5 Daily Brain Exercise

Many men are devoted to exercise to bulk up their bodies, but the phrase

“use it or lose it” applies to more than just the muscles in our bodies -- it also

applies to the neural pathways and connections in our brains. There are a

variety of exercises and activities that can successfully work each of the

brain’s five major cognitive functions on a daily basis.

Our minds consist of five main cognitive functions:

• memory, attention, language, visual-spatial skills, and executive function.

It’s important to challenge, stimulate and effectively exercise all five areas

to stay mentally sharp as our brains age. Here are 5 daily brain exercises

that can help you do this.

1- Memory

Memory plays a crucial role in all cognitive activities, including reading,

reasoning and mental calculation. There are several types of memory at

work in the brain. Taken together, these are the cognitive skills we may

notice most when they begin to fail. To maintain a good memory, you need

to train for it, which can be easier than you think. Listening to music is not

only enjoyable, but by choosing a song you don’t know and memorizing

the lyrics, you boost the level of acetylcholine, the chemical that helps

build your brain, and improve your memory skills. Challenge yourself even

more by showering or getting dressed in the dark or using your opposite

hand to brush your teeth. These challenges help build new associations

between different neural connections of the brain.

2- Attention

Attention is necessary in nearly all daily tasks. Good attention enables you

to maintain concentration despite noise and distractions and to focus on

several activities at once. We can improve our attention by simply changing

our routines. Change your route to work or reorganize your desk -- both will

force your brain to wake up from habits and pay attention again. As we age,

our attention span can decrease, making us more susceptible to distraction

and less efficient at multitasking. By combining activities like listening to an

audio book with jogging or doing math in your head while you drive forces

your brain to work at doing more in the same amount of time

3- Language

Language activities will challenge our ability to recognize, remember and

understand words. They also exercise our fluency, grammatical skills and

vocabulary. With regular practice, you can expand your knowledge of new

words and much more easily retrieve words that are familiar.