A failing memory or a constant remark like I forgot was something we associated with the elderly. But sadly, we see this phenomenon running across all ages these days. It is no longer a prerogative of the elders.
Earlier we were worried about our grandparents forgetting important things but these days everyone needs reminders for everything. Just like any other muscles, the muscles of the brains need to be exercised too. Keeping the mind active is important, at any given age. I marvel at the very senior lawyers who can remember cases and clauses from the various laws. They remembered everything because they had no back up, or hard drive to store data. Just the hard drive of their own mind. Reliance on external devices is fine to free up our time and mind for more important things, but too much reliance can be detrimental, because if there is a problem with the devices (be it our laptops or mobiles), we can feel lost.
Improving a person’s memory is just one of the benefits of having an active mind, by doing small activities on a daily basis you are essentially training your brain to be able to withstand the memory loss that comes with age. Try dialling your grocery store, instead of always pressing the saved number.
Remembering things, like the places you visited, the roads, telephone numbers, names of people and places, all help the mind to remain active. The more we rely on our mind, the better it gets. How in sports, we say practice, practice and practice. Even the best sportsmen are always training to get better.
Now we sit in our car and put on the GPS. What happened to reaching our destinations by remembering which turn to take and the landmarks along the way. I was in Kashmir a few years ago and I was amazed how my father remembered shops and key places from his childhood. Even the driver was in awe.
Do you remember how our grandmothers could cook the same dishes, so well, time and time again, without reference to any recipe book (forget YouTube which was non existent at that time). The recipes were stored in their own hard drive (their mind), due to repeated actions.
It is said that boredom is one of the main reasons for memory loss, as your mobility decreases with age so does your ability to get out and do things as much as you used to. These limitations have a very negative impact on a person’s mental health so it is important that you do everything you can to occupy your mind throughout the day, it is likely that you are going to feel much more positive after a day of activities in comparison to a day spent doing nothing.
Out of personal experience I can share that when my mobility was zero, I made it a point to keep my mind active. I would be on my laptop, reading & writing, listening to music. I was blessed to have family and friends who would visit me, the social interactions, smiles and conversations, were medicine for me.
So, a great way to keep your mind active is to spend time with others. I see people have so many groups, such as a walking one, or music group, yoga group, reading club or a local club group. Making and seeing friends is a great way to keep the mind active as you are likely to have enjoyable conversations and fun with friends, this is also great for your mental health as you are making sure that you do not spend too much time alone.
There are many ways in which you can keep your mind active, watching television is a great way to relax but it can also be informative if you are watching something new, avoiding watching the same content is the right way to go as you are aiming to keep your mind active with new content. You could also try playing board games as this also encourages you to have some social interaction with your peers, this is a great way to occupy the mind and embrace that competitive streak within.
We all know the old saying, “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop,” the new version of this saying is “An idle mind is an open invitation to Alzheimer’s”.
But that doesn’t mean we have to be busy 24/7 with a to do list. Research from Harvard and other institutions of higher learning shows that idle moments of mindfulness without imperatives—nothing to rush to, fix or accomplish—actually add to your mental and physical health: greater productivity, better memory, stronger immune system, fewer health problems, greater happiness and longer life.
“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.” – Buddha
