Adding Up Those Senior Moments Too Fast? Here are 5 Brain Exercise Tips to Consider

You don’t have to search far to find ways to keep your mental acuity up to speed. Exercising your brain is an important activity for seniors and doesn’t cost a thing. Stimulating your brain to help memory, prevent boredom and subsequent depression can keep your mind sharp and alert during your senior years. It’s also an important part of keeping your independence as you age.

Here are five fun and interesting brain exercise tips which seniors can use to rejuvenate their minds and stay sharp:

1. Use your imagination. Remember as a kid, how you would use your imagination to entertain yourself? It’s an important part of growing up – and as you grow older, it remains an important part of your brain stimulation. Look up at the sky and use your imagination to create images from cloud formations or rename flowers and trees you may see on a daily walk to reflect how you view them. Meditate and visualize yourself in a peaceful place and let your imagination run wild.
2. Use neurobics to improve your senses. Neurobics are exercises which utilize each of the five senses to express yourself. For example, practice buttoning a blouse or tying shoelaces with eyes closed or perform daily activities using your non-dominate hand.
3. Read lots of books. If your eyes are failing, use a Kindle or audio books to listen to as many books as possible. Kindles can enlarge the print if you have vision problems, but you can also listen to audio versions of books.
   1. While you’re at it, read the classics or learn a new activity, craft or language. Learning helps the brain process more quickly and also helps invigorate your thinking skills.
4. Physical exercise for faster brain processing. Physical fitness for seniors is also important for brain fitness. It helps keep strong blood vessels which can carry oxygen and nutrients to the brain for continual health and development. Talk with your doctor, but see if brisk walking is OK for you.
   1. If you have balance problems, then look at using seated exercise options like low impact seated elliptical pedals like this one.
5. Engage in brain games. Games which cater to seniors can be a great help in maintaining memory and intellectual capacity. Many games can be found online such as puzzles, video games, face memory games and others that exercise the brain. Sudoku is a popular game which can be found in newsstands or book stores and involves memory and math.

Exercising the brain for seniors should be an integral part of daily activities that can help keep the brain active and working well all the way through the senior years. Whatever interests you or that you find challenging is good for the brain.

Keeping the brain in good shape may also solve other problems of seniors such as concentration and focus problems. Balance issues may also be overcome with certain exercises of the brain. Discuss memory and other problems with your doctor for more ideas.