Many men are devoted to exercise to bulk up their bodies, but the phrase “use it or lose it” applies to more than just the muscles in our bodies -- it also applies to the neural pathways and connections in our brains. There are a variety of exercises and activities that can successfully work each of the brain’s five major cognitive functions on a daily basis. In addition to the tasks you can perform daily, you can also train your brain with HAPPYneuron online brain games and a personalized brain fitness program.

Our minds consist of five main cognitive functions:

* memory,
* attention,
* language,
* visual-spatial skills,
* and executive function.

It’s important to challenge, stimulate and effectively exercise all five areas to stay mentally sharp as our brains age. Here are 5 daily brain exercises that can help you do this.

1- Memory

Memory plays a crucial role in all cognitive activities, including reading, reasoning and mental calculation. There are several types of memory at work in the brain. Taken together, these are the cognitive skills we may notice most when they begin to fail. To maintain a good memory, you need to train for it, which can be easier than you think. Listening to music is not only enjoyable, but by choosing a song you don’t know and memorizing the lyrics, you boost the level of acetylcholine, the chemical that helps build your brain, and improve your memory skills. Challenge yourself even more by showering or getting dressed in the dark or using your opposite hand to brush your teeth. These challenges help build new associations between different neural connections of the brain.

2- Attention

Attention is necessary in nearly all daily tasks. Good attention enables you to maintain concentration despite noise and distractions and to focus on several activities at once. We can improve our attention by simply changing our routines. Change your route to work or reorganize your desk -- both will force your brain to wake up from habits and pay attention again. As we age, our attention span can decrease, making us more susceptible to distraction and less efficient at multitasking. By combining activities like listening to an audio book with jogging or doing math in your head while you drive forces your brain to work at doing more in the same amount of time

3- Language

Language activities will challenge our ability to recognize, remember and understand words. They also exercise our fluency, grammatical skills and vocabulary. With regular practice, you can expand your knowledge of new words and much more easily retrieve words that are familiar. For example, if you usually only thoroughly read the sports section, try reading a few in-depth Business articles. You’ll be exposed to new words, which are easier to understand when read in context or easier to look up on a dictionary site if you are reading the news online. Take time to understand the word in its context, which will help you build your language skills and retrieve the word more readily in front of your boss in the future.

4- Visual-Spatial

We live in a colorful, three-dimensional world. Analyzing visual information is necessary to be able to act within your environment. To work this cognitive function, try walking into a room and picking out five items and their locations. When you exit the room, try to recall all five items and where they were located. Too easy? Wait two hours and try to remember those items and their locations. The next time you’re waiting on your coworker or friend to arrive, try this mental exercise. Look straight ahead and note everything you can see both in front of you and in your peripheral vision. Challenge yourself to recall everything and write it down. This will force you to use your memory and train your brain to focus on your surroundings.

5- Executive Function

Without even realizing it, you use your logic and reasoning skills on a daily basis to make decisions, build up hypotheses and consider the possible consequences of your actions. Activities in which you must define a strategy to reach a desired outcome and calculate the right moves to reach the solution in the shortest possible time are actually fun activities you do daily -- like social interaction and, yes, video games. Engaging in a brief visit with a friend boosts your intellectual performance by requiring you to consider possible responses and desired outcomes. Video games require strategy and problem-solving to reach a desired outcome -- like making it to the final level. “It’s not just Halo, honey; I’m exercising my executive brain functions!”

cerebral workout

As we age, it’s important to flex our mental muscles as well as our physiques. Now that you’re aware of the five main cognitive functions and how to exercise them, it will be easy to find daily activities that will help you break a mental sweat and keep your brain in shape. If you need a little structured help, HAPPYneuron has fun and challenging games to work the brain in all five areas, as well as a virtual coach to serve as a personal trainer and ensure you get the most optimal brain workout for you.

