Words

What is a five letter word for coffee lightener? Crosswords are puzzles of choice for those of you who love words. 

You use words every day to communicate your thoughts and feelings.  Most people simply talk without thinking of the words used. You simply say what is on your mind.  But words have a greater power than asking for or imparting information.  Using words, or your linguistic ability, has been proven to be a good training ground for your brain.

Learning and using new words can increase brain power.  In his ground breaking study  of 678 nuns Dr. David Snowdon describes the importance of linguistic ability as a possible defense against Alzheimer’s Disease.  Dr. Snowdon cites autobiographies of nuns as they entered the convent as a reliable diagnostic tool for predicting which of the nuns was most likely to suffer with Alzheimer’s Disease later in life. I highly recommend "Aging With Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives".  Read this book and learn!

Learning new vocabulary, as a way of exercising your linguistic ability, helps to stimulate neuropathways.  Learning a new language (even simply learning to count to ten) is a good mental workout.  Learning the derivation of words, finding root words, looking for synonyms, antonyms, or palindromes – (a word, phrase or sentence that reads the same backward or forward – example - STRAW and WARTS) provides your brain with mental flexibility and keeps those synapses firing.

Try this: create as many common words as you can, using each of the following letters only once:  A D E I L M N S (I stopped at 41).  Another way to work your brain with words is an exercise I give my students as homework.  They are invited to in remember a list of words.  I begin with four words and build up to ten.  Remember, "use it or lose it!"

Words also have power in that you become what you think.  If you think positive thoughts, you are more likely to develop a positive attitude.  Journaling things you are thankful for is a great way to prepare your mind for a good night’s sleep.

Power also comes from journaling your thoughts.  Journaling becomes cathartic – when you can put something into words, it loses the power to hurt you.  When you write something out, it often helps to clear your mind and order your thoughts.  Writing, reading and reading aloud, often gives you a new perspective on something you have been wrestling with.

I work with a process of writing your autobiography.  People write out segments of their lives according to assigned topics and then share that portion of their lives in a small group setting.  It is amazing what happens when you train your brain to remember segments of your life.  This material may also become a gift to leave to children or grandchildren.  My daughter was delighted to discover aspects of my life that she had never known as she read my weekly assignments.  Words have power –use them wisely.