Summary

Here is the second set of extracts from Harriet Vines' book "Age Smart." Dr Vines is an experienced author, lecturer and retired college professor who has appeared on radio and TV, talking about her research into helping people age well. Robert Griffith, Editor

Chapter 2: Mental Might

Mental Fitness

Total fitness means physical and mental fitness. The mind is like the body; if it doesn't get the exercise it needs, it gets out of shape. It gets out of shape when you stop challenging it. You create your own world through your mind. That world gets awfully flat when you don't exercise your mental muscles. National Institute on Aging studies show the effects of even brief periods of mental exercise can last five years. What physical exercise can make that claim?

What is mental fitness? How does it feel? What does it look like? When we say someone is "mentally fit," what does it mean? How do we recognize it? Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who said he couldn't define "pornography" but knew it when he saw it, you know mental fitness when you see it in action.

Mentally fit people are able to concentrate as long as they need or want to; plan and anticipate results and others' reactions; have good interpersonal relations skills; are receptive to change, suggestions and criticisms; communicate effectively; are creative; are not rigid.

Your Mental Muscles

The building blocks of mental fitness are Perception, Attention, Endurance, Organization, Flexibility, Coordination, and Conscious Recall. These are the "mental muscles" your mind flexes to do its work. They represent qualities you want to keep strong because you need them to anticipate, solve problems, create, communicate, and remember. The brain uses these muscles to perform such executive functions we take for granted and dread losing.

Mental muscles enable you to think logically, use language, perform spatial manipulations, link associations, make decisions and judgments, and innovate. They also constitute the building blocks your brain uses as a foundation to support memory. Strong mental muscles equal mental fitness.

Perception is registering and interpreting input from your senses. Look at the figures below.

What do you see? The three dimensional cube on the left can alternate between two versions; the figure on the right, between a vase and facing profiles. Both demonstrate the tricks perception plays. Can you make them switch before your eyes? Data from your five senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) provide the raw material your mind works with. It is vital to keep them sharp and reawaken any dulled ones. Sensory Drills and Isometric exercises will help you keep your senses acute and perceptions accurate.

Attention could be called the most important mental muscle. Without paying attention, perceptions fail to register, register faintly, incorrectly, or not at all. It's difficult to be mentally alert when data are not fully acquired. As a case in point, try to add this column of figures while you sing Happy Birthday:

24
38
52
75
97

As you clearly see, trying to do two things at the same time interferes with your ability to pay attention to or do either well. Moreover, it becomes more difficult to multitask as you age. It's not that you can't remember where you left your keys; it's likely you weren't paying attention when you put them down. Paying attention does more to improve memory than just about anything else you can do. Resistance Training exercises will increase your ability to focus your attention.

Endurance is the ability to focus attention on what you want for as long as you want. Resistance Training exercises build needed stamina.

Organization is the process by which data are implanted and retained. The brain associates fresh input with information already stored or records it as new data. Language is instrumental; however, mental images, the pictures you form in your mind's eye, are retained and recalled better than words. Mental Aerobics and Visualization exercises target language and linkage.

Flexibility is tied closely to perception and organization. How do you see things? What associations do you make? Are you stuck in a rut, or are you capable of seeing things in a new light, of doing things in a different way? Can you see both sides of an issue? Can you understand another's point of view - even if you don't agree? Mental Gymnastic exercises encourage these kinds of activities.

Coordination is heavy work. Input gets processed. Associations are integrated. Insights occur. Solutions are sought. Ideas develop. It's the seat of reasoning and problem solving. Sprints and Weight Lifting exercises show results in this arena.

Conscious Recall is the principle difficulty for people past 50 years of age. Much of the material we struggle to evoke is not forgotten; therefore, it's important to learn how to find and extract it more easily. Mnemonic devices and cues you create for yourself are excellent memory aids. Stretching exercises force you to locate and retrieve information.

You've been using mental muscles, unconsciously, naturally all your life - in school, on the job, socially. Chances are, however, you're no longer a student, you might be retired, and you may not get around much any more. That's why, like the biceps, quads and abs you exercise in physical workouts, you need to exercise your brain's muscles.

Mental Fitness Workout #2

Mental Calisthenics

Think of a country beginning with A
Think of an animal beginning with G
Think of a fruit ending with E
Think of a color beginning with S
Think of a tree ending with M
Think of a car ending with A
Think of a dog beginning with R
Think of an article of clothing ending with T

Visualization

Visualize and draw your computer keyboard. Draw it again as you look at it. Wait a day or two, and draw it from memory. Do this exercise with other familiar objects - the car dashboard, your radio alarm clock, a telephone pad - to sharpen your powers of observation and get you to habitually pay attention.

Mental Gymnastics

Read a newspaper paragraph upside down. Record the time it takes you. Extend your upside-down reading every day until you can do it for five minutes. You will be creating new neural connections and patterns. This is how you grow your brain and make it stronger.

Space doesn't allow us to reproduce the complete set of Mental Fitness Workouts for Chapter 2. And the 'answers' to some of the exercises will be found in the Appendix to "Age Smart." If you want to order the book, please go to: http://www.agesmart.us/