Buff Your Brain

 Buff Your Brain FEB. 22, 2012 Pat Spilseth




I’m hooked. The iPad has become my latest playmate. Hours of thinking up words, hopefully larger than four or five letters, have become my daily challenge. It’s a newer version of Scrabble. It teases my brain to find words which will fit onto the screen’s grid. The iPad will instantly tell me if I’m fudging, trying to get a pass on a made-up word. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised when that weird spelling is an actual word!



What alleviates my Scandinavian guilt about this time-consuming pleasure, when I know I should be working at something more productive, is an article I recently read in a January “Newsweek”. “Buff Your Brain” tells me that if I want to be smarter in work, love, and life, scientific advances offer proven ways to enhance my gray matter. The article suggests 31 Ways to Get Smarter in 2012. Playing word games was listed as #1.



My favorite listed activity is to eat dark chocolate, which has memory-improving flavonoids. The article suggests pairing the chocolate with a glass of red wine, another great source of flavonoid. Author Sharon Begley suggests that women drink four cups of coffee a day to bolster short-term memory and to lessen chances of depression. One cup doesn’t do the trick. I love these suggestions.



Begley tells me to write by hand. My long-shelved journal and pen came out right after reading that brain scans reveal that handwriting engages more sections of the brain than typing. I resolve to write my thoughts with pen and paper each evening before sleep. It’s easier to remember something once you’ve written it down on paper.



I felt terrific when I read that sleep is helpful...lots of sleep. Begley suggests taking a nap and getting to bed early. Harvard research shows that the brain continues to process memories even after you’ve gone to sleep so you can recall them better at a later time. Mom always advocated “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” No guilt for me on that one. I love to crawl into bed with a good book by 9PM, 10 at the latest.



My husband is trying to learn Spanish. Our daughter Kate and husband Bernardo from Mexico City are fluent in English as well as Spanish. Neither my husband nor I speak Spanish, but we’d like to converse with our in-laws, who don’t speak much English. We thought we’d learn to speak Spanish so we purchased Rosetta Stone, a computer language learning program. But you have to practice, regularly. The “Newsweek” article says mastering a second language is a workout for the prefrontal cortex, which affects decision making and emotions. In high school I learned a bit about Latin from Mr. Rambeck, and I minored in French at college, but I’ve lost most of what I learned. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Where am I going to speak Latin? However, I’m able to figure out how to spell and the meaning of some words because many have Latin roots. I really botch the French accent and have embarrassed myself by mixing up the meanings of some French words. In reality, I’m not going to master a second language at this stage of life. It’s a lot of work.



Other ideas to improve the IQ: drink water, which helps with the brain’s planning ability; eat yogurt, and play an instrument. Studies on mice show that yogurt’s probiotics are good for the stomach and brain. Mice that ate yogurt handled anxiety better and showed increased activity in emotions and memory. I’ll eat more raspberry yogurt with cereal in the morning. Perhaps I’ll even get back to practicing scales on the piano, which Miss Rahn taught at piano lessons.



Visiting museums was advocated so I visited the Walker and the Minnesota Institute of Art. The Walker seemed cold, sterile, and the art was unappealing. I didn’t stay very long, but the Institute was filled with interesting art displays of color and such beauty I felt uplifted.



Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker says to read a lot if you want to buff your brain. Another suggestion is to “zone out”. Let your mind wander. Studies suggest that zoning out allows the brain to work on important “big picture” thinking. Maybe I’ll come up with one of those stupendous ideas that generate a new fad and make lots of money, like the pet rock idea.



Coffee, chocolate, wine and lots of sleep...aren’t these fabulous suggestions to improve your IQ and get through wintertime? Gaze out the window to the endless white outdoors and slip into a dream world. Mindlessness is the brain’s path to happiness. No need to feel guilty about day dreaming. I feel better already. 804 words