Exercise for the Mind: 4 Things You Can Do to Boost Your Brain Power

We all spend so much time worrying and rushing around to get into the gym that most of us neglect one of the most important muscles of all: our brain power. Like your biceps or your abdominals, your brain requires exercise and the right nutrition. Let’s take a look at 4 things that you can do to boost your brain health.

4. Let Your Creative Side Free

Remember when you were a child and you used to spend hours trying to color in those bigger than life books that featured different animated characters? At some point, most of us stopped coloring and taking pen to the paper. Research suggests that if you placed your artistic side in a box, it’s time to break it out and put it to work. Drawing, coloring, painting, building, and other forms of art are amazing ways at exercising your brain.

3. Get into Puzzles

Coloring may be a fun way to boost your brain power but you shouldn’t be afraid to put your mind to some real work. Doing puzzles, like you used to find in the Sunday paper, are an excellent way to tap into your brain power. Crosswords, Sudoku, and word searches (among many other types of puzzles) are an incredible way to super charge your neurons and learning ability. Speaking of learning…

2. Learn Something New

It doesn’t matter how old you are or how bad you think you might be at something, it’s never too late to learn a new skill or trade. How long have you been putting off learning Spanish? Want to become great at gardening or building houses? Haven’t you always wanted to learn to jam out like your favorite acoustic guitarist?

It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 50; your brain is always ready and willing to start learning a new skill or trade. Not only will you learn how to do something you have been chasing after but your brain will always benefit in a big way. Those people learning languages, for example, show a “younger” brain age than those that let their brains turn to mush by watching too much television. Put simply: Start learning.

1. Eat Foods that Your Brain Loves

Last, but certainly not least, be sure to incorporate foods into your diet that your brain can benefit from. Your brain is a fat organ. No, really. It’s made up of AT LEAST 60% fat! That means it’s going to favor the macronutrient, fat. Not just any fat. Your brain needs healthy fats (your whole body does too). Here are some of the best sources of healthy fats:

• Wild caught salmon
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Coconut oil
• Avocados

Be sure to incorporate plenty of antioxidants as well. You can do so through foods like blueberries, raw cacao nibs, and green tea.

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