Finish This Book: Neurobics

If you're visiting through the A to Z Challenge and missed my post for today, you can view it here.

As I mentioned before, I sped through the next few pages of Finish This Book and quickly reached the Neurobics page. Remember how I mentioned that I liked stretching my brain with memory exercises? Well, it turns out that there are a whole bunch of activities that you can do to exercise your brain.

This page gives you some examples of things you can try. They’re a little bit random, like doing things with your eyes closed, using your non-dominant hand or varying your routine. There’s also the instruction to research ‘neurobics’.

I got straight on that:

These activities are all examples of neurobic activites; Neurobics are exercises for your brain (devised by Katz and Ruben) which are supposed to promote the growth of new pathways in the brain.
It stretches your brain by doing things differently to the way you normally do things, which is supposed to help these new connections. Wikipedia stresses that it’s not scientifically proven.
I’ve tried a couple of the activities. I’ve done things with my eyes closed & used my non-dominant hand for others (not both at once, yet). Doing things with your eyes closed is difficult and it made me feel a little dizzy. I also tried closing my eyes on journeys in the car & tried to figure out where we were. Using my left hand wasn’t too bad, less awkward than I was expecting, except when I tried brushing my teeth. That was awkward & messy.
I’ve also tried a new food (spicy noodles – which were okay) & I’m planning going for a walk on a different route too. My brain is growing!

From what I read online, Neurobics seems to be a bit of a shaky science, considering there seems to be very little proof that any of it works. That said, it was fun to explore.

Closing my eyes was the easiest thing to try since I could do that virtually any time (apart from at work or at times when I would look especially weird doing it). It was actually quite fun closing my eyes on the way to and from work. It’s harder to guess where you are than you would think, but that’s something that might come in handy some day… if I’m ever kidnapped and they decide to drive me along the exact same route we take to and from work.

Using my non-dominant hand felt almost like cheating, since I do that occasionally anyway. Usually when I’m bored or to spice up notes that I’m taking. When I’m knitting I tick off my rows left-handed and I write left-handed at work sometimes too. To think, I’ve been building neuron connections all this time and not even known it!

I have no idea how this activity will relate to the rest of the book. Perhaps just to reinforce the idea that you’re going to be asked to do weird and wonderful things sometimes. If that’s the case, I’ve already got it!