Brain Age

Everyone's been talking about brain age.

I know that my brain age is probably, like, 55 years old. I don't even want to take the test. I can't stand to know the results.

I think, though, that the suggested brain exercises to decrease one's brain age are a good idea.

For example: do puzzles. Sleep more (over a 8 hours a night, they say! Who has that sort of time?). Eat better. Take a shower with your eyes closed. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand.

I tried to "brush your teeth with the opposite hand" this morning. I didn't believe D when he said it was hard.

That was until I almost stabbed myself in the nose with my toothbrush. Toothpaste everywhere. It was lovely.

The actual brushing of the teeth wasn't hard. It was more having the coordination to get the toothbrush into my mouth that posed the problem. That, and I didn't know what to do with my free hand. It was just sort of flailing and I thought "Hmm... this doesn't seem right - but what would I normally be doing with my other hand while brushing my teeth?"

After switching hands, I realized that I generally put my left hand on the sink while brushing. Interesting. I switched back to the oppoisite hand, and as I was about to plunge my toothbrush into my eye with my left hand, I braced myself with my right hand and voila! Much easier.

I guess these brain games are to get you to think about things that you don't actually think about after they become habit. Things become automatic. And then your brain starts to decay. And then you have a brain age of 55 and can't react quickly to things and can't remember anything you've read in the last year.

Right. I am so going to sleep 8.5 hous tonight.