A Better Mind, One Day at a Time

I just finished reading small change: Little Things Make a Big Difference by Susan and Larry Terkel. They discuss incremental changes you can do to create and improve your life. Here are a few of their ideas to help keep your mind healthy.

Doing Something You Love

The Terkels refer to this as having a “passionate pursuit.” If you do not have a hobby, activity or subject you truly enjoy doing, spend some time thinking about this, hone in on one thing that really interests you and start doing it, even on a small scale. You will be focused, involved, and happy. Now that we can spend time outside, consider bicycling, , ,  or ! All of these activities will help clear your mind and you will be enjoying nature.

Read More

This may be a challenge for some of us, but is well worth the rewards. Expand your horizons by reading a few pages of a good book every day. If you read only two pages a day, you will read 730 pages in a year! Visit our libraries ( and ).

Improve Your Vocabulary

Animate your conversations with new words. One word a day may be ambitious, but how about one word a week? You will pick up fifty-two new words by the end of a year. An easy way to accomplish this task is to combine reading more with learning new words. Your mind will be active in more ways than one!

Use Your Memory

Once upon a time, memorizing poems, passages, prayers, speeches and sharing them was important. This is no longer taught or considered valuable. However, the Terkels remind us that memorization exercises your brain and gives you the opportunity to “inspire and entertain others.” Why not find a short poem, speech or passage you like and commit it to memory? If this is too daunting, memorize the words to a favorite song!

Debbie’s Daily Dose of Food for Thought

“Memory: a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things.” Pierce Harris, Writer and Methodist Minister

I think that most of the time we can control what shore we visit. Our memories, after all, are personal experiences coloring the world as we see it. Why not focus on making good memories starting today? This is one small change we are all capable of doing.