Brain fitness – is it an oxymoron or a mantra? It depends on whether one’s brain functions cognitively, creatively, and consistently. For some, brain fitness is taken for granted until something happens or until a subtle yet significant change in one’s behavior or creative energy demands attention. Listen up, friends. This could happen to you.
It happened to me on a recent consulting trip from my warm, Southern community to upstate New York. I had been pushing the physiological and cognitive boundaries for weeks. Now, tapped out and tired, it began to tell on me. In the span of one morning, I missed a plane connection, lost a brand-new copy of a detective story that I had been eager to read, and got a speeding ticket from a very lovely but unswayable New York state trooper, all because I had taken my brain fitness for granted. Without the four “Fs” – fun, focus, feeding and freshness – the systems began to falter, and I suffered the consequences.
The loss of the best-selling fiction book about symbols and signs forced me to pay attention, that or the speeding citation. I had just accepted this assignment to write about the current research on brain fitness, so I used my current dilemma to internalize the story. In reviewing the research and anecdotal data from experts and colleagues, I propose four findings that help organize thinking about what keeps the brain fit, healthy, happy, and functioning at optimum capacity as we negotiate high-stress jobs like being a nanny. By reviewing the “Four Fs of Fitness” and applying them to our lives, we can all improve our stress levels, brain health and even our driving records.
Defining the Four Fs
Much of the current thinking about “brain fitness” centers on trendy, technology-driven devices or computer-driven games. Indeed, these can be helpful in exercising thinking and in engaging neural productivity.
Additionally, more traditional brain fitness strategies such as playing Tetris on a cell phone while waiting at the dentist, doing a daily crossword puzzle or Sudoku, completing a jigsaw puzzle, or using one’s hands to paint, draw or play music all contribute to brain fitness. They will be applied in context in the “10 Brain Fitness Strategies” that follow.
However, this discussion examines the “schema” or background knowledge that research suggests is the driving force behind strength, stamina and sustained brain fitness.
Fun: The frequent infusion of novelty, new experiences, social connectivity, hands-on activities, humor and healthy levels of “white space” to recharge cognitive batteries.
Focus: The strategic infusion of strategies such as checking sources, using tools such as cellphone reminders, allowing adequate time between tasks, making copies of essential documents, using colored markers, stars or stickers to prompt memory and setting prompts to cue tasks.
Feeding: The conscious infusion of brain-friendly foods and consistent hydration during high demand and stress to keep neural transmissions moving smoothly and blood sugar regular.
Freshness: The consistent infusion of rest, including adequate measures of deep cycle “restorative” sleep, daily physical activity, Vitamin-D-rich sunlight (15 minutes minimum), and quiet meditation and reflection.
How Does Brain Fitness Work?
Our three-pound brains are capable of “32 million years of neural connections” in the pre-frontal cortex. Yet, even with this generous complexity, the ingenious system can falter if it isn’t kept fit. There are four threats to brain fitness:
- Boredom
- Cognitive dissonance
- Poor nutrition
- Stress and fatigue
Signs of Each of the Threats
- Boredom: Feeling old. Not planning for fun. Anxiety.
- Cognitive dissonance: Losing things. Losing touch. Losing focus.
- Poor nutrition: Weight gain, bloating, inflammation.
- Stress and fatigue: Inflammation, headaches, short temper, forgetfulness
That pesky stress hormone cortisol triggers these threats. They can have more sinister effects on overall health and relationships. The treatment plan: the four Fs.
To learn more about the research underpinning the Four Fs, read “Differentiated Pathways of the Brain” or “Brain Tips,” both available from the Lorenz Educational Press.
Lifestyle and Brain Fitness
Brain fitness, unlike certain kinds of physical fitness, does not require a personal trainer, a Pilates reformer, a jogging track, a mountain bike or a swimming pool. However, it demands behavior patterns, habits, and lifestyle accommodations. The Four F’s: Fun, Focus, Feeding, and Freshness optimize brain fitness when they become part of one’s daily schedule, travel plans, work and family dynamics and even friendships. Let’s consider a few situations in which brain fitness might be maximized or minimized by the choices that one makes.
Scenario I: Carol wants to help out her daughter, a single mother, by caring for her school-age children every afternoon after school. This means that Carol must give up her Prayer-Walking group in the afternoons and the nap she had come to count on. She also starts eating more fast food because she runs through the hamburger drive-in window while ferrying the kids around to soccer and dance lessons. She gains 5 pounds and begins snapping at the kids, losing small items, and locks her car keys in the car at the soccer field. Diagnosis: Loss of fun, freshness, and feeding.
