Push your mind to the point of unease! Ouch, sounds painful. But here’s why you might want to do this.
Scientists mostly agree that cognitive decline is a standard part of aging. Some abilities, including vocab (lucky for us writers!) are preserved and can even improve with age, but many others, such as processing speed, conceptual reasoning, and memory, are worsened. Due to the natural shrinkage of the brain (ugh) and resultant cognitive degradation over time, this unfortunate reality is something that affects all of us. Except when it doesn’t (ha).
Here’s where the superagers come in–with the mental abilities of 50 year olds into their 80s and 90s. So this is where we need to start!Two things that help us remain younger as we age you’ve probably heard already–exercise, and positive social interaction. The third thing is to constantly challenge our brains with new or difficult tasks. It can’t be something that’s hard but we’re good at (like the NYT crossword–not that I’m good at it, but you probably are!). We have to leave our comfort zone and power our mind to the point of unease. Examples include traveling alone to unfamiliar places, learning to play a woodwind, organizing a protest event, and making some kind of art (however weird)!
According to Cooper Wade Collier’s inspiring article “How to Grow Old Without Growing Old,” in the Mensa Bulletin, some of the “superager” people studied even had considerable signs of Alzheimer’s, but it didn’t make a dent in their level of functioning. There were various studies, and the positive impact of using our minds to forge new neural pathways overcame not only Alzheimer’s but smoking, drinking, genetic factors, and so on. But regular exercise and social interaction were common factors among all the superagers.
I guess the point is we have to keep pushing ourselves on every level or we decline–physically, emotionally, and mentally.