Just as regular exercise keeps ones body healthy and agile, an active mind ensures its sharpness. In today's world of internet and 24/7 TV news channels, we tend to spend more time on gathering information than on thinking and reflection. The bloggers and the know-alls on TV do all the thinking for us. The sharpness of our minds gets blunted in the process. Realising this truth and responding adequately to it have helped me to hold my own against active minds, ten years after retirement.
K.Vijayakumar
Bangalore, India

Since I have my own company, I set my own hours. Every morning, before dawn, I exercise and meditate.(5 days a week) This gets me motivated for whatever comes my way during the day. In the evening, I wind down by drinking some herbal tea and doing fill-in puzzles or read a good book. I call it "me" time.
Tracy Lyn
Shelby Township, MI

At 33 years old, I recently bought a guitar, having never played before. When I need to clear my mind, in between writing and editing articles as a freelance writer and editor, I practice Stairway to Heaven and other Classic Rock.
Lisa Kiersky Schreiber
Atlanta, GA

I consider the mind like the body, in that regular use improves both the mind and body. I work in a fast paced quality control environment that requires no discrepancies and I constantly strive for that. In addition, I walk approximately five miles per day. This becomes a circle of maintaining brain power. The exercise benefits me in many ways, one of which is to relax and sharpen the mind. I think about the days events as I walk and try to determine if all went well that day and if it didn't, I will attempt to determine what the correct course of action should have been. In work, if I make a mistake, it could mean someone can be hurt or worse (For the past twenty years I've been a metallurgist working in aerospace quality, not in quality control for the FDA). In realizing that my decisions and what I do can affect others, I am forced to do it right the first time. If mistakes are made, consequences are large, so I pay attention to what I'm doing. In short, I use my mind to the point of stress, but as with the body, no pain, no gain.
Lewis Cudo
Wilkes-Barre, PA

I retired in 1998 at 62 but for over the past 8 years, continue to work on as a consultant in my subjects, which has kept me thinking and mentally alert. Aditionally, I exercise regularly for about 1.5 hours, six days a week, which has helped me keep my health problems under check and enjoy a normal life. Exercise and work...that keeps both body and mind fit!
Ramesh Deshpande
Bethesda, MD

To release tension and exercise "me brain" I will write down in intricate detail events however insignificant that occur or have occurred accompanied by the subtleties of feelings, hidden thoughts, counter arguments etc. This form of analytical thinking also incorporates the emotive underpinning often dug out under the minutia of narrative features.
Madelyn Freeman
London, England

I started doing crosswords several years ago when I found that my mental reflexes were slower than before — it helped enormously! Since then I am an avid crossworder. I also read challenging and thought-provoking books all the time and actually think about what's discussed in them. For example I just finished Sam Harris' "The End of Faith" and am now finishing up Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos"
Mireille
Brooklyn, NY

Take time out to think, walk outside, or meditate. Time alone. Shift from a task that has bogged down my thinking by taking a break and shifting to something totally unrelated — which usually allows what I am seeking to come to me.
Sharon Taylor-Wood
Scottsdale, AZ

I keep my mind sharp by doing Transcendental Meditation twice a day. My parents made me start doing TM in high school because of lack of focus, and that was over 30 years ago. It really changed my enjoyment of my life and the people around me, and increased my ability to stay focused and clear in my thinking, which definitely helped my grades. I do it 20 minutes in the morning and 20 in the evening, and have great results from it throughout the day. It's super easy to do — very effortless — anyone can do it. My experience is that you don't have to believe it or believe in it for it to work.
Jane Lazzareschi
Santa Cruz, CA

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