15 Ways To Boost Your Brainpower And Keep It Young Even When You Grow Old

Do you want to hear a really scary story? One of my friend’s uncle suffers from dementia. One day he walked into the bathroom and started to brush his teeth. Then, he started cleaning his tongue. He picked up a razor to clean his tongue. Fortunately, my friend was around and he saved his uncle from an ultra-clean tongue.

Diseases like dementia and schizophrenia, and other mental diseases related to old age are not a joke. Our brain, like everything else in our body, starts malfunctioning after some time. We can prolong its normal functioning by following the steps explained below.

1. Stop depending on your smartphone for everything in your life

We depend on our smartphones to do everything; from the alarm that wakes us up to the meeting scheduled, to even the maps we use to navigate through the cities. Try to wean off the smartphones and give your brain some good exercise. The next time you go to a new area, do so without the help of your smartphone. Memorize lanes and streets and shortcuts. Memorize your daily schedule, like people used to do in the olden days.

 

2. Stop listening to loud music

The loss of hearing leads to the loss of grey cell matter in the brain. Listening to loud music for even 10 minutes can cause hearing impairment later in life, which ultimately can lead to mental impairment. Take care of your ears and don’t put them through a lot of unnecessary wear and tear.

 

3. Learn a new language, or a musical instrument

A study shows that musicians are 60% less likely to develop dementia in their old age. As your brain grapples with the new problems of learning difficult new words and skill of playing an instrument, you are making your brain more nimble and it will keep diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia at bay.

 

4. Party hard

In a sense that you party with your friends. Socializing with friends is good for you. Humans are social animals, and spending time with loving friends and family gives us new experiences- something that is good for our brain.

 

5. Sleep on hard decisions

Hard decisions are stressful. Take a nap or a good night’s sleep when contemplating a stressful problem.

Like brainpower, willpower is also limited. Use it wisely.

 

6. Meditate

Sitting still for more than a minute itself is a challenge in today’s world. Meditation improves attention span, which has been degraded because of the extensive use of smartphones. It also helps with your ‘memory recall‘ and decision-making in the long term.

 

7. Workout

Working out and building muscles boost brain functioning. Exercise helps stimulate the growth of neural connections in the brain, helping it stay healthy and intelligent.

 

8. Get a sense of humor!

Laughing and cracking jokes is good for you. It reduces stress levels and helps you think in a creative manner when the jokes get complex. Laughter helps in engaging many different parts of your brain, helping us think more broadly.

 

9. Do something different every day

Do not go into a dull routine of spending days after days with the same schedule. Your brain is smart, it works to reduce processing as much as possible. Keep it well-worked by doing something different. Specifically speaking, keep the brain on its toes. For example, watch the TV upside down. Seems like a good challenge, doesn’t it!?

 

10. Have sex

Having intercourse leads to the secretion of the hormone oxytocin, which is linked to problem-solving abilities.
Yeah, having a naughty session in the bed might just solve the tacky problem you are facing.

 

11. Play video games

Video gamers may be smarter than the normal people. There have been studies that have linked video gaming to better cognitive abilities.

Play some Candy Crush to sharpen your cognitive abilities, just don’t send those annoying requests, please.

 

12. Think out loud

You may have noticed that speaking something out loud helps you remember that thing better. It actually does. But yeah, it does make you look like a madman if you do it in public.

 

13. Dance like no one is watching

Dancing helps you in coordination, and also in planning because you are thinking of what moves to dance to next. It may protect you against brain impairment in the later years.

 

14. Scribble/doodle things on paper

Scribbling and doodling keep your brain stimulated. No wonder Google is so smart.

 

15. Eat fatty food

Whaaaaaat?! Yes, eating fatty food may actually help in the maintenance of long-term memories. One study has shown that the hormone released during the digestion of fatty food actually helps in strengthening the part of the brain that forms long-term memories.

Live long and prosper!

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