We humans tend to move a lot, but it requires the coordination of several muscles to execute even a single movement. Even showing a simple facial expression can involve all of the 43 muscles we have in our faces. Our brain, the most important part of our body, may not be a muscle, but it does contain bits of muscles due to the grey and white matter that are vital to the brain’s functions. With that in consideration, our minds should be exercised from time to time in order to strengthen it and to improve recovery speed after a hospitalization for any reason, such as contaminants in your home.
Why Is Mental Exercise Important?
Our brain is quite similar to a muscle—the more you expose it to certain exercises, the more it strengthens, responds and speeds up. A “well-trained” brain becomes more able to manage one’s emotions, develop good habits, assess one’s situation critically, and become more adept at using critical-thinking skills to make a wise decision.
You don’t have to spend a dime on a psychologist in order to strengthen your brain. In fact, all you have to do is to follow these mental exercises that can help you recharge while in the hospital for any reason.
- Develop a new hobby.
Being stuck in a hospital can be a quite mundane and boring experience. Over time, you become quite familiar with the hospital routines of nurses checking in on you every hour to give medications or check your IV fluid, and sometimes the same old TV shows can be tiresome. However, there can be a solution to that—developing a new hobby. You can indulge in knitting, cross-stitching, and maybe even blog your progress. These hobbies can play a huge role in allowing you to renew your zest for your life and keep your brain active. Developing a new hobby rewires your brain as it encourages a new pattern to form. As you learn something new, your neurotransmitters connect with each other— strengthening you mentally.
- Play board games with your friends and family.
Playing board games can enhance your cognitive skills and not only that, it strengthens your bond with your family.
- Read a new book.
Reading a new book is another healthy habit to form, as it can help you be part of a world outside of your own. Try to indulge yourself in a genre that’s outside of your comfort zone—be it fiction, non-fiction, politics, and even something as youthful as Young Adult (YA) books. Reading entertains you, improves your vocabulary, and allows you to let the time pass by while in the hospital.
- Play video games.
Playing video games does not only introduce your eyes to different scenery outside the four walls of your hospital, but it also introduces your brain to situations that require critical thinking skills to solve. As each stage becomes more difficult, your mind becomes more challenged to make strategic choices in order to overcome the obstacles.
These mental exercises will help you invest your time in something more worthwhile than simply sitting in bed and watching the television. And, if you’re concerned about what landed you in the hospital in the first place, click here to learn more about environmental law from the experts. Make sure you and your family won’t ever be hospitalized again due to contamination in your own home.