The holidays are a fabulous time of year, and as mentioned in yesterday’s post, can also be a time of great stress and incredible demands. Stress can bring on weight gain, heart issues, and even dementia-like symptoms. The Center of Brain Health, an incredible institution in Dallas, Texas, offers 12 wonderful tips to keep your brain in tip-top shape during this time of year. I offer just a few of these ‘Top 12″, for us to consider:
- Avoid brain drain. Minimize multi-tasking , as this diminished mental productivity, elevates brain fatigue, and increases stress.
- What is the best brain food during the holidays? Have a meaningful conversation with your loved ones! This is not to replace super power foods like almonds and blueberries, yet they suggest it can be just as nurturing.
- Exercise. Physically, we need to keep the blood flowing! Take walks, go to that early morning Pilates class, or challenge your children to a game of touch football after a heavy meal.
- And, we need to exercise our brains – try teaching Sudoku to a member of your family, learning a new game over the holidays, or revisit old nostalgic games like a game of hearts, Monopoly, or even bridge.
- We work best when we are organized! Feng Shui your office, your car, your kitchen – clearing the clutter can also help ‘clear your mind’.
For more information to benefit you and yours, refer to www.centerforbrainhealth.org! This is a good time of year to actually improve our brain health, and pay attention to what we can do to exercise our minds.