How Well is Your Brain Working?

Every morning I stretch, move my hands and feet, jump up and down a few times, and practice a few coordination drills. The coordination is to check how well my brain is functioning. If my brain is functioning, my body will act with ease. If my brain isn’t working, I am going to have trouble all day. I want all the parts of my brain working. Use it or lose it also applies to the brain, as well as the body.

Underneath the main brain is the cerebellum, which is involved in coordination and integration of how the body functions and moves. Like balance, if you do not practice coordination, your skill deteriorates. You think it is the aging process. No-o-o-o-o-o, it is because you don’t practice. Use it or lose it.

Science has shown that having good cerebellar function improves memory, and practice-related learning (anything repetitive, like riding a bike). How well you can do a task depends on how well your cerebellum is working. I like to keep mine working, in case I want to do something stupid like stand on the top rung of a ladder perched cockamamie on a flight of stairs and paint the ceiling.

One of the ways to improve is to consciously, deliberately practice coordination. Any kind of dancing involves coordination. If you want to dance better at your brother’s wedding, or that college reunion, work on waltzing around the kitchen before trying it in public. Same goes for playing piano, or a sport. Look good in private before you subject all of us to you in public. Carrying one too many sacks of groceries from the car and kicking the car door shut without killing yourself involves coordination. Parallel parking in a tight spot is a test of patience and coordination.

Here’s a simple, but not neccessarily easy, drill to practice coordination: sitting in a chair, slap your right thigh with your right hand, slap your left thigh with your left hand, then clap both hands together. Then, and here’s where you need coordination, start with the other hand. Slap your left thigh with your left hand, slap your right thigh with your right hand, then clap both hands together. Alternate hands each time and repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s a speed drill. Go as fast as you can, as long as you can, without making mistakes. It will improve your coordination, how well you move during the day, and how well you think.

That’s Aging Intelligently.