Somewhere In My Memory

“If you don’t use it you lose it” is a saying that is often applied to physical condition or skills, but it applies equally to your mind as well. Just as a person who doesn’t do physical activity of any kind will get out of shape, so too a person who doesn’t do any sort of mental exercises will let their mind get out of shape. And if you let your mind decline too much, the chance of dementia occurring in later life significantly increases.

While there are many things you can do work your brain, crossword puzzles are an easily available form of mental aerobics (ie: a task or exercise that requires mental effort). Heck, if you (or someone else in your family) already get the daily newspaper, chances are you already have a large supply of them available.

If you’re not already a crossword fan, you need to know that the difficulty level of the puzzles is related to the day of the week - as it gets closer to the weekend, the puzzles steadily become more and more challenging.

Like all forms of exercise that work on our mental fitness, the goal of is to “shake up” the usual mental assumptions we hold in our mind and force us to think of novel solutions. In addition, a successful brainteaser, puzzle or other problem solving exercise often gives us a moment of pleasure and satisfaction when we finally realize what the solution is - that moment when it seems like a “light bulb” of understanding or insight suddenly turns on in our brain. Some experts believe this process correlates with the actual “stretching and toning” workout we are trying to give our brain cells.