Exercise for your brain

One inarguable fact of aging—the older we get, the fuzzier our brains get. Whether it’s from hormonal imbalances, years of multi-tasking, or just plain being tired, our memory fades and we find it harder to concentrate on the smallest tasks. We enter a room and wonder “why did I come in here?” We forget to put on our mascara before going out, and we can’t remember the names of people we’ve known for years.

To keep our brains healthy, we are encouraged to “exercise” them regularly. Things like learning a new language, doing crossword puzzles or playing scrabble, painting, or even reading will strengthen our brain muscle fibers and keep those neurotransmitters healthy.

An interesting exercise to stimulate your senses and give your brain a good workout is called “non-dominant handwriting,” and it is a great way to really stretch your mind and challenge it to be creative in new ways. You might even be surprised at how your subconscious mind directs your answers and gives you new insight into your “inner self.”

If you journal, try writing with your “other” hand for a change. Or just sit down and think of a special event or a current frustration you’re having, and begin asking yourself questions—write one question at a time with your usual writing hand, and write the answer with your non-dominant hand. Just think of it as having a conversation with yourself (like you do at the grocery store) and let your creative juices flow. Use a fat crayon or marker on big paper to make it easier on yourself. For my first exercise, I started by asking myself “what do you vision your holidays being like?”

On her blog Practically Creative, Nancy Shepard Metzger Waldman writes:

Writing with our non-dominant hand can have interesting results because it confuses our brain. Part of that protest you just put up about not wanting to write with the wrong hand was your brain’s way of keeping things predictable. That’s okay. That’s its job. Let’s face it: we function because our brains are in charge. Our brains do a phenomenal job of keeping the world understandable and keeping our bodies and behaviours in sync with that world. But the parts of our brain that are so effective at everyday life, may not be the parts that give us the best results when it comes to pure creativity.

Since creativity may be useless, nonsensical, playful, wordless, metaphorical, musical, messy, and so on, the practical brain that serves us so well, needs a little nudge to get out of the way while we create. Try writing with your ‘wrong’ hand to make this happen.

Why does this work? Our non-dominant hand is linked to the non-dominant hemisphere of our brain. Some studies indicate that one hemisphere is active when using the dominant hand but both hemispheres are activated when the non-dominant hand is used. Either way, many people find that they ‘think differently’ or that surprising things get written down when using the non-dominant hand.

I should caution you that therapists having used this technique have found that some people can access primitive and raw emotions, so I am not suggesting here that this be used as therapy. If you are interested in that, please be sure that you’re working with a trained professional first.

The use of this technique here is suggested as a warm-up to further creative activity. It’s suggested as a way to circumvent the linear part of our brain and get into the wordless, metaphorical, visual part.

There are other ways that one can use this technique. If you have an everyday situation that needs problem-solving, try writing about it with your non-dominant hand. See if you can come up with a more ‘creative’ solution than you’ve considered previously.

Another possibility is to use it when you want to remember or learn something new. I have a friend who wants to improve her vocabulary. While she’s having her coffee each morning she copies words from the dictionary using her ‘wrong’ hand. She swears that her memory for the words is more reliable now. She even reports beating her husband in SCRABBLE for the first time after doing this for a few weeks. Now that’s worth something! Remember…both sides of the brain being are being activated. She just might have something here.

Try it. Politely and gently—using bad handwriting—ask your everyday brain to step aside for awhile while creativity and new ways of thinking are explored.

You can find other  “brain games” to keep your memory sharp all over the internet. Here are a few sites to get you going.

Lumosity

Renew and Exercise Your Brain

Braingle