Psychology: With these factors you can influence your mental age

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In advance in the video: Healthy aging: 5 tips that keep the brain fit

You are as young as you feel, you say so beautiful. But there is something there. Because how we tick internally, what skills we have, does not always make 1: 1 together with our biological age. There are far more factors here than a mere date. Find out more here.

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Do you know that too? The birthday is pending and you look at the new number of years of life and think: Actually, do I still feel like I was 15 years younger? I feel the same way every year. The older I get, the less my biological age matches my attitude to life.

But ultimately that is exactly a phenomenon that is encouraging. That it is not just about the date of birth when it comes to how we feel.

It always means that you are as young as you feel. And here we come to the concept of mental age.

That is behind the term "mental age"

Our mental ageSay something about the performance of our brain. In comparison to our biological age. For this, our skills in areas such asPerception, learning, memory, judgmentandProblem solvingToted and evaluated.

Unlike the, this is not about the physical aspects, in short how old the body and its functions are, but solely about cognitive performance.

The concept was originally known by the French psychologistAlfred BinetDeveloped to assess the intellectual development of children.

Today this concept is used to evaluateHow we stay mentally fit in the course of our lives- or not. Because it turns out that the mental age does not automatically have to correspond to our actual age. Whether our mental age is younger or older than our biological age depends on how life, learn and demand mentally.

This is how the mental age is determined

In order to determine the mental age, the mental performance is compared with the average of other people in the same age. In this way, it can be assessed whether your own cognitive skills are developed in terms of age, above average or below average.

These factors influence your mental age

There are several influences that ensure that we stay mentally young. Here are the most important factors:

  • Education: The more we learn, be it at school, study or in everyday life, the better it is for our mental fitness. The fact is: learning and knowledge keeps the brain fit and young.
  • Nutrition: Diet also has an impact on our brain. Therefore it is important to have a balanced, vitamin -rich oneto pay attention.
  • lifestyle: The healthy classics also have an impact on our mental age. Regular exercise, sufficient sleep and reduced handling of luxury foods (such as alcohol) are positive for our mental fitness.
  • : This point is also a permanent topic in terms of health: permanent stress. Because too much negative stress can affect not only health, but also intellectual performance in the long run.
  • Social environment: Loneliness is unhealthy. That has long been known. But it also has an impact on our mental age. A supporting environment, conversations, closeness and emotional security ensure that people stay mentally fit for longer.
  • Mental challenges: Be it a simple sudoku, podcasts on exciting topics, a new hobby or creative activities: everything that calls your own thinking is good for mental age.

Conclusion: We have an impact on our mental age

So the good news is: we are in our hands to do something for our mental fitness. Even if we are getting older and have to accept our biological age, we can still do something to feel younger.

We can consciously use the much -praised healthy lifestyle and regular mental challenges for ourselves. And it's always worth it. Staying mentally fit and brisk until old age is so much more important than a wrinkle -free face. In this sense: do something for your mental health.

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