Over the last few years, I have noticed major things going on with my brain. And none of them are good. It’s scary in fact. I have noticed my memory going, I find it very hard to find the words to describe something, in the easiest of conversations. I find myself stumbling over my words when I am teaching my students, and it’s things I have been teaching for years. I can see people and my students looking at me with judgey faces when those moments happen. I feel they lose confidence in me because of it. I know some of its in my head, but I’m sure some of them are.
It’s gotten to the point that when talking to my husband, it may be worth it to see a neurologist to figure out what’s going on. I know a lot of it is caused by my past drug and alcohol use coupled with my mental health diagnosis. That’s just pone avenue. The other is to try and improve my cognition myself. Depending on how expensive a neurologist visit may be, even with my insurance. Not everyone can do that, including possibly me. So I am going to try some thing’s at home that I’ve read from articles and medical papers. I have put together some thing’s I am willing to try on my own. And they make sense, but we will see how it goes. They are below.
Stay active: The most prominent activity I have seen is to just stay active. Being a couch potato will get you nowhere, much less to improve cognition. Regular exercise, walking the dogs, getting your steps in, just to name a few. The main reason it can help is that it helps pump blood to the parts of your brain that house cognitive abilities.
Listening to music: Now this is one I can get down with easy-peasy. Music Is my refuge. I clocked in over 200,000 minutes in my Spotify Wrapped last year. Music is my therapy. I even went to a music therapy-based treatment center for three of my trips through rehab. That doesn’t even include how many music videos I watched on YouTube. It’s said to help neural pathways in your brain, thus improving cognitive function.
Getting enough sleep: This is another one of those obvious ones, but one we don’t do enough. This gives your brain the rest it needs to recoup from the day and repair neural pathways. You then feel rested enough to continue the next day and do all the things to boost cognitive functions.
Mindfulness: What should be part of everyone’s daily routine, mindfulness and meditation help with emotional wellbeing. It can help with anxiety, stress, depression, and mania, all things that get in the way of increasing cognitive functions. And it just helps you feel more at peace with your body and the world.
Learn a new language: This one is fun for me. Becoming more cultured has always been a dream for me. Practicing languages helps tremendously with building up those neural pathways. I have been off and on learning Italian. I need to spend more time doing it now that I know it has that effect on the brain.
Visualization: This one sounded tricky to me until I read more about it. It also sounded like thing’s I do every day, but it’s a bit more involved than that. This entails you imagining out a process before you do it. An example would be to visualize your entire days schedule and what you are doing at each moment and task. Do this in as much detail as possible. It can help you make appropriate decisions and build up those neural pathways.
Playing video games: Now this is one I can get down with. I play video games religiously, mostly Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 4. It requires critical thinking to navigate the in-game world. You’re stretching those brain muscles while having a good time. I prefer open-world games, but any game that makes you think can help with cognitive flexibility.
Increase vocabulary: This one involves learning new words. When I read, I constantly look up words that I know for better explanation and also words I don’t know to open my vocabulary. This expands the brains ability to think about new things. Learning is always fun.
Find a hobby: And finally, finding a new hobby to take up some time. This is one I’ve been taking suggestions on my Facebook page for. I’ve been looking to pick up something fun and productive. There are tons of things out there to do. I have been taking an interest in cross stitching as an option. It was the top suggestion by friends. Things that require dexterity can help with cognitive flexibility and function.
These are all things I want to try to implement in my life to maybe curb that cognitive decline. It’s still scary that I have noticed a decline in mine, but I’m not going to give up. Hopefully I will see a neurologist as well.
If you have any suggestions or tips to increase cognitive function, throw them in the comments below.