Some days I think I'm losing my mind...or, at least, the damn thing works in slow motion (come to think of it, it did that in my younger days, too...especially after a night out gaining all that lusty-life experience). But, as I have entered the Autumn of my life, those days seem to be occurring more frequently!

So, how do we writers keep our minds in better condition, especially as we age gracefully (or not so gracefully) ?

Delia Lloyd, writing for Huffington Post, gives us 5 excellent tips:

I had a senior moment the other day. I was talking to my daughter about my elementary school, and I started listing my teachers one by one. But when I got to fifth grade, I drew a complete blank. I could envision the lady perfectly -- plump, jolly, liked to wear purple -- and even remembered that her name began with an "F." But for the life of me, I couldn't remember her name.

I can be forgiven this lapse, of course. It was, after all, 35 years ago (cough). But it was another sign that as we age, our memories aren't quite what they once were.

In that spirit, here are five tips for keeping your brain active as you age:

1. Work. Pay no attention to all those French people behind the curtain, striking their hearts out because Nicolas Sarkozy is about to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. New research reported in the New York Times last week shows that postponing retirement is actually better for your brain. Coining the phrase "mental retirement" to capture what happens when your brain is no longer getting regular exercise, the study shows that retired people as a group tend to do less well on cognitive and memory tests than people who are still working.

2. Walk. But in case you'd still prefer to be living on the beach at 65 rather than toiling away in an office cubicle, be sure that you walk a lot in paradise. Another study out last week shows that walking at least six miles a week may be one thing people can do to keep their brains from shrinking and fight off dementia. Which is good news for me, even in my newfound hip, urban status as the owner of a collapsible bike. One thing that not owning a car really does is get you used to good, vigorous walks.

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