A lot of new science supports a variety of simple ways we can keep our brains healthy for greater creativity, focus and quick wit. Here are some easy-to-try favorites to stimulate our brains for better cognition and memory for our second acts:

  • Brush your teeth or eat a meal with the opposite hand.
  • Try to recall five things that are the exact same color in your wardrobe or in a room.
  • Allow a yawn when you feel it coming. It adds oxygen, wards off sleepiness, helps focus and regulates metabolism by cooling down your brain.
  • Study a foreign culture. Pick a place you’ve always wondered about. Read and try to learn as much about that land and its people as possible.
  • Watch your weight. Excess fat releases cytokines that can produce hormones harmful to your neurons.
  • Stop multitasking. Although it might seem uber-efficient, our prefrontal cortex is designed to perform one task at a time. When trying to master anything, silence your digital technology, close the door and focus.
  • Long, deep breaths lower blood pressure and can reduce anxiety, pain, asthma, stress, anger, cramps and more. The exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen releases tension and creates a calming effect on the entire body.
  • Laptops and mobile devices cause us to blink less. This causes strained blurry vision and mental strain. For every 20 minutes on a computer, spend 20 seconds in a blinking break.
  • Improve your posture. Standing as if you have a plate on your head isn’t such a silly idea. Hunching down over tech devices crunches our necks, causing muscle strain, fatigue and pain.
  • Walk and stretch. Both lower bad cholesterol and stress hormones that reduce immunity.
  • Drink water. If you’re dehydrated, toxic cellular waste is building up in your brain and body.
  • Laughing at life, like exercise, strengthens us. It also ups dopamine, which is the chemical that activates the brain’s pleasure center.

This is @painteredwin and me in development! So honored!  I’m @DianGriesel aka @SilverDisobedience the author of The Silver Disobedience Playbook ✨ I’m a Perception Analyst who shares my Daily Meditations for other Ageless, Passionate & Curious People