• Scientists have discovered that mental puzzles and exercises can stimulate the dendrites (memory storage compartments) of your brain cells.
• Severe mental decline is usually caused by disease, whereas most age-related losses in memory simply result from inactivity and a lack of mental exercise and stimulation. Just like physical exercise, when it comes to your brain, "use it or lose it."
• Put away your calculator and balance your checkbook the old-fashioned way - with pencil and paper. It's mind healthy!
• Research shows that being around other people is good for your memory. Close ties with others seem to improve mental performance. Maintain social connections for your mind's sake.
• Make music for your mind's sake! Researchers who study aging and the brain say that playing a musical instrument or learning how to play a new instrument keeps dendrites growing.

There's More!
All of the activities on ActivityConnection are designed to be "mind-healthy." In particular, check out our It's Puzzling and It's Trivial pages every month.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of keeping the mind sharp, check out our sister site - Activity Teacher. Here you will find a course titled:

Brain Aerobics 101:
Positive Stimulation for the Mind

Take the class for CE hours or just to learn more about the topic.

Course description: In this course we are going to be focusing on the development of positive mind-stimulating programming. Here’s what we will be discussing: • Two basic tenets for success • A variety of ways people learn • Right brains, left brains and integrated brains • Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences • A few memory tricks • How to add physical exercise and an element of fun to mental exercises. If that sounds daunting, hang onto your hats, because we can’t teach you to have fun with your participants without providing fun for you in this course.