by Dalester

Created on: October 13, 2008   Last Updated: October 20, 2008

Think about it, having a sharp mind is a good feeling. As a person in my fifties attending university a sharp mind is really a necessity. I have to compete with those young minds that are already conditioned to learn and grasp new concepts. It became important for me to keep my mind sharp so I looked into ways of stimulating my mind and keeping it sharp.

Being as complex as the mind is, tuning it and keeping it sharp is a matter of understanding the basics. Things like the knowledge that when we learn we actually develop new synapses and neural connection. So keeping the mind sharp means keeping those neural connections live and active. To do that we need to provide our mind with all the things that contribute to the creation and development of those connections.

We have to eat the right foods so our brain has the chemical building blocks it needs. We need to keep our blood circulating at a good rate to provide the oxygen those brain cells need to survive. We need to learn new things so our mind will keep all those neural connections busy and even create new ones if needed.

Some people read to keep their mind stimulated and this does work to an extent but to really sharpen your mind you need to challenge it. Make your mind have to draw on all parts, skills you learned long ago, skills you may need to develop and skills you have just mastered. Many people get this kind of stimulation from logic puzzles. The weakness in just logic puzzles and just reading is that you are stimulating only part of your mind.

When it comes to reading, generally a murder mystery will be more beneficial intellectually than a newspaper for example. Just like math puzzles or Sudoku stimulate the number logic but miss the imagery and imagination.

To get the most out of the exercising you give your brain, make sure to physically exercise to get the blood flowing, make sure to eat foods that contribute to the chemical composition of the brain like bananas which provide potassium. Make sure you use different kinds of mental stimulation, not always math or word puzzles but read mysteries, learn something new in a library book, take a class.

There are places on the internet that provide mental challenges as well as places that measure your mental fitness. Your mind needs a reason to continue to put effort into growing and developing and as long as you provide the building blocks and incentive your mind will stay sharp. But the bottom line is, don't let your mind get bored!

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