Just like exercising keeps your body in prime shape, exercising your brain keeps it sharp and ready for anything. You can get it out of the weight room and into the gym, so to speak. Keeping your brain active will give you a focus and energy that is very conducive to completing tasks and keeping up with tough challenges.
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Get a Pet
There are many benefits that come with owning pets. These include increased cardiovascular activity (walking to take your dog out), decreased stress (especially if you choose a cuddly pet), and lower blood pressure. Your pets will provide you with unconditional love and companionship.
While all of this can be beneficial to your general health, a pet also provides an opportunity to work your brain. In teaching him/her tricks, you are sharpening your own memory and learning skills. It’s basically like playing a game of chess: you need to plan two or three steps ahead and know what the other person – or animal in this case, will do next.
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Play Board Games
Board games are a great way to develop your memory and critical thinking skills. They challenge your mind by forcing you to remember past moves, what cards opponents hold, and where pieces are located on the board.
Sitting down for an intense game of Monopoly or Scrabble will make you think about strategies, risks/rewards, and probabilities. Since this is a fun and relaxing activity, it can help unscramble your brain and unwind after a long day at work. A bonus is that you will be spending quality time with friends and family, bonding over a shared interest.
You can find a lot of these games online now and can choose whether you want to play with others or alone. This can also prove to be a great way to meet new people and expand your social circle.
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Meat New People
The possibilities of meeting new people are endless! You can find new friends with similar interests while going to an art museum, during your vacation, or while engaging in your online activities. And no, you don’t have to go around talking about quantum mechanics or string theory with everyone you meet (unless you want to). But if you try asking follow-up questions and practicing critical listening skills, you will give your mind a workout that will help you stay sharp.
By asking questions, you force the person to give more thorough answers and think harder about their response. This improves their critical thinking skills as well as their own. When they ask you follow-up questions, they are also exercising their minds and getting some practice at keeping up with tough conversations.
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Play Video Games
Video games have gotten a bad reputation as being mindless time-wasters that take away from other activities such as exercising or reading. However, video games can actually help to improve hand-eye coordination and reaction time.
Many games require you to quickly think and react. This helps you improve your brain’s processing speed and actually makes it work harder than usual. You can also set yourself a goal, such as beating the game in record time or getting through a series of levels without making any mistakes. This is an even greater challenge for your mind and will help you stay sharp.
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Read Fiction
When you read nonfiction, your mind is basically doing research and absorbing new information. While reading, in general, can be beneficial in terms of learning and staying up to date on things that are going on right now, reading fiction can help keep your brain sharp over the long run. The reason for this is because no two novels ever have exactly the same plot.
This means that your mind has to work overtime in order to keep up with the story and characters. It also forces you to think about what might happen next and predict what will occur during a happy ending or sad one. Developing creative skills is another benefit of reading fiction, as readers have to imagine the setting and characters in their heads.
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Take On a New Hobby
One of the best ways to keep your brain sharp is to take on a new hobby. Starting a new hobby doesn’t necessarily have to take up a lot of time or be expensive, either. Depending on what you would like to do, you can pick up a new skill for a very low cost.
For example, if you have an interest in gardening or food preparation, it is easy to start growing plants indoors or learning how to cook your own healthy meals from scratch without spending too much money. These activities also encourage a sense of accomplishment, which can help you relax and unwind after a long day.
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Start a Blog
If you have a particular interest, why not start a blog about it? You might find that you enjoy writing more than you thought and even if this is the case, starting and maintaining your own blog will require some critical thinking skills and may help in terms of problem-solving.
Talking and writing about specific topics can also help you learn more about them, as well as help you rearrange your thoughts into a more cohesive structure. This, in turn, forces you to think about the topic from various angles and consider how it can be explained in a way that is simple yet still informative for your readers. Knowing how to do this can improve your communication skills and help you come up with better ideas.
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Meditate
Many people dismiss meditation as something that is only for spiritual reasons and isn’t practical in the modern world. However, there are various ways to meditate beyond emptying your mind and connecting with your inner being.
For example, using meditation apps can help you improve your focus. These are designed to put you into a relaxed state without making you fall asleep. They also involve visualizing certain images in your head. This can help you react more quickly to events that occur in real life and may even contribute to better memory in the long run, as well as improved thought processes.
Meditation is not only good for helping you relax but also for keeping your brain sharp on a daily basis. The more you do it, the more benefits you will start to notice. This 
There are many simple yet effective things you can do to keep your brain sharp on a daily basis. The benefits of almost all of them include learning more about yourself and others, gaining self-confidence, improving your social interactions, achieving contentment with life in general. With so many gains and little to no downsides, you should always feel encouraged to explore new options and keep yourself engaged.