What are you doing to keep your mind healthy?

As Americans age, brain health is going to be at the very top of everything we do. A healthy body and a healthy brain go hand in hand. In fact, most nutritionists and health experts say that whatever is good for your heart is also good for your mind.

Here are somethings we can do to promote brain health.

First, we can seek good nutrition for both our heart and our mind. If it’s true that what is good for the heart is good for the mind, then we need to be thinking about what we are eating for the sake of a healthy mind.

Second, give your mind a variety of exercises. As my mother aged, she taught me about Sodoku. She loved it and found that it stimulated her mind in different ways from simply the reading that she loved. Don’t give up on learning, and don’t let technology get ahead of you.

Third, read. Reading widely helps us to stimulate our minds as well as keeping us up to date. For ministers, this is simply indispensable. As the world continues to change and to do so at a faster and faster pace, our ministries will be dependent on a healthy mind filled with up-to-date stories and illustrations and an understanding of how the world works.

Fourth, develop your gifts. In the same way a golfer or runner should continue to be better, those who lead the church (by ministers and laity) should continue to develop the gifts God has given you.

Fifth, submit all that you think and do to the Lordship of Christ. You can’t do anything more important than this. Remember, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV).

Above all else for your mind, be a life-long learner. As Jimmy Draper famously said, “Don’t quit until you finish.”