许多人致力于训练强壮他们的身体，但是短语使用或者失去它更多的应用于我们的身体肌肉，它也应用天我们的大脑神经系统与连接。有一种训练与活动能很成功的作用于人脑的一个日常基本认知功能。除了你日常完成的任务，你也可以用快乐神经系统在线大脑运动来训练你的大脑及应用一个个人化的大脑适应计划。

我们的思想由五个主要的认知功能组成：

记忆，注意力，语言，视觉空间技能及执行功能。

挑战，刺激和有效训练所有五个区域来保持我们大脑的心理年龄是很重要的.以下有五个日常大脑训练来帮助你做到这些。

1--记忆 记忆在所有认知活动中扮演着重要角色，包括阅读，推理和大脑测算。有几种形式的记忆在大脑中发挥作用。综合起来，这些认知技巧也许是我们最应该注意到的当他们失去作用时。为了保持一个好的记忆，你需要为此作出训练，这个比你想像到的更容易。听音乐不仅让人愉悦，但是通过选择一首你不知道的歌和记忆歌词，能促进忆酰胆碱的水平，及帮助建立你的大脑的化学成分，提高你的记忆技巧。通过在黑暗中穿衣服及反手刷牙你可以挑战自己。这些挑战有助于建立不同的大脑神经连接及新的联结。

2注意力

在几乎所有的日常任务中记忆是必需的。好的注意力可以使你保持高度集中除了噪声与打扰外，你可以立刻集中精力于几个活动中。我们可以简单的通过改变我们的路径来提高我们的注意力。改变你的工作路线或者重组你的硬盘，也包括使你的大脑从习惯中醒过来又开始集中注意力。随着年龄的增长，我们的注意范围会下降，在执行多个任务时我们更易分心。效率更低。通过听慢跑时听音频文件或者心算数学题你会迫使你的大脑在同样的时间里做更多的工作。

3语言 语言活动会挑战我们的认知能力，记忆理解单词的能力。他们也可以训练我们的流畅性，语法技巧和词汇。有着正常的训练，你能拓展你的新词知识更容易的找回你熟悉的单词。举例来说，如果你经常只是通过阅读体育部分来试着阅读更深的商业文章。你可能会能那些新单词更容易来理解并且更容易去翻阅词典当你通过上下文当你阅读在线新闻时你能更容易的查到字典。花时间去理解上下文的单词含义有助于你建立你的语言技巧和更容易的在你未来的老板面前找到新单词。

4视觉空间

我们居住在一个丰富多采的三维立体世界里。分析视觉是必需的它可以在你的环境里有所动作。为了使这种认知功能有效。试着进入一个房间找出五个项目及它们的定位，当你退出房间时，尽量回忆起所有这五个项目及它们所处的位置。很容易？等两个小时并尽量的记得这些个项目及他们所处的位置。下次你就等着你的同事及朋友到来，试试这个心里测试。看着前方注意你面前的每一件事你能看到你前面和你的周围视野。挑战你自己来回忆每一件事并把它们记下来。这个会使你使用自己的记忆及训练你的大脑来注意你的环境。

5--执行功能

你用你的逻辑及推理技巧在日常基础中作决定，建立一个假设用考虑一个你行动的可能次序。在一个你必须定义一个策略来达到想要的收入的活动里你要计算出一个正确的步骤来达到最少可能的时间里解决问题，这些实际上是你日常生活中很有趣的活动，就像一些社会作用和视频游戏。与朋友从事一个简短的访问会促进你的智力活动通过要求你考虑可能的反应和希望的收入。视频游戏要求策略和解决问题来达到一个希望的收入。像使它达到最后的水平。它并不仅仅是一个光环，我正在训练我的大脑执行功能。

大脑训练

随着年龄的增长，弯曲我们的体格肌肉就像我们的体格一样重要。现在你意识到了五个主要的认知功能及怎么训练他们，就会很容易的发现日常的活动能有助于你打破心里上的障碍使你的大脑保持成形。如果你需要一点建设中的帮助，快乐神经系统有有趣和挑战性的游戏来使大脑在五个区域工作，就像一个实际上的教练来服务于一个个人的训练者来确保你能得到最理想的大脑训练。