Ronni, I got so much from your look at this chapter, and it made me feel good to know that my current obsession with childhood and family memories isn't some whim of someone over the hill. I do agree with you that memory games just for the sake of invigorating my brain are boring to me, but research on something I'm interested in can absolutely mesmerize me.

Catching up with this book this week. I took the quiz in the intro and apparently I'm doing okay.

Doing it made me aware that I am seeking not so much "longevity" as having as good a life as I can while I can. Aging to me means no longer being able to pretend I'm immortal. :-) I don't like that, but I can't do anything about it either.

On the mental acuity front, I was thrilled yesterday to make a tidbit of HTML code work on my blog that has stumped me for about 4 years. Nothing fancy, but I'd never figured it out before.

After rereading my comment, it appears I could use some spelling mental stimulation.

Truly, I can spell folks, I just get in a hurry...

You'd better stop that snickering...I know yo mamma....

I have a schoolmate friend who can remember the names of every teacher she had from first grade through graduation. She remembers the names of classmates and 'who dated whom.' I am doing good to remember the names of a few favorite teachers. She was shocked that I couldn't remember the name of my home room teacher in Jr. High. I responded, "Why would I want to?" That was an 'aha' moment for me because I had started to think there was something wrong with my mind since her memory was so much better than mine. Trivia and gossip always interested her and it never did me. Therefore, I simply forgot what wasn't important to me.

Now I have a new worry. It is really beginning to bother me. I will be typing along and a word I know perfectly well goes missing. Sometimes it's the name of my Senator, or an adjective that is on the 'tip of my mind'. And I reach for my Thesaurus a lot to find a word with a similar meaning to jog my memory.

Yesterday I was writing an e-mail and the word I wanted was 'memoirs.' Could I bring it to my conscious mind? Not on your life. I had to substitute with 'family history'. Today the word comes to my mind easily. Am I losing it? Is this the beginning of dementia? I am fearful.

I don't worry if I am like the old woman who was asked, "Do you give any thought to the hereafter?" and she replied, "Oh, yes, every time I go into
a room I think, what am I here after?"
That kind of memory lapse is common and easily explained. But forgetting words that you know perfectly well is a new phenomenon and I feel stress.

I do not have Dr. Butler's book so I am probably not participating well on the subject. But, being a very old lady, I am interested and will contribute what I can.

I do fear losing my memory. I'm aware that it are tottering along at the right speed but I'm worrywart, and I'm pretty sure excessive worry is one of those brain scramblers. Got some work to do here, eek, work. I was very interested in the cognitive calisthenics but as with all other kinds of calisthentics I am kind of lazy unless there's a goal, finishing a book, learning something I wanted to know. I get bored plodding along the blocks in my neighborhood without motivation such as company or NPR on my headphones. I still haven't signed up for the free month at our local YMCA that I said I was doing last week. Today, today. So I signed up for a site called AWAD, A Word A Day. Today's word was "orison," new to me, meaning a prayer. They email you a new word each day. This is a second sign up for me because I wasn't even bothering to read that. Tiny steps are us, and are good.

Life review, at first I thought I was having huge attack of guilt, I shoulda, I shoulda, or should not have, but I eventually forgave myself, although I did discuss some of it with my grown sons, particularly remarrying their alcoholic Dad. That attempt to reconstruct our family put us all through as even worse second divorce. They both said "not a good move" but they both had some good memories of him at that time. The youngest adding "please don't ever do that again." The point (do I have one?) is that I can I am restructuring myself in my world and those memories and others, good and not so so, have helped me to know myself better at time when I'm not rushing from home to work to kids to classes, to kids, to work...I am busy but I have the time to thoughtful, and hopefully make better choices. Maybe I am slow to move into those choices to compensate for those younger days when I had to choose a lot on the fly and for reasons other than my own. Well, now my brain is tired, ha, ha.

What my husband and I say is you've got to keep moving to stay alive, much as the shark does.
I think fast food or pre-prepared food and television are the two worst things for old people's mental and physical health. All those ads for hamburgers and pills. And depressing news stories. Fix your own food. Walk a lot. Stay away from the mass media, which are designed to make you feel like hell about yourself.

Some part of memory loss may be attributable to lack of paying enough attention. I have always had a problem with remembering names, probably because I am more interested in saying my name than registering the new acquaintance. So I now do a little exercise when reading my "recreational" books - action, mindless, fast moving. I make a conscious effort to remember the names of each player in the story. I even quiz myself before picking up the book again to see what I remember. I have gotten better by this conscious effort to concentrate and remember what I am reading.

What I got was excited about the Guided Autobiography Groups concept. I once participated in such a group, though it wasn't guided -- just about 10 folks sharing stories weekly around a table for 2 hrs. It was motivating and fascinating. I'm going to get James Birren's book and explore doing something like that at our wintering place in Texas.