Solution: Carol and her daughter should develop a mutually beneficial schedule. The kids might stay with Carol only on Tuesdays and Thursdays when they have soccer practice and lessons and go to an after-school program paid for by a federal grant on the other days. Carol might begin using the crock pot these evenings, setting up a healthy soup or stew they can all enjoy at 6 p.m. This would enable Carol to do her walking group a few afternoons each week or ask some of the other mothers and grandmothers who wait at the soccer field to begin walking together during practice time.
Prescription: Compromise and planning
Scenario 2: Doug’s wife has recently passed away after a long illness, during which he was the primary caregiver. He is feeling tired, forgetful, and listless. Disinterested in food, Doug loses 5 pounds and begins having insomnia, something new for him. Concerned by the changes that they see in their dad, Doug’s children encourage him to retire and get some rest.
Diagnosis: Lack of focus, freshness, fun and feeding.
Solution: Doug may want to explore working part-time. He needs to use his brain in both familiar and novel ways. He might even want to work part-time in a related field, putting him in new social contexts that allow him to “give back” without becoming a caregiver again. Altruism is associated with more healthy brains and social connections. Beginning a fitness routine that will make him more tired at night and get him outside, such as adopting a dog from a shelter, might stimulate his appetite and expose him to sunshine, an important tool in fighting depression. Prescription: Balance of work and play — stimulation with a mission.
10 Strategies to Stimulate Brain Fitness
As summer begins, here are a few strategies to incorporate the critical “Four F’s” into a nanny’s day.
- Rent a foreign film on DVD and watch it with English subtitles, building novelty and fun. Eat fresh frozen red grapes for an anti-oxidant brain feed.
- Invite some friends to walk through a local farmer’s market and buy local produce to make roasted vegetable sandwiches. The stroll, sights and meal address freshness, feeding and focus. Choose the darkest color vegetables and roast them with garlic and olive oil. Pull your treasures in a red wagon for playful, child-like fun.
- Volunteer to tutor at a local after-school program and introduce the kids to brain games such as crossword puzzles or Sudoku. Altruism keeps the brain fit with focus. Bring small prizes such as peppermints, cinnamon or dark chocolate pieces, all associated with mood foods.
- Pet therapy boosts mood and increases restful sleep. Walking a rescued pet can help to increase a healthy appetite and induce restful sleep. Staying attuned to a pet’s needs keeps one sharp. Taking a pet to a dog park or walking trail where one can interact with others who love animals is also a plus. The payoff? Fun, feeding, focus and freshness for the brain.
- Create a brain-friendly palette in the home’s sleeping, eating, and entertaining areas. Place sunny yellow lemons in a blue dish. Arrange an inexpensive bunch of cut mums or sunflowers in a jar. Simmer cinnamon in a scent pot. The limbic system will filter these sensory experiences and register them as Fresh and Fun.
- Dip an ounce of good quality (60% or more) dark chocolate into a cup of coffee while playing a vocabulary game such as www.freerice.com on the laptop. Feeding and focus are accomplished in one delicious moment. This website keeps one’s verbal skills fit and donates grains of rice to the UN Food Bank, an opportunity for altruism that the brain also relishes.
- Sprinkle sheets with a lavender scent to promote sleep and turn computers, lamps, and digital clocks away from the pillow so that the light doesn’t interfere with deep sleep. Freshness is brain fitness.
- Send a handwritten note to a friend or colleague who has done something kind or needs attention. Include a description of how that person has impacted your life. Writing details enhances focus. Use a purple fine-tipped pen to write. This color adds fun to the simple task.
- Organize a recipe file, tools, or shoes into a new grouping using colors, tags, and labels. Donate items that are no longer used. Focus and fitness combine to make this task worthwhile.
- Tune the computer to www.pandora.com and listen to a different style of music or look for an artist whom you once admired. What memories and feelings do the songs elicit? Focus, freshness and fun combine, and feeding tags along when one adds a brain fitness snack of walnuts and dried cranberries.
Brain fitness, pardon the pun, is really a state of mind. It is about being mindful of making fun, focusing, freshness and feeding a part of every day in as many experiences as possible. Challenging oneself to make brain-healthy choices can enhance cognitive and emotional strengths and bolster weak areas. Research suggests that one’s creativity, happiness, and thinking can be stronger and more sustained through the careful application of fun, focus, freshness and feeding, which makes sense. Why settle for a day of frustrating setbacks when life could be more peaceful and satisfying? I’m now sipping my blueberry smoothie and heading for bed with a lavender eye patch. There’s no telling what tomorrow may hold, and I want to be prepared.
Author, professor and media influencer Dr. Linda Karges-Bone always thinks about ways to care for our brains. You can find out more about her work at www.educationinsite.com.
