Activating the Brain

In order to better ourselves and challenge the way we think, we should challenge our brain. Activities like juggling demands great hand-eye coordination and gets them in action together. Today, try to offset your habits and left or right brain dominance by trying to do daily activities with your non-dominant hand. If you are right-handed, use your left hand to write, and vice versa. As children grow they don’t normally choose a dominant hand till about the age of 3. By challenging them in these ways we can activate the power of both hemispheres in the brain. Children who are able to continually be challenged like this tend to retain knowledge better and become more proficient in any subject.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the left and right hemispheres of your brain (whether you are male or female) process information in different ways:

Discussion today is about keeping our minds sharp and active as we age. There are countless apps for the iphones, ipads and android phones for just this purpose. Working on crossword puzzles and exercising the logical, rational capabilities of the left hemisphere is certainly part of any anti-aging mind-building program. However, stimulating mental abilities used to keep the left brain active is no less, or more, important for preventing and countering the effects of aging than is the utilization of the creative, intuitive power of the right brain.

We all tend to process information using our dominant brain side. However, as the list above shows, the world is not all linear, sequential, concrete, etc., nor is it all holistic, random or symbolic. It is a combination of both. Therefore, if you can approach both the minor and the significant challenges of life by calling upon both sides of your brain using the corpus callosum and the other structures in the brain which are responsible for organizing thoughts, your left and right sides will be able to more effectively work as a whole.

Here are some activities to try using your opposite hand!

At home/work, do all your daily tasks using the normal equipment, but with your left or opposite hand:

• Stir while making dinner in pans or pots
• Fill and pour the kettle or pour milk from a jug
• Open cans, doors or use the phone
• Cut bread or spread something with a knife
• Eat, drink and write (use the opposite hand)
• Have your computer mouse on the opposite side

Outside games:

• Dribble a basketball or shoot for the net with the opposite hand only. It works for most sports and your teams must all play with their opposite hand as well.
• Try to cartwheel by leading with your opposite leg or arm
• Hop hrough hoops or play hopscotch with the opposite body leg