain free from neurotoxins, whilst also preparing our body with energy for the day. When you don’t get quality sleep, it can overtime cause fatigue and brain fog, resulting in lack of focus and productivity, highlighting the importance of sleep.
Limit screen time
With technology at our fingertips everywhere we go, it can be challenging to manage its impact. The computer screens from work and endless scrolling on our phones can affect our minds due to the blue light and stimuli. The constant exposure to digital screens can overstimulate your mind and make it feel overwhelmed.
Limiting screen time can give your mind a chance to switch off the lights, rest and refresh itself. Going back to basics without technology and phones can also help keep your mind sharp, since it makes you rely more on your memory, which in turn increases efficiency of the hippocampus (the region responsible for memory storage) in the brain.
Be active
Studies show that regular physical activity can help improve brain health, especially for individuals over 50. Moderate aerobic exercise enhances cognitive abilities, including thinking, learning, reasoning, whilst muscle training can positively impact memory and executive functions, such as organising and planning.
The NHS recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, which can include brisk walking, hiking, or water aerobics, and muscle training like weight lifting at least 2 days a week. It is suggested to spread exercise evenly over 4 to 5 days or every day for maximum benefits for your body and mind.
Practice mindfulness
Find a time in your day to slow down and pay attention to the present moment. This allows you to focus on your thoughts and train your mind. You can practice mindfulness through meditation, yoga, or tai chi, or simply by sitting still and reflecting on your thoughts and feelings in the present moment.
By introducing regular sessions for mindfulness into your routine, it can create sensory experiences that stimulate your brain and also boost mental clarity.
We hope you find these tips helpful for keeping your mind sharp and clear for the day. We understand it can be difficult to maintain these methods in your routine, so if you’re looking for something to help sustain your energy and keep your mind clear, try Flow State Mushrooms at rainwellbeing.shop.
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