Indulge in activities to sharpen your mental health.

Staying healthy isn’t only about exercising your body, but about exercising your brain as well. Your brain is a muscle, and like all muscles, it needs activity to stay healthy and to preserve cognitive function and memory. Some decline in cognition is normal with age, but there are things you can do to help slow mental decline. Here are 10 activities you can do to help keep your brain sharp. Remember, use your blain!

1. Learn long time

Eh, grow old doesn't mean have to stop learning hor. Uncle here even used my SkillsFuture credits to learn some IT course. Learning may even help you to hold off early-onset dementia. You don’t have to take a formal class lah, just find ways to engage with others and educate yourself. You can try book readings, online seminars and cooking classes—whatever interests you.

Learning new dance moves activates the brain to form new neural connections. It also calms your brain’s response to stress. So go ahead and sign up for that two-stepping class you’ve always wanted to take! Don’t care what your neighbours say lah, just dance!

3. Listen to music

Eh, while you dance ah, turn up your favourite tunes and allow the music to lower your stress level and the stress hormones that inhibit memory. Music also increases positive feelings and helps to improve focus. Just don’t turn up the volume too high, you might disturb your neighbours!

4. Be puzzled 

Playing all kinds of puzzles helps to exercise the brain too. Puzzles keep your mind sharp and forces you to focus and think. Your mind is stimulated by all the different possibilities. Of course lah, you can also boast to your neighbours when you solved it.

Any form of physical exercise increases blood flow to the brain, particularly the part of the brain that is responsible for thinking. Physical exercise also makes your brain more efficient and adaptive. Just 20 minutes a day is all you need to keep the blood flowing, allowing you to think clearly and stay sharp.

6. Do the MJ!

No, not Michael Jackson the King of Pop. I meant Mahjong! Yah lah, you have heard of this game before. Why play Mahjong? It will help sharpen your mental health, stimulate your senses. And, it’s been said to prevent you from getting dementia. Mahjong also requires players to use attention, memory, planning and calculation skills. 

7. Don’t shy, try something new. 

Don’t get stuck in a routine. Try something you have not done before. If you do the same things day after day, your brain can perform that activity out of habit. Then your brain cells are not taxed at all. So try a new hobby, learn how to make a quiche, learn roller blading. Don’t be shy.

Aiyo, don’t stress can or not? It affects your memory you know.  Take time off to relak one corner, de-stress through yoga, meditation, or do your favourite stress-relieving activity – sit at coffeeshop and watch  the world pass you by.

OK, you pay so much for a house in Singapore. Might as well make it nice, right? There’s so much you can do in the house to help you get sharper mentally. Re-paint the house. Build some shelves. Re-decorate or re-arrange the furniture. Small changes in your environment can help new brain cells to grow.

10. Talk cock, sing song

Go to the coffeshop downtairs, meet your kakis and talk about anything under the sun lah. Sports. Politics. Business. Religion. A healthy debate forces you to think on your feet and forms new neural pathways.