CogniFit - Mental Exercises

Staying Sharp is Key to Living a Fulfilling Life

The world we live in today requires us to be in a constant state of attention. We are constantly bombarded by notifications and emails. We have to remember to change the oil in our cars, pick the kids up from practice, get the groceries (and not forget to pick up the right flavor of ice cream for the kids), and try to navigate the world while constantly multitasking.

While this scenario might be a bit over the top, you can’t really argue that it isn’t at least a little true. The strain on our mental and cognitive capacities is likely higher than at any time in history, and there has never been a time where keeping a sharp mind and strong cognitive skills has been more important.

In addition to these increased demands on our mental abilities, we are now living in a time where humans are living well into their 70s, 80s, and beyond. But as our bodies age, so to do our brains. As we enter our adult years and beyond, staying sharp, maintaining a strong memory and cognitive abilities becomes increasingly important to enjoying a fulfilling and enjoyable life.

Just as physical fitness has become an increasingly important part of our daily lives, so to must brain fitness become a key part of how we measure our overall health.

How Can We Keep Our Minds Sharp?

When we think about keeping our brain fit, it can be useful to think of it in the same way as we do our muscles. When we are young, they are strong and flexible, heal quickly and we can quickly make them stronger through daily exercise, but as we age, they begin to get tired more quickly, they are less strong than they once were, and it take much longer to recover.

This is why it is important to build healthy Brain Fitness habits early and maintain these habits throughout life. Staying healthy is always easier than getting healthy.

Maintaining our brains active, stimulated, challenged, and well rested are key to keeping our minds fit and our cognitive abilities in tip-top shape.

Activities such as puzzles, crosswords, or any other actively stimulating activity can help, but just like there are certain physical exercises that are much more efficient than others, so too are there brain exercises that are going to be better at helping you maintain peak Brain Fitness—for example, Mind Quizzes.

What Are Mental Exercises?

Mental Exercises are actions and activities where the main objective is to improve or maintain brain functions. It is about carrying out different exercises aimed at stimulating cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, language, executive functions, visuospatial functions, perception, etc.

When the brain is not stimulated it tends to get weaker and weaker. Our neurons which are responsible for receiving, processing, and transmitting information through chemical signals, are the main engine of our brain. Therefore, when we exercise our brain, what we do is stimulate our neurons so that they regenerate, both anatomically and functionally, and form new connections.

At a scientific level, it has been shown that brain training regularly with Mental Exercises stimulates brain plasticity. Even if we don’t realize it, in our daily actions—whether it’s reading a book, driving to work, or cooking—we exercise our neurons. Just as with muscles, the parts of our brain that we use the most tend to become the strongest, while the parts we neglect grow weak and less flexible. That’s why it’s important to do a proper brain training to train all the functions.

In order for Mental Exercises to be more effective, they must be adapted to the person who is doing them and must take advantage of the ideal moment when the brain is at its maximum level of activity.

To understand what brain training and cognitive stimulation using Mental Exercises is about, we first need to understand concepts such as brain plasticity.

Broadly speaking, recent research shows us that brain plasticity (or neuroplasticity) is “the ability of the nervous system to change its structure and functioning throughout its life, as a reaction to the diversity in the environment”.

In other words, brain plasticity allows the brain to adapt to new situations or even sometimes recover after suffering injuries. In this way, Mental Exercises for brain training and cognitive stimulation aim to help the brain generate new connections between neurons thus promoting greater brain plasticity.

Are Mental Exercises the Same as "Brain Games"?

In short, no. While brain games—thinks such as sudoku, crosswords, and puzzles—can be great exercises for your brain, they are more for fun than for actual training. Mental Exercises and activities such as the Mind Quizzes offered by CogniFit, are scientifically backed tools designed to exercise specific cognitive abilities based on in-depth research and clinical trials.

Think of the difference between going out into the back yard to throw the ball around and working with a certified personal trainer at a gym. While both activities can be fun, and both can be beneficial to your physical health, the certified trainer will be able to guide you through specific exercises based on your specific physical profile and help you see results faster.

How Do We Know If Mental Exercises Are Improving Cognitive Ability?

It can seem difficult sometimes to see the benefits of brain training and Mental Exercises, since you can’t exactly stand in front of a mirror and see your mental “muscles” getting bigger. But there are simple ways to make sure you are getting the most out of your brain training regimen.

• Understand Where You Start From: First of all, it is important to understand where you are when you start. When we decide to go on a diet, often the first thing we do is step on a scale to get our baseline weight, and perhaps take a photograph in the mirror to give us something to compare to in the future.
  
  Tools such as Mind Quizzes and Cognitive Assessments are specially designed neuropsychological tools used to measure cognitive health and abilities such as memory, focus, or processing time.
  
