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The brain is your body’s command center. It powers all of your body’s mechanisms and processes: how you run and dance and figure out a waiter’s tip, your hunger for chocolate or roast chicken, and the rush of chill you feel when you step outside on an early spring morning. It generates your laughter, your creativity, your feelings of grief or deep happiness, and helps you make sense of the world.
How critical it is, then, to help keep the brain healthy—and there are so many ways to do that with the choices you make every day. In fact, many brain experts are increasingly emphasizing the risk factors for neurodegenerative conditions like dementia, and the behavioral changes people can make to help stave them off.
To keep your brain crackling along in the healthiest possible way, we’ve designed this 21-Day Brain Challenge: 21 specific, research-based, and actionable tips that can help sharpen your memory, challenge your mind, and more. And best news? So many of them are fun. (Not on this list but critical to your brain, as well as all aspects of your health: If you smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol to excess, or use risky drugs—get expert help in stopping.)
Day 1: Do something new
So much is happening in our brains when we acquire information: New connections and neurons are formed, and the communication between those neurons is heightened. Learning something new—whether it’s a language, a TikTok dance, or how to play the guitar—boosts your memory, research has shown. It also builds up your cognitive reserve, which concerns how effective and flexible your brain is, whether it’s agile at problem solving and coming up with novel solutions. And having a stronger cognitive reserve has been shown to ward off symptoms of dementia. The best activities for the brain are those that are complex and challenge you. So today, find a way to jostle your brain: Is there a class at the library or community center that interests you? A lecture at a nearby museum to attend? An online tutorial on a passion topic of yours? Let’s go!
Day 2: Increase your skills
Yes, learning new skills is a terrific way to build brainpower—but so is getting better at something you already do. Are you a casual pickleball player? Try taking a lesson or two to learn strategy and step up your game. Do you love to knit? Take a class at a knitting or craft store and learn some new stitches. Are you a crossword puzzler? Try some that stretch your mind. Whatever it is you love, boosting your knowledge and talents challenges your brain, and that’s good for your noggin as well as your outlook.
Day 3: Get your blood pressure checked
The CDC has a scary stat: Almost half of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure (hypertension), the leading cause of strokes. It’s also linked to a range of problems from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. So get your BP checked today, or schedule a time to do it. Many pharmacies will test it for free, and places from hospitals to fire stations to public libraries regularly set up checks for their community. Google “free blood pressure checks in my area,” and then loop in your doctor right away if it’s elevated so you can come up with a plan to get it under control.
Day 4: Amp up your walk
Exercise has a multitude of brain benefits, says the CDC: It can boost your memory, help you solve problems and learn new stuff, and help keep mental health issues like anxiety and depression at bay. Among other things, being physically active helps your blood pressure stay in the healthy zone and increases blood flow to the brain. “Scientists think exercise is super important for brain health,” says Tara Tracy, Ph.D., assistant professor and brain researcher at the Buck Institute. In fact, a study in Preventive Medicine found that people who got the least amount of exercise had the highest risk of cognitive decline. And most importantly, of all healthy behaviors, it’s seen to be the most helpful for reducing the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Any amount of exercise is better than none, but to get the strongest brain boost, try to have a good portion of it be moderate intensity. On today’s walk, go at a brisk pace, and rev it up by including periods of higher intensity. For example, pick a landmark ahead of you—say, a tree or a signpost—and speed walk to it, then return to a brisk walk until the next landmark, then repeat. This keeps your mind more engaged as well—also good for your brain!
Day 5: Choose a new walking route
Another way to boost your brain while you walk or jog? Break out of the rut of your usual route and mix it up. Today, turn left instead of right when you set out from your house. Walk in a different park, or even just start on the opposite side of your usual path. Exercise your brain as you walk: Look at each house you walk by and note something specific—the color of a door, a shrub with bright flowers. Walking in a city? Play the alphabet game: Find a sign with an A, then one with a B, then one with a C, and so on.
Day 6: Throw in some strength training
It’s smart to add some strength training to your movement routine two or three times a week. A study in GeroScience found evidence that doing resistance training twice a week helps preserve brain health. Today, while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew, do 10 squats. Keep a set of hand weight near the couch, and when streaming a show set a timer to get up every 30 mins and do bicep curls and overhead presses. (This is called habit-stacking, and it’s a great motivational tool: Add something you want to do to something you already do.)
Day 7: Focus on single-tasking
“Multitasking is to the brain as smoking is to the lungs,” says Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., cognitive neuroscientist and chief director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas. “We used to think that it must be good for the brain to overstimulate it. But the brain is not prepared to do two things at once. You’re actually shifting very quickly between tasks and that requires more from your brain. You don’t process things as deeply. If you multitask even 20% of the day, you have really frayed the neural connections. It’s toxic to the connectivity and the neurotransmitters.”
