How to Do Mental Calisthenics

Mental Calisthenics is the process of exercising your brain. It is equally as important to exercise your brain as it is to get physical exercise for your body. This is especially true as we age. Experts recommend that we do some form of mental calisthenics at least four times each week. Mental calisthenics increases neuron connections, the functioning speed of the brain and the energy output of the brain.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Do more writing. Forming sentences and writing them down involves thinking. A good way to increase the amount of writing that you do is to keep a daily journal.
2. Read a book. Reading exercises our imagination more than watching television does.
3. Solve the puzzles in the daily newspaper. Rather than doing the same type of puzzle every day, it is a good idea to switch around to different puzzles to exercise your brain in more ways. Crossword puzzles, word jumbles, word find, Sudoku and other puzzles are excellent forms of mental calisthenics.
4. Play board and card games. Most games involve thinking and many exercise your memory skills.
5. Practice rote memorization. If you are going to the grocery store write down the list of items you need to buy and then try to memorize your list. Another good way to exercise your memory is to choose a short poem, bible verse or prayer and memorize it.
6. Take adult education classes. Taking continuing education classes is wonderful mental calisthenics. Choose something you are interested in and the classes will be fun as well as good brain exercise.