APPENDIX C

EASY EXERCISES TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY

Much like the muscles in your body, the parts of your brain that you activate and use regularly will strengthen, while the parts of your brain that you do not use will atrophy. That’s why mental exercise is every bit as important as physical exercise for keeping both your body and your brain strong.

The best mental exercises involve acquiring new knowledge and doing things you haven’t done before —like Scripture memorization. Whenever the brain does something over and over, it learns how to do it using less and less energy.

If you want to give your brain a good workout, try one of these simple yet effective exercises:

• Play language games like Scrabble, Boggle, and Scattergories, or work crossword puzzles and word-search puzzles.
• Play strategy games like chess, backgammon, dominoes, bridge, or mahjong.
• Play math games like sudoku or KenKen.
• Memorize poetry, Scripture passages, and famous historical dates.
• Set aside fifteen minutes in your day to learn something new.
• Take a class (a foreign language, cooking, or art course, for example). Challenge your brain to learn new things.
• Limit your screen time. Unless you’re watching something educational, TV is usually a “no-brain” activity. In fact, studies show that adults who watch two or more hours of TV a day have a significantly higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease than those who don’t.
• Try using your nondominant hand to write, eat, or brush your teeth.
• Expose your brain to new experiences, scents, sights, and people by traveling somewhere you’ve never been before.
• Hang around with smart, interesting people who challenge your ideas and way of thinking.
• Listen to classical music, which research suggests can actually lower your blood pressure and improve your memory and cognitive function.