No matter how simple or complicated they are, you re assured of continued mental fitness. Start by preheating your brain. Here s a basic challenge you can give it. In performing your daily routines switch to the hands that you don t normally use. Say you re a lefty; utilize the right hand in brushing your teeth, controlling the mouse, or even switching channels with the remote. Posner, Psychology professor emeritus from University of Oregon and Yi-Yuan Tang, a professor in the Institute of Neuroinformatics and Laboratory for Body and Mind at Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China, showed that meditation could reduce stress. In their study, a group of people who have performed meditation, a form of brain training, could reduce stress, lessen amount of cortisol released and improve attention within five days of training. Practice Like in physical exercises, practice is the key to eventual improvements of your mental abilities. Do a few of these exercises every day. You will soon discover that you can do more of them later. Through all these, do not forget good nutrition and your regular physical exercises. Good health and good nutrition is a pre-requisite to improving your mental abilities. Moreover, researchers discovered that an extra mile per week can lead to a 13 percent reduction on the chances of having negative cognitive alterations. There s a nice way of making yourself alert amidst the stacks of papers you need to work on. This is also applicable for the mornings when you feel the urge to start your day on the right note. By understanding the stages of cognitive development on children, it would give parents an understanding on when to introduce children into exercises that will develop their cognitive skills. Brain training would help children in organizing and logical thought, reasoning and even executing functions. Emotional balance and healthy lifestyle Emotional balance is usually attained if a person has a healthy outlook in life. A good sense of humor and a healthy sense of curiosity and open-mindedness on everything around make for a good start in a person s emotional balance. Even at an advanced age, a person should always keep a normal healthy lifestyle.