Increase Your Flexibility

At all stages of your life it is important to maintain physical and mental flexibility.  This is particularly important as you get older when you can stiffen up physically and also start to lose some of your mental agility.

On the physical side there is plenty of advice about activities to hPat 91elp you to stay supple.  Pilates helps to improve core strength and regular practice of yoga and Tai Chi will improve flexibility.

There are also mental exercises that you can do to keep you sharp. It could be doing quizzes, crosswords, or puzzles every day, or you could try some of the following suggestions:

1)    Make changes in the location of frequently used objects in your home or office. If you have to think about where you have put your tea bags, or favourite pen, or hair brush it will help you to set up new neural pathways. You could just try using your other hand to move your mouse or brush your teeth.

2)    Make changes to your daily routine for the same reason as 1) above.

3)    Decide to learn something new every day/week/month. This can be something small like learning a new word every day to something big like enrolling for an evening class or taking up a new hobby.

4)    Try using one of the computer-based brain exercises such as MindFit or Brain Gym.

Whatever you decide to do, you need to do it regularly – after all you don’t get good at jogging by going for one run.