Keep fit for the brain

Neurobics, invented by Lawrence Katz and Manning Rubin, are mental exercises, teasers and puzzles designed to give your brain a good workout – and anyone can do them.

Because our everyday actions are largely automatic, they require less brain activity than behaviour that causes us to think. Imagine cleaning your teeth with the ‘wrong’ hand, or switching your cutlery so that you are using the knife in the fork hand and vice versa – these are examples of neurobic exercises which are said to slow aging of the brain.

Using all your senses in different ways to the norm, even making small changes in your daily routine, can stimulate the brain – and the beauty of it is that neurobics can be done anywhere and at anytime. Apparently, using your left hand if you’re right-handed, or your right if you’re left-handed, will stimulate parts of the brain that aren’t normally in use.

To qualify as a neurobic exercise the action has to engage your attention and make the brain work. In other words, it has to be different from the way you tackle everyday events. You have to make your activities unusual, fun and/or surprising. Fortunately, this isn’t difficult to do.

Examples of neurobic workouts
• Instead of following the usual roads, why not drive to work or the train station using a different route?

• Lay out your clothes on the bed and then get dressed with your eyes closed

• As already mentioned, try brushing your teeth with the other hand – this is nowhere near as easy as you might imagine

• Shower or bath with your eyes closed – this engages senses not usually needed when bathing

• When you get home, don’t look for your key, feel for it instead and then unlock the door with your eyes closed – this forces your sense of touch to take over

• Use your opposite hand to operate the TV remote control. Rearrange your desk so that nothing is where your brain expects to find it

• Put a new fragrance next to the bed so that you smell it on waking – this immediately stimulates up your sense of smell

• Empty your purse or wallet, close your eyes and try to distinguish the coins by sense of touch only – if you get really good at that, try working out the notes by size and feel

• Change your normal weekend activities to something completely different or unexpected. If you are an outdoor person, try an indoor sport such as ten pin bowling. If you’re an indoor person, try going to the park or nearest green area.

• Turn the sound off on the television and get your partner or a friend to take turns in making up the dialogue – apart from anything else, you’ll end up laughing, which is always good for body and mind.

Even if you only do one thing each day that is out of the norm, your brain will thank you for it by becoming more active.

By Lorraine Mace

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