Crossword Puzzle Challenge Enough?

So what about those crossword puzzles?  Does doing them help maintain mental acuity?  I'd like to think so. I inherited the crossword puzzle gene from both sides of my family and have been doing these puzzles ever since I learned to read. 
Which means that there are well-worn pathways in my brain for figuring out words that lead to other words that reveal quips and quotes and sundry other themes.  Which means that, for me, crossword puzzles don't meet the requirements for a novel, challenging activity that builds new pathways. 
I'm challenging my brain with soduku, which has had the added benefit of sending me to search engines for help figuring out how to solve them.  I found this site useful: http://www.sudokucentral.com/how-to-solve-sudoku.  Using search engines has been found useful for 'brain training'.  Type 'how to solve soduku' into your favorite search engine and investigate several sites to find the one most helpful to you!
From a scientific point of view, the jury is still out on whether doing puzzles and games helps maintain brain function.  There's agreement, though, that it can't hurt and it's better than doing nothing.

Brain Training Program

As promised, here's my list of principles for brain training and what I'm doing with them:
1.  Don't forget the basics:  exercise, nutrition, safety.  Until a couple of years ago, I got up in all
     weather and walked outside at 4:30 almost every morning.   The aerobic exercise finally saturated my brain with enough oxygen to recognize that this was risky behavior--a realization helped along by a home invasion that occurred along my walking route.  Now my morning routine includes exercise videos by Leslie Sansone or Debbie Rocker or a session with wii fit.  Here's a sample of Leslie Sansone:  Go to  http://www.realage.com/videos/?bclid=5030523001 .  Select the walking videos to the right of the screen.
2.  In addition to exercising your body, exercise your brain.  Challenge your brain by learning something new, by doing something outside your comfort zone, by kicking familiar activities up a notch.  Brain games, like those mentioned in the last post are a fine addition as long as you vary them to exercise multiple brain functions.  One I like is http://hubpages.com/hub/Brain-Fitness-Exersizes  In addition to the exercises, there are some good principles listed.  Learning new computer programs is frequently mentioned as good for making new neurons, as is learning a foreign language.

Brain Games

Image by Alejandro Peters

Things that make you go hmmm

• Article on the Medscape Nursing site: Brain Fitness Games Improve Delayed Memory in Elderly Adults
  Pam Harrison reports a study showing that playing the Dakim  Brainfitness computerized program improved certain types of memory in elderly adults who played the game consistently for 6 months.  She quotes Dr Gary Small , a source I trust, as stating that the results are encouraging.  I went to Dakim.com, sampled some interesting games, and checked out their company blog--also interesting.  The price is daunting--$2299.00 plus $19.99 a month.
• A recent e mail from Prevention  http://www.brainpowergameplan.com/uof/brainpowergameplan/   suggests you can improve all aspects of your brain functioning up to 78% in just four weeks.  Cost of book is four installments of $6.50 each plus shipping and handling.
• Claims I've noticed in several sources that making small changes, such as brushing your teeth with your non dominant hand will improve aspects of brain functioning.
• A common belief among my friends that doing crossword puzzles will preserve your brain function. 

From what I've read, there's good science supporting the idea that exercising your brain will improve its functioning.  Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself by creating new neural connections throughout life, and it's the concept behind brain training.  In the next post, I'll list some general principles to take advantage of neuroplasticity and what I'm choosing to do about them.

Miracles

An important milestone for Collin.  Over the last few days, the medical staff have freed him from most of the tubes and wires that tethered him to the ICU.  The word on the street here, Mom posts on Caring Bridge, is that we're leaving the ICU for the regular floor.  The tone of the post is jubilant, and just a little tinged with dread.  Her little butterfly is emerging from his cocoon, but what if his wings are still wet?  Collin's textbook recovery, so different from his earlier procedures with their seemingly endless complications, has her waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Don't stop praying yet! 
Is Collin's recovery a triumph of medical science or some other kind of miracle?  Have we stormed heaven and been heard?  I believe that something in the universe responds to us, that there's a power for good that we can use to influence the course of events.  I don't think it's a God that answers prayers according to some arbitrary criteria.
Maybe it works this way.  A single drop of water has to hit hard and long to make an impact on a rock.  A lot of us focusing together on the same goal can unleash a torrent to lift that rock right up and float it away.  Thank you Caring Bridge for bringing us together.  I found a website that's trying to prove a similar notion:  http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/

Kirtan Kriya

The practice of meditation has beckoned  me with promises of rewards for body, mind and spirit.   Until recently, despite my best efforts, the rewards have proved elusive.  Make your mind still like the mountain.  Breathe.  Listen to the silence speak.  My mind is more like the anthill than the mountain, with thoughts that skitter off in all directions.
Discouraged, I looked to yoga as an alternate path to inner stillness.  The path led straight to a meditation I can actually do--Kirtan Kriya.  It courts inner peace through a series of finger movements and musical chanting.  A google search will produce a wealth of information and instructions.  I like the presentation at feelgoodgirl.com/kirtankriya.  In addition to a brief explanation, the site incorporates a great video introduction.
I barely got started with daily practice when synchronicity stepped in to kick the whole experience up a notch.  A friend gave me the book, How God Changes Your Brain (2009, Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman.)  Early into the book, the authors report on a study of a meditation practice that can improve memory by at least 10% and is one of the best ways to exercise the brain--Kirtan Kriya!
I followed their suggestions on making the meditation your own, and now substitue other phrases for part of the sa-ta-na-ma chant.  Phrases such as loving kindness, being wellness, abundant life.