5 Ways To Keep Your Brain Fit!

Keeping your brain healthy is an essential part of ageing well. In fact it’s just as important as keeping you heart and bones healthy! It’s not as tough as joining the gym or pounding the pavements, so we’re sharing five easy ways to keep your brain sharp! 

Staying mentally active helps to protect the brain as we age. Indeed by challenging our brains with mind games or a new skill, we generate new brain cells that help build crucial reserve cells and connections.

1. Challenge yourself

Puzzles and crosswords might seem like a nice way to pass the time, but they’re much more than that, they are mental exercises that provide an excellent way to challenge your brain and help improve short-term memory.

The more you practise these kinds of challenges, not only will you get better at them, your brain will develop new strategies and problem-solving techniques, which will help you stay sharp.

2. Learn a language

Bonjour, Ciao, dzień dobry. Learning a new language can have amazing short-and long-term benefits for your brain, as it helps to slow the ageing process by encouraging your grey cells to regenerate.

It’s also a fantastic way to build new relationships and expand your circle of friends, which is another super productive way to help your brain stay young. It’s all about surrounding yourself with people from all walks of life.

3. Daily digital detox

Studies have recently revealed that as few as 30 tech-free minutes a day can help improve brain health. Simply removing ourselves from digital devices such as phones, tablets and computers for even a short period of time, our brains can think deeply without distraction, helping us to complete tasks properly.

4. Change things up

One of the best ways to prevent mental overload and fatigue is to avoid multitasking, which constantly shifts attention from one activity to the next, thereby stressing your brain and slowing you down unnecessarily.

Instead, by learning to do one job at a time, you avoid mental tension as your memory has space to improve.

5. Meditate, often

Lastly, one of our favourite tips is to find the peaceful in every day. Just five minutes of peaceful meditation can have drastic effects on our general wellbeing and brain health, helping to improve mental clarity, memory and state of mind.

Meditation stills the brain, and in turn the body, allowing both to rest and refocus. Either try a guided meditation app such as Headspace, or simply sit still for five to 10 minutes while focusing on the inhalation and exhalation of your breath.

We really hope these help you keep your brain happy, healthy and sharp! If you have other tips of your own, then we’d love to hear them, so please share them with us in the comments below or on twitter @ellactiva

Team Ellactiva x

Tags: Healthy brain, lifestyle, wellbeing