Afraid of Losing Your Mind?

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

02 Jan 2008 08:02 AM

Do you ever feel like you might be going a little crazy? Your thoughts spin off in a lot of different directions. You forget important things, or worse -- have that horrible feeling that you've forgotten something important and you have no idea what it is.

You don't have to let your brain run around without any guidance. There are lots of things you can do to boost your memory, fight aging, and protect your brain. Here are some more tips to keep your thinker in top form.

• Read a book. Yes, an actual book with a storyline and characters and stuff happening. Not a news story or a blog or a magazine -- an actual book. Research from the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore, Maryland found that in people exposed to lead (a known mental health hazard), regular readers scored twice as well on cognitive tests than non-readers did. Keep your brain sharp with that mental vacation!
• Shake up your normal routine. Pushing yourself out of your everyday habits will kick your brain into action. Try brushing your teeth with the opposite hand, rearranging your living room, or flipping through a magazine from back to front.
• Switch your brain exercise every now and then. If you're a crossword puzzle fanatic, try Sudoku instead. Or a word find. Or an online spelling game like Text Twist. Cross-train your brain so it has the opportunity to think in a different way!
• Broaden your horizons. Take a class. Eat at an unfamiliar ethnic restaurant. Visit a historical site or other point of interest this weekend. Your brain craves new things, and will reward your explorations with a burst of dopamine -- one of your brain's happy chemicals.

If you introduce change into your life, your brain will actually start to grow -- it will form new cells (neurons) and connections (dendrites) regardless of age.

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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