How to stay mentally young.
As life spans continue to lengthen, it’s becoming increasingly clear that our brains as well as our bodies are amazingly resilient and adaptive. Even 90-year-olds can build new muscle mass through physical exercise. So can their brains, although what’s being developed is not new muscle but new synapses. And while some of the exercise that produces these effects is physical, most of it is mental.
There are benefits of continued strenuous mental and physical exercise into and throughout old age. These are not new benefits. But what is new is the accumulating evidence for how dramatically these activities can promote healthy aging, help ward off physical and cognitive decline and illnesses, and add years to our lives.
So here’s a list of some of the activities that we should engage in as we age:
- Learn a new foreign language
- Learn to play a musical instrument
- Volunteer to help broaden your circle of friends
- Up your physical exercise routine
- Play new and challenging games
- Enroll in day/night classes at local college
- Embrace new technology, no matter how scary
