This guest blog post is contributed by Boomerater, a free online resource for Baby Boomers helping you find everything from a financial advisor to a great vacation idea. Seniors for Living contributes its senior housing properties to Boomerater’s local directories including Arizona assisted living, Florida Alzheimer’s care and more.

A new Q&A discussion from Boomerater’s forums appears here each Friday. In this week’s post, readers tell us about their favorite brain games, and what they do to keep their mind sharp.

Boomerater Question: Word puzzlers, card games, mind twisters. What’s your favorite brain exercise, and is there any evidence it keeps those neurons firing away?

Responses from other Boomerater members:

• I’m addicted to Facebook’s Pathwords….though I’m not sure if it keeps those neurons firing.
• Doing Sudoku puzzles is a wonderful way to exercise the brain. I do them online or I print them and work on them at lunchtime, while waiting in a doctor’s office, etc. You can start with the easy puzzles and work up to the advanced ones. Try it!
• Luckily, my work keeps my brain going as if on a high-wire; constantly learning new skills on the computer. But, when I want to challenge my brain to “create new pathways”, something which conventional wisdom once said couldn’t be done, I try brushing my teeth with my left hand. It’s not pretty, but the belief is that it takes approximately 21 daily repetitions for the brain to think it’s learning something new and that it’s time to create a new pathway. Things like that (feeding yourself lefty, working out with weights while standing on one foot) are all considered brain exercise. There is a lot of research to back this up, so those of you who can’t handle the Sunday crossword puzzle might want to try this method.
• I try to do the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. It gets more difficult as the week progresses. I feel good when I finish one quickly. I hope it is helping to keep my mind sharp.
• Reading book reviews on “Good Reads”, B&N, Harriet Klausner. Gives me great ideas/reviews on what to read, and generally leads me to having 10 books lined up on my nightstand. Only trouble is I fall asleep after 15 minutes of reading at bedtime!

To read more responses from Boomerater members and to share your own suggestions, go to the Boomerater post: What are your favorite brain exercises?