Jeopardy question: How do you keep your mind stimulated?
Ok, there’s two parts to this – the physiological and the spiritual. The physiological part has to do with, essentially, blood flow. You keep your pump (the heart) strong, and it in turn nourishes the organs. With poor blood flow you get ischemia – tissue damage caused by poor perfusion. With no blood flow, you get an infarct – dead tissue. Miocardial infarct = heart attack. Cerebral infarct = stroke. Neither of these are reversable.
So how do you prevent this? Simple – stay active. Exercise and keep your heart strong so it can pump nutrients to your brain. Seems simple enough, no? The good news is that you can do this at any point in life and reap the benefits. The bad news is that if you let your body deteriorate too much, it’ll become more and more difficult maximize cerebral perfusion.
Why am I thinking about this? Because I’m in a bit of a rut and I want to break out. All the gyms closed down five months ago so I’m learning to exercise using my bodyweight as resistance. I’m still adjusting, but I’m nothing if not adaptable. Fortunately, I’ve spent my entire adult life exercising. So even though I’m not the most robust specimen, and I often feel like my body’s trying to kill me, I’m still in very good shape.
Part two is probably the most important thing for me to focus on to stimulate my mind – going to the well. More on that tomorrow.