You may not fully believe in it, but new research seems to prove that the wellness and wellbeing of your brain is directly linked to how much exercise you give it. Brain training, as it is often called, is also not only good for your cognitive function, but for your mental and emotional health, as it helps to retain or recover failing brain function.
Many people find as they get to middle age that their mental clarity and memory start to fail. They often start to forget simple things, such as where they put their purse just a minute ago, the name of an old friend that they bump into on the street or the name of a specific book, film or song that they used to love. As the brainpower fades, many refer to these as ‘senior moments’.
Although people joke about these ‘senior moments’, the distress caused by this loss of brain power can be very upsetting and can have a negative effect on your social, professional and personal wellbeing.
Whilst this loss of brainpower happens to most of us, scientists are now saying that it is not inevitable, and that there is actually a lot that can be done to help fight against it. The brain is, after all, a muscle just like any other in the human body, and when it is exercised, or given mental workouts, the cognitive function can significantly improve. Thinking is a process whereby neural connections are made in the brain, and when these connections are made on a regular basis, through brain training, the pathways become clearer and more fluid.
Brain training programmes have been developed all over the world, now, providing older adults with the opportunity to use their mental skills on a daily basis. These vary from computer programmes to set tasks, but all have the same aim of forcing the user to engage their brain on a regular basis.