Hobbies to Keep Your Mind Fresh (Guest Post)

Hobbies to Keep Your Mind Fresh

Many fear losing memory or mental acuity as they grow older. Scientists have shown that keeping a mind fresh and lucid can be as easy as maintaining certain hobbies. It is the challenges you choose to face on a regular basis through hobbies that can significantly reduce the possibility of some late set mental ailments. The following is a list of suggested hobbies that may help to stem mental decline late in life.

Exercise
As shocking as it may sound, physical aerobic exercise can actually help to prolong the health of your brain. Physical activities such as jogging, sports, and outdoor activity shower the entire body with highly oxygen rich blood as the heart pumps vigorously through the body. Many seem to forget that the brain is an organic part of the body connected through the circulatory and nervous systems. Increasing blood flow through aerobic exercise also increases blood flow activity in the brain. Additionally, exercise stimulates the body's nervous system as information is continuously brought to the brain during a workout. The brain benefits from the increased blood flow and the sensory stimulation. While the brain may not be a muscle in the literal sense, exercise will do just as much for brain health as it will for body health.

Brain Games for Speed
In addition to the above mentioned desire for the benefits of physical exercise, the brain does have particular exercises that cater directly to it. One of the signs of mental deterioration is when a person has trouble considering options and ideas in quick succession. Consider how young children process information, which can seem alarmingly fast and tangential. However, people will typically begin to have slower contemplation speed as they grow older. This lowered rate of thought is caused by a lack of fast-thinking necessity. If a mature adult were a jet pilot, then constant reflexes and decision making skills would keep the brain operating at top speed. For everyone else, the brain tends to begin slowing down its pace in the 30s and continues slowing as age progresses. This is reversible by challenging your perception and decision speed through games.

An unexpected solution is video games. These games maintain mental flexibility and processing speed by bombarding players with a barrage of constantly changing information that must be filtered and responded to. Simulation car racing games can actually bring the mind up to a greater speed. For those who may lack an interest in video games, timed board games can be substituted. Games such as Boggle and timed-trivia forces the brain to continue operating at a high rate of thought processing that will, in turn, keep it very honed. Hobbies like crossword puzzles and chess are often believed to be the best brain maintenance games; however, the brain and the body both operate best when there is a variety of meticulous concentration and fast response situations. Typical deep contemplation games will help maintain thought integration and recall but that too will deteriorate if attention is not paid to speed.

Learning
Actively learning things, such as a language, will always benefit the brain. The advantages are that the brain must build up memory, synthesize new information, and make varied responses to unexpected situations. Language acquisition may not be the hobby of choice for many, but the principles can be found in other hobbies that have constant new development. For example, cooking is a hobby that requires the acquisition of new knowledge, synthesis of existing knowledge, and responses to varied situations. Other similarly beneficial hobbies include learning to play an instrument and acting in community theater.

Author Bio:
Katelyn writes for Assisted Living Today, a leading source of information on a range of topics related to elderly living and retirement care and facilities.