The brain, that incredible three-pound organ, is the seat of your intellect, the master controller of your movement, the interpreter of your senses, and, ultimately, the source of everything that makes you, you. Keeping this extraordinary machine sharp, active, and well-maintained is, therefore, crucial.
I often emphasise working on five key lobes of your brain: The frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal and insular lobes. When we consciously and correctly stimulate these five powerful areas, we engage in preventive care that can help avoid the conditions we worry about most, specifically neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.
The question then becomes, how exactly do we stimulate them? The answer lies in a specific set of exercises, a disciplined practice that encourages neuroplasticity or your brain’s capacity to rearrange itself, forge new connections and form new, strong neural pathways throughout your life. Here are five routines:
Mountain Position to Snake Pose (Parvatasana to Bhujangasana): The frontal lobe is responsible for crucial functions like reasoning, planning and short-term memory. The mountain pose involves standing on your toes, arms overstretched and arched over the top of your head. The upward-facing snake pose involves lifting your body from a prone position by raising your back and lifting your head. Both fire up this area, enhancing your executive functions and problem-solving abilities.
Conscious Breath Awareness: This is the best exercise for your parietal lobe, which gives you a sensory information feed, processing input from your body. Simply breathe in, breathe out and watch your breath moving through your nostrils, in and out, thereby increasing the perception of the sensory feed you receive from 360 degrees of your environment.
The Windmill: Stand with your legs about three feet apart, touching your left palm to your right ankle, then your right palm to your left ankle. This intricate cross-body coordination is essential, forcing the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate rapidly.
Forward-Backward Bending: You must do this gently, tucking your chin into your chest and breathing out while going down, then coming up, breathing in, and stretching gently backwards. This cycle of stretching and limbering action, coordinated perfectly with the breath, is a powerful and rhythmic stimulus for the nervous system.
Jumping Jacks: Breathe out as you jump with your hands up and breathe in as you land back and bring your hands down. This is an excellent holistic movement that improves cardiovascular health and overall body coordination, which is linked directly to brain health.
Remember, neuroplasticity can be promoted in other ways, too, so we must keep the brain consistently busy.
•Brain Games like puzzles, sudoku and crosswords push your brain to think critically and solve problems, strengthening your existing neural networks.
•Learning novel skills, be it an instrument, a dance, or a new language, requires your brain to process new, unfamiliar information and adapt, which builds entirely new pathways.
•Creative pursuits like writing, painting, and playing music stimulate different parts of your brain, engaging motor coordination and problem-solving simultaneously.
•Reading and comprehension is a powerful stimulus. Reading naturally stimulates the language and memory areas but if you go the extra step to summarize and evaluate what you’ve read, you profoundly facilitate knowledge, memory and enhance cognitive processing.
•Finally, social connection is the key. Meeting people requires your brain to process emotions, recognise social cues, and engage in memory recall (remembering names and facts); it also promotes emotional control.
(Dr Mehta is holistic health expert)
The upward-facing snake pose involves lifting your body from a prone position by raising your back and lifting your head. 
Share
