Being Brain Healthy with Ruth Curran: 2BB 047

Coming from you from the Mind Meld Mental Gym at Mensa Headquarters.

The 2 Boomer Broads interview Ruth Curran, author of the book “Being Brain Healthy and How it Can Change Your Life.” Her website is at www.craniumcrunches.com

Ruth is a brain health specialist. She was in a car accident almost 11 years ago and had a traumatic brain injury. She recovered and through her recovery discovered some important skills on brain health. Ruth is a Baby Boomer who has been watching all her contemporaries lose their keys, cell phones, etc. What drives her every single day is being brain healthy.

Many Baby Boomers are scared to death that they have Alzheimer’s but in most instances that’s not the case. There are so many things that we can do to keep our brains healthy but fear often drives us in the wrong direction.

Compare yourself to a 20 year old person. Can you think your way around a problem the way you did back then? It’s most likely that you can solve a problem much easier now.

Younger people forget other people’s names as much as older people do. The difference is, when we were younger we didn’t care as much about it as we do now.

It’s the connections in the brain that cause us to forget things. If we’re as connected, it’s easier for us to forget. Nowadays we are so over stimulated by the Internet, TV, and our lives that it’s easy to forget things.

Ruth’s website Cranium Crunches includes photo based games that lets you solve puzzles in the context of your life. She started Cranium Crunches because her dad developed Parkinson’s disease and Parkinson’s dementia. She was working as a cognitive rehabilitation specialist at the time so she was the perfect person to help him.

She started her dad off by having him look at pictures in Life Magazine that showed various changes. Later she went with her son to a bar and played a photo hunt game. Her brain health business originated in thatbar. There are 8 different games on the site. Ruth’s brain games help you pay attention and focus on expanding your working memory.

It’s helpful to occasionally change your perspective on what you’re looking at. Switch out the route you go to work, change the direction that your toilet paper is hung, or sit in a different seat in a classroom. If are in a stressful situation, you can deflect that stress by taking your attention away from what’s causing it.

Ruth suggests that when you’re working on your computer, take your menu bar and move it to the side. Brush your teeth with your left hand. Work on problem solving and challenge your brain.

Work on your senses. The sense of smell, for example, triggers emotions.

Rebecca says,

“When a woman is in love, you usually love the way your partners underarms smell and want to stick your nose in it. When you fall out of love, he starts to stink.

Think about the rhythm of your breathing and the temperature of your body. Figure about what normal feels like so you know what you’re returning to.

Music can take you to different places and changes your brain waves as well.

For creativity, Ruth uses sensory activities to stimulate her brain. She has a jar that has ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and ground dark chocolate. She opens it up, takes a big whiff and it gives her a calm feeling, putting her brain where it needs to be. It helps her to create better. Lavender, vanilla, lemongrass and warm spices work like that as well. So does aromatherapy.

If you want to remember something important, give it an emotional value.

All of the games on Ruth’s website are free. You wants you to be able to go to the website and play.

Crossword puzzles, bridge, playing games and being social is great. Doing them all is even better. Reading is great but reading out loud is better. Listening to music is wonderful but singing is even better. Go to YouTube. Type in a song that you like and then add the word “lyrics.