If you want to keep your brain active, it’s as simple as changing your habits and adding new, interesting and challenging activities into your weekly routine.
Here are three daily hobbies that you can incorporate into your day to help keep your brain active and alert.
Regular exercise
Exercise improves memory and sharpens cognitive skills, helping to maintain fine motor skills and good concentration.
In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus – the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.
Cooking
Whip up a culinary masterpiece in the kitchen, and give your brain a real workout! Yes, cooking actually uses your cognitive skills. We plan and prepare the meal, measure and count, we multi-task as we work, and we problem-solve as when things go wrong.
And, while food preparation and cooking are fantastic for overall well-being of mind, sharing meals in a social setting with friends and good conversation also keeps us mentally fit.
Learn a language
It’s not only fun to learn a new language and reflect on a different culture, there are also many benefits that come from testing your brain this way.
Some of the advantages of learning a foreign language include:
- understanding different points of view
- gaining greater focus, concentration and attention
- improving memory, memorisation skills, and mental flexibility
- heightening creativity
- sharpening listening skills.
There are a myriad ways to exercise your brain power. By keeping fit and challenging your mind regularly, you’ll begin to notice changes quickly.
What hobbies do you participate in to keep your brain active?
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