Mental fitness can be a lifelong habit. Like a muscle, a brain needs to be challenged in order to stay in shape. Adopting healthy mental habits can extend life and also make it more enjoyable.
Never Stop Learning
Education has benefits that reach far beyond earning potential. Individuals who complete an undergraduate degree typically develop more and stronger social ties at work and in their personal life. This extended community of friends, colleagues and acquaintances adds to a person’s emotional health and well-being.
However, education should not end after college. Some would say that if it does, it was a waste to begin with. Taking classes, seminars and workshops is one way of boosting mental fitness in middle age. Challenging the brain to learn new things, or to look at already acquired knowledge in a new way, will help keep the synapses firing.
Fun And Games
Games are not just fun and a way of being sociable. They can also improve different aspects of brain power, such as logic skills, spatial reasoning and short-term memory. Crossword puzzles, word games, chess, backgammon, and card games are fun ways to exercise the brain’s latent powers.
Favorite activities should occasionally be replaced with new diversions. New games, strategies and past-times are exciting to the brain, and when new skills are learned, they add to the depth of crystallized knowledge. Crystallized knowledge is knowledge that is learned through experience and training, and is also less formally known as wisdom.
Share Experiences
Making new friends in middle age can be difficult, but the rewards are amazing. Mental sharpness is increased when there is new information to learn, new stories to share and new jokes to laugh at. Friendship isn’t just good for the soul, it’s good for the brain as well.
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