Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts

Monday, October 15, 2012

5 Green Ways to Enjoy Fall Fun

As I wrote about last month, fall is one of my favorite seasons and is full of fun activities that I always look forward to. Most of these are outdoor activities, related to farms or harvesting, and are actually very earth-friendly.

These activities include picking apples or visiting a pumpkin patch, or going to an actual farm for pumpkins or to go through a corn maze. These on-farm activities allow you to support a local farmer or business, to eat and shop locally, and increasingly, to find organic apples and other produce.

As I wrote before, decorating the house for fall is one of my favorite things. And, what makes it even more enjoyable for me it that I don’t have to use fake items, but instead, can use the pumpkins, gourds, apples, and corn stalks I get from these farms. I add other natural items like pinecones and leaves, and create an autumn wreath, or make a simple yet colorful decoration by filling a basket or bowl with various decorative gourds, different varieties (and colors) of corn, cornhusks, mini-pumpkins, and other hard-shelled squash.

Another of my favorite activities, and one of the most popular, is “leaf peeping” (going to see the fall foliage), even if all that means is a walk outside. If you live in an area that’s close enough to hike or bike to, consider doing that instead of driving there. Or research whether there’s a spot that you can park and then hike up to it.

When you are visiting a local farm, park, or natural area to see the vibrant colors of leaves changing or to get that perfect pumpkin, do your best to enjoy the outdoors responsibly by minimizing your impact to the environment. Clean up after yourself and pick up your trash. Try to leave no trace that you were even there.

Since it is now football season and tailgating is often part of the fun, make sure you are a green tailgater. Clean up after yourself and recycle as much of the trash as you can. And think about drinking some local beers from your favorite micro-brewery, or buying local grass-fed beef for any steaks and burgers.

Read more: Environment, Food, Green, Halloween, Holidays, Nature, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Activities, apple picking, fall, fall foliage, pumpkins, tailgating

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Source : care2[dot]com

Monday, October 8, 2012

Exercises for Improving Memory

Experts are certain that we need to “exercise” our brain all the time

improve-memory

Memory plays a crucial role in all cognitive activities

Our brain consists of several cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, producing and understanding language. Experts are certain that to keep them in shape, it is important to constantly stimulate and “exercise” them.

For better memory

Memory plays a crucial role in all cognitive activities, including reading, thinking and mental evaluation.
Listening to music is pleasing to the senses, but can be also beneficial for the brain. Select a song with unfamiliar text for you and then memorize the lyrics. This will increase the level of acetylcholine, which helps build the brain and improves memory skills.
Do you want to challenge yourself! Brush your teeth with your other hand, take a shower and get dressed in the dark. Such exercises help to build new connections between nerve connections in the brain.

Attention

Our attention is needed for almost all daily tasks. Well-developed attention allows you to maintain concentration despite noise and distractions, and focus on several activities at once.
We can improve our attention by changing some normal activities. You can do simple things like changing your route when you go to work or reorganize your desk more often.
As we age, attention may be reduced, which makes us more susceptible to distraction and less efficient in performing several tasks at the same time. By combining activities like listening to an audio book with jogging or solving simple mathematical equations while driving, you will stimulate your brain activity and improve your concentration.

Language

Language activities will challenge our ability to recognize and understand the words, and remember them. Exercises are good for smoothness and ease of speech, grammar skills and vocabulary.
With regular practice, we can expand our knowledge of new words and make it much easier to remember the previously learned ones. For example, if you usually only read the sports section, try to read some in-depth business articles or other material from a field unknown to you. You can find new words. Take the time to understand them in the context. This helps to build language skills.


Source : dailyhealtharticles[dot]com