As we all know, some things are more important than money (and even if you think it's not, your mind is obviously vital to your career, and that certainly has a big impact on your finances). One of those things is your mind. To keep your mind sharp, you need to keep your brain fit (yes, I said keep your brain fit) and preserve and protect your memory. Doing so will help you live a happier, healthier life.
Since I haven't discussed this topic for quite some time, I thought it was worthwhile to share this piece on how to keep your mind sharp. Here are their eight tips for doing so:
- Exercise your mind
- Stay physically active
- Develop healthy eating habits
- Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all
- Manage your stress
- Protect your head when exercising
- Stop smoking
- Talk to your doctor
Here's how I stack up on these:
1. I do exercise my mind. Of the list they provide in the piece on how to exercise your mind, I do the following:
- Play Scrabble or doing crossword puzzles -- I actually play chess, but I think that counts.
- Interacting with others -- Doesn't everyone do this?
- Start a new hobby -- I haven't started a new one lately, but my old ones (cycling, growing roses, personal finance) are keeping me busy.
- Learn a foreign language -- I started learning Russian last year, but have backed off a bit. Maybe I need to pick it up again.
- Volunteer -- I'm active at my church.
- Stay informed about what's going on in the world -- I have to in order to write this blog.
- Read -- Not as much as I like, but I do read quite a bit.
2. I exercise my body at least four times a week for at least an hour. I took my resting heart rate the other day and had 44 beats per minute, so I'm in fairly decent shape.
3. My wife does her best to keep me eating healthy foods. She actually manages to do a good job of this 80% of the time. But oh that other 20% can really set me back at times! ;-)
4. I don't drink alcohol, though some of you probably think I do based on some of my posts. ;-)
5. I'm actually at a low stress point in my life now.
6. I ALWAYS wear a helmet when cycling. No matter how good you are on your bike, you can always crash/get hit. Even Lance Armstrong crashed (and he did a couple of times without a helmet -- and it wasn't good.)
7. I don't smoke.
8. I'll bring up the "mind" issue with my doctor at my next physical (this spring).
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