Saturday, April 10
By Katherine Schneider, for the CV Post
Are you as sharp as you were a year ago?
An article I read recently in The Atlantic gave the name “smooth brain” to a phenomenon I’d been noticing – poor concentration and fuzzy thinking induced by the pandemic. I’m not talking about the extreme fatigue and brain fog common to many COVID-19 survivors, but a low level of distractedness, forgetfulness and mild cognitive impairment caused by the anxieties, boredom, depression, stress and isolation we’re all dealing with.
How to function in the pre-pandemic world seems to have popped out of our brains. Hopefully it’ll pop back in as we venture forth more and more, but I’m working to rough up the old gray matter in a few fun ways:
- Ten minutes a day playing word games like “The Daily Connection”, “Puzzle a Day”, “Puzzler” and a couple of trivia games on Alexa.
- Aerobic exercise at least three times a week (it does get that blood flowing to the old gray matter).
- Eating fish and other “brain foods” intentionally (fish on Friday for a couple of reasons!).
- Pushing myself to do some safe socializing even though it’s easier to say “no thanks.”
- Trying to talk out political and interpersonal issues a bit with friends in addition to the chatter about have you gotten your shots?
- Thinking about a second year of pandemic living, including keeping this column fresh and relevant.
- Working on a poem about positive uses of the word “old” – like “old dogs” and “old growth forest” to give a friend who is not so pleased about growing older
If you’d like to rough up your brain cells and send me an email (at schneiks@uwec.edu) with a positive use of the word “old,” or an idea for a future column, I’d be most grateful!