You know that amazing feeling when you have a bad itch and you scratch yourself with your nails? It is so satisfying. Similarly, the brain can have a bad itch as well and what it needs then is some brain scratching. The older you get the more your interests change. What was once interesting is suddenly not. It might even be exhausting to think about or deal with. That’s when the elderly start to retract from life. They cannot deal with the things that made up their life and would gladly pass the torch on to their loved ones.
Once that happens, the brain starts to be less stimulated therefore rusty. Scratching the brain is a means to delay the rustiness of the brain. Scratching the brain is defined as something that either deeply engages the mind, that gets a strong emotional response or provides great satisfaction like scratching an itch.
Have you ever been the target of constant ads on your smart phone while you are in the middle of something on one of your applications. Often the ads are for brain games. Stimulating ones that grab your curiosity and force you to download the game just for fun. Before you know it you are addicted and spending hours playing around. While it’s distracting, at the same time it’s engaging. That’s why games are catered to stimulate the brain. Especially the elderly brain. If you are struggling with staying connected to your life as you age and you feel like you are becoming rusty, you need to find ways to stay connected or engaged. Games are perfect for that. They keep you busy rather than idle. An idle mind leads to more problems.
Ideally, this brain scratching shouldn’t always be done alone in the privacy of home or your gadget. Ideally your elderly self should be interacting with others. However, when that’s difficult, being open to keeping yourself engaged independently has great rewards.
Brain scratching can be a sensory pleasure. Any activity that requires touch. The sensation that results from touching something can be so stimulating and satisfying. For example, gardening can be therapeutic which is why it is encouraged. Feeling the breeze or feeling the heat. Breathing fresh air. The sensation of the hands in the soil. Watering plants and using gardening tools to tend the plants. All these actions give easy sensory pleasure for the elderly.
Brain scratching can also be anything that would move you emotionally. An activity like listening to your favorite music always results in emotional stimulation. Some songs make you smile while others trigger some tears. A good book or reading something simple like the newspaper can give you joy. Such activities keep that deep rooted part of your personality still alive.
Solving a problem has always been a gratifying feeling. It makes you feel like your brain is sharp enough to think. When you can provide an answer to a nagging thought in your brain it gives such relief. Encourage yourself to make decisions. Add and subtract. Evaluate things. Stay informed even if someone else is helping manage things. Just because you have help doesn’t mean you should give up. The most common and easy habit of the times is to ask the younger people around you to do it for you.
“My phone is glitching can you see what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how to edit this document, can you do it for me?”
“This isn’t working, can you figure it out for me?”
Within minutes the younger people have solved the problems and hand your phone back to you. One, you haven’t learned anything from it and two, you have denied yourself the satisfaction of problem solving.
Brain scratching is beneficial to health period. The most obvious benefits are it improves your mood and reduces stress. While some brain scratching can be relaxing other times it encourages new innovative thinking. When brain scratching activities are done with others it keeps you bonded and promotes social connections. All in all, brain scratching allows for better cognitive health in the long run. If age affects cognitive health then stimulating the brain is the best exercise so go scratch that brain!