People think they’re being efficient by multitasking, Dr. Chapman says, “but you’re doing things more slowly with more effort, and you make more mistakes. It disrupts sleep and increases depression because of the changes that happen in the brain because of multitasking.” Today’s tip: Open your awareness throughout the day to how often you try to do multiple things at once. Try to focus on each task without distraction—it’s a brain-healthy habit to develop.
Day 8: Loosen the stress in your body
Stress is unavoidable in these human lives of ours, but it makes sense to figure out how much tension you’re experiencing for the health of your whole body, including your brain. For one thing, stress is the enemy of memory: When you’re frazzled, the amount of cortisol (aka the stress hormone) rises, and research shows this has an impact on sections of the brain involved with memory. And chronic stress has been found to bring on changes in the brain that contribute to a host of diseases.
Tackling all your stress points isn’t something you can do in a single day, of course. But today, you can focus on releasing some of the stress in your body. Follow this advice from Lindsey Benoit O’Connell, CSCS, meditation and breathwork specialist and founder of The LAB Wellness: Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and mentally scan your body from head to toe. Notice any areas of tightness, discomfort, or pain. If it’s your shoulders/neck, try doing some shoulder shrugs and neck rolls. For a tight jaw, open your mouth wide for a moment, then let your jaw hang loose. Wherever the tension is, doing some deep breathing and then a full-body stretch should help ease the tightness.
Day 9: Take a close look at your bedroom
Today’s activity: Make sure your bedroom is set up for optimal sleep. Here’s why: You may feel like you completely power down while you sleep, but your brain is buzzing with activity. It’s processing and storing all of that day’s activities, releasing toxins, and resetting itself for the next day’s challenges. Sleep is also critical for learning and memory, according to the National Institutes of Health, as well as for concentration and being agile with response time. Look around your bedroom: Do your shades block out enough light? Have you blocked off other light sources (such as that bright digital display on your TV)? Is the thermostat set to a cool temp? Do you have a comfy mattress and pillows? Do a behavior check, too: Do you put screens aside an hour before bedtime to give your body the chance to settle down? A good reason to get in the habit now: Research has shown that those who regularly sleep less than six hours a night when they’re 50 or 60 have a 30% higher risk of dementia.
Day 10: Schedule a vision test
Today’s brain-boosting task: Make an appointment to get your eyes checked out. Vision impairment is a defined risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. In fact, a study published in JAMA Neurology estimated that almost 2% of dementia cases could have been prevented through healthy vision. And as much as 90% of vision impairment either hasn’t been treated or could be prevented via early detection.
Day 11: Schedule a hearing test
Do you feel like people are mumbling more? Are you hitting the TV volume button harder? Get your hearing tested. Research at Johns Hopkins found that even mild hearing loss doubled the risk for dementia, and moderate loss tripled it.
There are a couple of reasons why not being able to see and hear well could contribute to dementia. Stimulation from all our senses help keep the brain’s functions buzzing along When that stimulation is impaired, neurons start to die off. And there’s a behavioral factor as well: Embarrassment about losing one’s hearing can make a person start to socially isolate—another dementia risk factor. And when one’s sight starts to go, it puts various brain-boosting activities, like reading and visiting a museum, farther out of reach.
Day 12: Spend time outside
Hanging out in nature has been shown to ease stress, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and lower the risk of heart disease—and all of those have a positive impact on the brain. One study showed that exposure to the sounds of nature helped improve attention; another small study found that spending even short times in natural settings resulted in positive changes in brain structure. Today, do two things: Get outdoors! Ride a bike, walk along a shoreline, plant something in your garden. And come up with a plan to make nature a regular part of your weekly activities. Put it on your calendar so you follow through.
Day 13: Do an honest inventory of your social connections
Social isolation and loneliness are big problems right now, so much so that the U.S. Surgeon General has called it an epidemic that can up the risk of dementia, heart disease, stroke, depression and anxiety, and more. And even if someone doesn’t feel lonely, being isolated can still do the brain harm. Today’s brain-booster is to spend some time doing a gut check: Do you have at least a few people with whom you’re in regular contact? Are there people in your life you can count on and call upon in times of stress? In a typical week, how many days are there when you have no contact with others? Tomorrow we’ll start tackling the next steps.
