31 Ways to Be Good to Your Brain

Here are 31 things you can do to be good to your brain so your brain can be good to you. It’s the best win-win situation I can think of.

1. Snack Healthy. Try almonds and blueberries. They lower blood sugar, and the omega-3s in the almonds and the antioxidants in the blueberries keep your brain functioning correctly.
2. Ballroom Dance. Learning new moves activates brain motor centers that form new neural connections. And dancing calms the brain’s stress response.
3. Swap Croutons for Walnuts. The omega-3s in walnuts improve mood, calm inflammation, and replace lost melatonin.
4. Walk Your Dog. Walking for 20 minutes a day can lower blood sugar, which improves blood flow to the brain and, therefore, thinking. If you don’t have a dog, go with a friend—or by yourself.
5. Become a Tour Guide. Learning new facts and thinking on your feet help to form new neural pathways in your brain, while interacting with others can ease stress.
6. Try a Different Puzzle. Switch from Sudoku to crossword (or vice versa). When you get good at one puzzle or brain teaser, master a new one to help your brain create new neural connections.
7. Take a Class. Taking classes, even auditing them, improves and maintains brain functioning. Learning something new is one of the best ways to keep your brain in good working order.
8. Have a Glass of Wine. Make it a red to get a hit of resveratrol, an antioxidant that may prevent free radicals from damaging brain cells.
9. Add Cinnamon to Your Oats. The oats scrub plaques from your brain arteries; a chemical in cinnamon is good for keeping blood sugar in check, which improves neurotransmission.
10. Listen to the Music. Instead of watching TV, listen to your favorite music. Music lowers stress hormones and increases well-being and focus.
11. Change Your Environment. Rearranging or redecorating can alter motor pathways in the brain and encourage new cell growth.
12. Engage in a Debate. If you can avoid getting overly angry, engaging in a good debate can form new neural pathways and force you to think quickly and formulate your thoughts clearly.
13. Get a Good Night’s Sleep. Sleep not only reenergizes the body, it also clears waste from the brain and supports learning and the consolidation of memories.
14. Join a Book Club. Frequent reading is associated with reduced risk of dementia. And reading literary fiction has a host of additional benefits including improved focus and an enhanced ability to approach and deal with obstacles.
15. Play a Board Game. Board games (Risk, Pictionary, Scrabble, etc.) not only require you to socialize, they also activate strategic, spatial, and memory parts of the brain.
16. Engage Your Senses. Go camping or spend some time at a farmer’s market where you can look, touch, sniff, and taste the produce to activate and engage different regions of your brain.
17. Add Some Strength Training. Even a little strength training can help protect brain cells from damage done by free radicals. It also encourages new brain-cell growth. You can just strap some weights on when you walk or practice yoga.
18. Take a Nap. Sleep’s boost to concentration and memory happens during the first stage, so your brain can benefit from just a 30-minute nap.
19. Develop a Hobby. Learning and engaging in a hobby has similar benefits to meditation. In addition, hobbies can act as antidepressants and protect against brain aging.
20. Eat with Chopsticks. Using chopsticks, if you’re not already adept, will force you to focus on what you’re eating. If you are adept, try using them with your other hand.
21. Read Aloud. Reading aloud engages the imagination in a different way. Different areas of the brain are activated depending on whether a word is read, spoken, or heard.
22. Try Something New. Novel experiences trigger the release of dopamine and stimulate the creation of new neurons. Go somewhere you’ve never been or try a cuisine that’s unfamiliar.
23. Turn off the GPS. Learn how to get around town by reading maps and using your sense of direction. Using your brain instead of your GPS can increase the size of your hippocampus, which stores and organizes memories.
24. Widen Your Circle. Stimulate mental growth and challenge your current way of thinking by connecting with people who have different interests or who are from different social or cultural environments.
25. Meditate. Training your mind to be quiet can reduce stress, improve memory and mood, and increase learning ability, focus, and attention.
26. Shake Your Booty Body. Gently bouncing your knees and shaking out your limbs for a few minutes in the morning and at night reduces levels of cortisol and triggers relaxation and alertness that keep your brain sharp.
27. Use Calendars & Planners. Taking advantage of tools like calendars, planners, maps, shopping lists, etc. to keep routine information accessible means you don’t waste mental energy on them and you are better able to concentrate on learning and remembering new and important things.
28. Master Something. Once you become proficient with something, the mental benefit is reduced because your brain becomes more efficient at it. Challenge yourself with the next level of difficulty or learn a related skill.
29. Take Care of Your Heart. Risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, can negatively impact your cognitive health. So take care of your heart in order to take care of your brain.
30. Protect Your Head. Avoid a head injury that could lead to cognitive decline or dementia by wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle or motorcycle and a seatbelt when traveling in a vehicle.
31. Laugh More. The more spontaneous laughter you have in your life, the lower your level of cortisol is likely to be—and lower stress means better memory. Just thinking about something funny can be beneficial.