I've always needed to be physically active and involved in something productive. So these days, in my 74th year, I ride my bike and walk (had to quit jogging at 65) when my sore heel allows. I get lost in interesting online discoveries, prefer healthy foods (retired dietitian), keep my weight at 5#'s more than I really like, get lots of sleep, read 2 newspapers and mystery novels and do too many Sudukos (addicted). I retired from being super volunteer at my church by moving, but I do try to contribute my time here and there. Improvements: I could work at making more friends, having lost close friends by moving far away, learn to meditate, and drink a little less wine. I expect to live another 20 yrs if my dicky heart hangs in there. Goal: "Longevity Prescription" poster girl.

Alzheimer's - Long ago people died way before our age(s)!
As far as "forgetting" a word now and then, I'm no longer annoyed now that I know it's the new "normal" and if I just sit tight it'll float to the surface of my brain! Ta-da! There it is! I knew it was in there!
And names of people: I've never been good with names. Now people go,"Ah ha!" And I go, "No Ah-ha!! I've always been this way".
What really freaked me out was reading that back in the 50's the doctors, professionals and people in general thought that elders reminiscing was a sign of senile psychosis. Good grief!
I hope they are training our future caretakers a whole lot better.

I did have fun playing with Luminosity, discovered via Dr Butler's book, for a few days until I had to pay!

Have discovered how "nature abhors a vaccuum"....since retiring (almost), have found myself becoming an activist and moving quite outside of my comfort zone. I had been planning to do all this reading, and painting, and ..... "when I retired". Guess I'm busy keeping my mind active. Tomorrow Ill be the "guest columist" on the opinion page of our newspaper, where I expound on how we should be allowing the keeping of backyard chickens in our small town as an antidote to things like the recent salmonella outbreak. I find it truly amazing how I feel more alive than ever and awaken in the early a.m. thinking of all the things I should be doing to "save the planet". I'm drawn to things such as taking a master gardeneer class, building a rain barrel, learning how to solar cook.

My sixties have thus far been some of the best years of my life, intellectually. I am beginning to wonder how many years will this energy continue--10? More? Less? I don't know, but am certainly working at doing what I can to keep those neurons firing, including the so important work on keeping physically fit.

Then energizer bunny must run down at some point--that does make me a bit anxious, and sad.

Dr Butler's comments on the loss of intellectual & social stimulation plus the loss of purpose really struck home. Even though I thought I'd intellectually prepared myself for retirement - it has taken me six years of struggle to come to terms with it - I've resisted being just "busy" and have a range of interests but am still searching for a "community of minds" - finding TGB recently has been very helpful

This chapter sparked a wonderful idea for 'cognitive calisthenics': memorizing favorite passages from Shakespeare, five to ten lines at a time.

This is the third morning I've devoted 15 minutes to this exercise. I've been doing it with my morning coffee, and it's a marvelous way to start the day. (I'm starting with the Chorus speeches from Henry V, which are dazzlingly, breathtakingly good.)

I'm still working fulltime as a reporter and personal finance columnist, so my brain gets plenty of daily exercise already. But I think Dr. Butler is right about the importance of incorporating new activities into our daily lives.

For me, Shakespeare has been a lifelong passion. So this is something I already know and love. But it's also a challenge and an intense pleasure to commit to memory passages I don't yet know by heart. (Naturally, this involves reciting the words aloud, savoring their beauty and richness.)

Like Ronni, I've never been particularly attracted to 'brain games' for their own sake. To me, this is a perfect solution. It's not a HUGE challenge (I memorized many passages in my youth, and Shakespeare is easy to learn by heart) so it won't become frustrating. I can take it at whatever pace I want. It engages my emotions as well as my mind. And it's rewarding both in process and in outcome.

My recommendation for everyone who has outgrown crossword puzzles: Memorize some of the work of your favorite poet. It feels great!

I'm not much of a mind-improvement games fan. I suppose they do some good, but I'd rather read, walk or post responses on TGB and the several other blogs I contribute to (some may question the term contribute). I also still work part time which definitely helps keep me on my game.

I just bought Dr. Butler's book and have skimmed through it (with the intent to read it more thoroughly over time). He has some great strategies, and they certainly worked for him because he lived a full life right up to his demise at age 88.

At this point I'm with Hattie, Technobabe and Rain: keep putting one foot in front of the other, engage in intelligent debate with your spouse or partner, if you have one (my husband and I debate the "state of the nation" all the time, discouraging though it may be in the age of Limbaugh, Beck and Palin) and beware information overload!

I learnt from this post we cannot let our minds rot.There are many ways to stay mentally active and often we just need to take the first step.I read,write and for fun play Jeopardy and beat my husband on a daily basis(in this game only)
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I've not gotten into crossword puzzles or other games much, but I love research, blogging, writing song lyrics, memorizing poems and pieces from my musical play on aging and other literature, writing memoir essays, reading memoir, philosophy and poetry, performing and public speaking. Sometimes names, titles of books or movies or particular words are not immediately available. I tell myself and whoever I am talking with, It's there, I just have to rustle the cards in the filing cabinet to get it moving up to the front. That in itself helps to stimulate recovery it seems. The filing system is full of info and it takes a bit longer to access it at times.