Day 14: Talk to everyone you see
Even if yesterday’s social-connections inventory left you feeling like you’re doing just fine on that front, it’s still good to keep yourself open to the people around you. Every time you connect with another person, whether it’s a smile or a quick hello, it’s thought to sharpen your brain’s synapses and boosts your mental health. Today, interact with everyone you encounter: Wave to the delivery guy, stop your dog-walking neighbor for a quick chat (and puppy pet), compliment the color of the store clerk’s sweater.
Day 15: Text two friends and set up dates for coffee/lunch/movie/whatever!
It’s so easy to let the busy-ness of work and family sweep us along the river of life and leave friendships far behind. In the interest of keeping up those brain-boosting social connections, get in touch today with two friends you haven’t seen in awhile. And when possible, set up in-person get-togethers. This is an important factor of social connection, says developmental psychologist Susan Pinker, author of The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter. Digital connection isn’t equivalent, she points out, because so much is stripped out of that kind of communication: true eye contact, the give-and-take of in-person conversation, and body language.
Day 16: Plan a trip
Traveling can do wonderful things for your brain and your mental health. Being in new places— having to navigate streets and find the best place for lunch and on what corner your tour group is meeting—challenges your brain, and that helps keep it sharp, according to Harvard Medical School. And the act of planning a trip requires creative thinking and problem solving, and both of those are good brain exercises as well. Today, let your mind wander to a possible place to visit, and spend some time googling various activities there.
Day 17: Forgive someone
Try to let go of a hurt you’ve been carrying around, and do this for yourself—not the other person. It’s good for your health overall: Carrying around chronic anger can raise your blood pressure, mess with your sleep, and up your risk of depression, says Johns Hopkins. And all of those aren’t good news for your brain. The act of forgiveness can lower your stress, so try it today. It doesn’t have to be a giant wrong; in fact, letting go of little hurts lets you practice that act of forgiveness. You don’t even need to speak to the other person. Focus on letting go of the anger and hostility and filling your mind with compassion instead.
Day 18: Eat these three foods
What we eat has a big impact on the health of our brain. “Eating patterns that are high in healthy, wholesome foods are correlated with positive mental health,” says Uma Naidoo, M.D., a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist and author of Calm Your Mind With Food. It has to do with the microbiome and the gut-brain connection, she explains: When there’s inflammation in the gut, Dr. Naidoo says, it’s also seen in the brain, and that’s linked to a range of mood and cognitive disorders.
Eating a range of healthy foods every day is important. For today, work these three foods into your meals:
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Berries. Research has shown that blueberries have a positive impact on memory and cognition.
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Dark leafy greens. A serving a day has been linked to a slower rate of age-related cognitive decline, says a study published in Neurology.
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Beans. They’re loaded with a bunch of brain-healthy nutrients, including folate, magnesium, and zinc, according to the United Brain Association.
Day 19: Limit or skip these three foods
“Diets higher in processed, sugary foods are associated with symptoms of poor mental health, such as depression and anxiety,” says Dr. Naidoo. It comes back to that gut-brain connection, and the harm from increased inflammation. Overall, it’s smart to take a close look at how much of those foods you consume and make a plan for limiting them. For today, take a pass on these:
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Soda and sweet coffee drinks. A 12-ounce can of cola has 39 grams of sugar. A medium-size Starbucks Frappuccino has 50 grams. When you consider that the max amount of sugar a woman should have per day is 25 grams (36 grams for a man), you can see the problem.
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Packaged snacks with more than 5 ingredients. The key here is to avoid ultra-processed foods—those that have been processed to such a degree that much of the nutrition has been stripped out. A diet high in highly-processed foods have been linked to dementia, heart disease, and diabetes.
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Bacon or hotdogs. Same deal here—these products bear little resemblance to the meat they’re processed from.
Day 20: Better your balance
The top cause of sudden brain loss with age is concussions that result from a fall, says Dr. Chapman. A concussion damages neurons, making them stretch and possibly break, according to the Concussion Alliance. Falling is a risk at any age, so today, do these two balance tests:
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Stand on one leg, raise the other foot, and hold it a few inches above the floor.
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Hold that position and close your eyes. Can you solidly hold each position for 10 seconds without touching the floor with the raised foot? If so, that’s excellent balance. But honestly, everyone could benefit from a balance workout to lower their risk of falling. So the other task for today is to research a nearby class or activity that can boost it, such as yoga, tai chi, or biking.
Day 21: Detox your social feed
You know those posts that make you feel less-than, or just plain annoyed? Maybe it’s the acquaintance who shows off her ultra-organized closets or ultra-accomplished kids, or the high school friend who goes down dark conspiracy paths. Today, lower your stress by unfollowing five of those people. And choose a few inspiring accounts to follow instead. Consider art museums, singing librarians, a new cute animal account, or whatever else brings on a positive feeling!
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