- Maintaining Cognitive skills
The best way to maintain your cognitive skills is to use your brain in tasking projects as often as possible. Carry out tasks as often as possible that cause you to really think about the problem. When sorting money or anything numerical, avoid using a calculator and try to work out sums in your head. If you find you do not face challenges that require mental skills in your everyday life then try puzzles such as crosswords, word searches, Sudoku or anything else that mentally stimulates you. TV quiz shows, reading an intellectually stimulating book or even the newspaper can help maintain your cognitive skills.
- What are cognitive skills?
Cognitive skills are mental skills. They are not related to intelligence or knowledge but the way the mind works. Cognitive skills relate to thinking, reading, processing thoughts, planning topics, understanding things, solving problems and working through new ideas and remembering things. This is the way our mind works and has nothing to do with the information within the mind but the way all that information is processed.
- The importance of maintaining cognitive skills in later life:
Our cognitive skills tend to be effective and sharp when we are young but when our cognitive skills are rarely used they can become slower. It does not necessarily mean we forget things but it may take longer to remember things, longer to work things out, process new information and understand new situations.
It is important to think of the brain as a muscle that needs to be exercised. If a muscle is not exercised it will become ineffective and will not work as well as it could. The brain must be used regularly in order to stay in good shape and work to the best of its ability. If it is used regularly then your cognitive skills should remain sharp and focused and you will be able to carry out your daily tasks more efficiently and lead a more fulfilling life.
