March has arrived! Winter is (mostly) past and as Spring beckons us to be more active, let’s keep our brains active too. Let’s march into mental fitness in fun new ways just like we do with our physical exercise.
Spring blooms slowly in the Midwest, often with winter and spring weather on the same day! So, as I gauged the weather to time my daily walk, I realized I often don’t plan as much for my mental fitness. Granted, my and probably your daily work provides a fair amount of mental exertion. Plus when mentally fatigued, the last thing we want to think about is how else to exercise our brains. But that doesn’t mean we can’t plan for it in other ways.
Mentally Fit
After a day full of writing, editing, and other miscellaneous work, my brain was tired. But I still had Bible study that evening. Part of me didn’t want to go when mentally fatigued, but I went since I’m trying to be all in with all I do, especially my faith. I’m so glad I did! The Bible study engaged my brain in a different way while also strengthening my faith. When we switch things up with how we engage our minds, we exercise different areas of our brains. This is turn creates what’s called cognitive reserve.
Cognitive reserve is created the more we engage our brains in different ways. It is what being mentally fit is to our brain as physically fit is to our body. Being physically fit results from more than one type of physical exercise or routine and so does creating cognitive reserve. So how can we cultivate more of this? By challenging ourselves mentally in various ways.
Going to Bible study used different parts of my brain via discussion, watching a video, and reading than the work I did earlier in the day. While still fatigued, I was also mentally invigorated in others ways. We can do the same each day as we march into mental fitness.
How to March into Mental Fitness
No matter what our usual mental work is each day, planning can help us to incorporate additional mental fitness into our routines. Here are a few tips:
- Expand on what you enjoy. Engaging our brain doesn’t have to be completely new. Simply digging deeper into an area of interest will engage our brains and be fun since it’s a topic we already like.
- Try something new, especially with others! Trying new things is a great way to march into mental fitness, but it can be daunting alone. So, ask a friend to join you! Doing new things can be more fun with others and less stressful too, so give it a try. You may even enjoy the new endeavor, continuing to engage your brain.
- Break it Up. Just like we wouldn’t exercise our bodies for hours on end, taking breaks is good for our mental fitness, too. Plan to engage for at least 20 minutes up to an hour. Then, take a little break and go back to it and see how your brain performs better. Working until fatigued but not stressed is the key.
- Keep it up! Once you begin to exercise your brain in different ways daily, keep going! You’ll notice just like I did, that engaging in different things is mentally invigorating. Creating that cognitive reserve helps us now and as we age, so keep going and watch your brain and memory improve!
As the weather warms and we plan ways to physically move more, let’s also remember to march into mental fitness and create cognitive reserve!