  Taking a Mind Quiz before you start a brain training and Mental Exercise regimen gives you something accurate and concrete to compare against as you progress and help improve your Brain Fitness.
  
  
• Set Clear & Achievable Goals In addition to knowing where you are when you start, it is equally important to know where you plan to go. Setting clear milestones and measurable, achievable goals for your Brain Fitness can give you a clear indication of how your training regimen is progressing.
  
  Setting realistic goals means that you have something to challenge yourself and a reason to keep going every day, while also giving yourself the opportunity to celebrate your progress at predefined milestones.
  
  
• Follow a Routine & Track Progress : Once you have a defined baseline from a scientifically-based cognitive assessment and have set clear goals, it is important to stick to your routine in order to maintain your Brain Fitness goals.
  
  Taking additional cognitive assessments at specific intervals will allow you to track your progress in each of the cognitive areas measured and know which areas you need to focus on more and which areas you are performing well.

How Can We Make the Most Out Of Mental Exercises?

Just like with physical fitness, brain fitness requires a holistic approach including mind and body. If you want to reach your full potential there are several things you can do to support your brain training regimen.

The number one think you can do to promote brain health is to provide your body with the healthy fuel it needs to perform at its best. While there is nothing wrong with having fatty or sugary foods every once in a while, adding healthy vegetables, fish, lean proteins, and fresh fruits to your diet can improve your overall brain health and help you get the most out of your brain training. Keeping our bodies in good shape can help our brains as well. The connection between body and brain is an important one, so in addition to eating healthy, getting plenty of exercise is key to promoting brain fitness.

If you really want to see an improvement, making small changes in your lifestyle can have huge benefits when combined with a brain training program from CogniFit. Deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator or deciding to ride your bicycle instead of taking a car are examples of simple things we can do to support a physical fitness regimen, and in this same way, there are simple changes that can support brain health. Working on crosswords rather than playing games, reading instead of watching TV, or taking up a creative hobby are all ways that we can ensure we are keeping our brains active and we can get the most out of a holistic brain training plan.

• Healthy Lifestyle Promotes Brain Fitness: Our brains and our bodies are interconnected in so many ways that when it comes to physical and mental fitness, it can be difficult to separate the two. Athletes need plenty of sleep to perform at their peak, just as those who need the most out of their mental and cognitive abilities need a healthy diet and plenty of physical exercise.
  
  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle including a healthy, nutritious diet, plenty of sleep, and adequate physical activity ensures that our brains have the nutrients and energy to not only perform better, but also to get the most out of the Brain Exercises we do.
• Incorporate Mental Exercises Into Daily Life In addition to a personalized Mental Exercise routine, incorporating mentally stimulating activities into your daily life can help boost the cognitive abilities you are training and ensure that you get the most out of your training.
  
  Taking up brain-healthy habits such as reading, playing brain games such as crosswords or sudoku, or taking up a new hobby that requires you to use your brain are all fantastic ways of keeping your brain active and stimulated between training.
  
  You can also look for things that could be considered the mental version of “taking the stairs instead of the elevator.” When trying to improve physical health, taking the stairs instead of the elevator is a simple way to incorporate more physical activity into our day without going too far out of the way. The same can be done with mental activity. For example, if you need to do small calculations, try doing them in your head or with a sheet of paper first before double checking on your calculator. When you go grocery shopping, you can keep your written list in your pocket and try to do as much shopping as possible without looking at your list. Small changes like these can have a huge impact over the long run and in your daily life they are barely more than minor inconveniences (and ones that can actually be fun once you realize how beneficial they can be).

Mental Exercises & CogniFit Brain Training

CogniFit has developed several different Mental Exercises that are specifically designed to train the cognitive abilities we use every day and improve overall Brain Fitness. Using the latest discoveries in neuroscience, CogniFit validates its program with independent researchers and publishes studies on the effectiveness of its mental training programs. Furthermore, independent reviews and scientific validation have shown that CogniFit is an essential complement to boost and preserve brain fitness.

By regularly training with CogniFit, we can better understand our cognitive health and gain a tool to train the cognitive abilities that we need the most.

Upon completing training and assessment activities, CogniFit’s platform provides users with a reliable measure of their cognitive strengths and brain fitness. Our patented technology then creates personalized training regimens that adapt to the needs of each user. Users gain insights about their cognitive abilities and learn how to improve them with tailored mental exercises and mental training. Users can also decide the kind of training they would like to do and what cognitive skills they would like to train.

The mental training exercises are designed to be fun and engaging, and all are available online, so users can easily access their brain training tools at any time.

Start assessing and training your cognitive skills today and help improve your brain health and overall fitness!