I Thought I Was Losing My Memory - Daily Habits That Helped Me Stay Sharp in My 90s

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]Or when I do activities during the day or force myself to take breaks, I do Sudoku puzzles. You do one a day, right?

[00:00:11]I I I used to do two or three a day. I did that for years. It was so fun. And then I [clears throat] didn't do it for a year or two, and when I started back, I missed. I couldn't do one.

[00:00:27]And I did the hard ones.

[00:00:29]And then I tried another one and and I did four in a row that I couldn't finish. I cried. I was so upset. I told my son that I was getting senile.

[00:00:40]I was so worried.

[00:00:43]And so ever since that happened, and then I started with the medium Sudoku till I could do every every single one, and then I went back to the hard, but I do one a day.

[00:00:57]And then I play solitaire.

[00:01:00]I do one of those a day cuz I'm trying to change the things I do with my brain.

[00:01:07]And then I got the picture puzzles. Never done puzzles in my life.

[00:01:13]But my mother always loved to do them. I got a 500 piece puzzle and put it on the dining room table.

[00:01:21]I will say I don't do that every day cuz it's just not my favorite thing, but I do sit there and I do it, and it's amazing how fast the time will go.

[00:01:33]And that's a different way of using my brain.

[00:01:38]And then I play the piano.

[00:01:43]I used to play the piano a lot. I had a lot of piano lessons.

[00:01:47]But in the last 30 years or so, I haven't. But and I use the hymn book because I always played hymns and I've read that this is really good for your mind when you're old person. So I play some of those. I'm really good at the right hand. I'm not as good at the left.

[00:02:09]But I try to do each day a few little variety ways of using your brain besides reading. And then on television, I have the closed captions.

[00:02:25]And a lot of time if something's happening on television, not like like low chase scenes, little [laughter] stupidity, dangerous, and I don't like like fistfights or I put it on mute, and then I can watch it and if anyone talks, I read the subtitles. I've always done that.

[00:02:51]So, I'm reading subtitles while I'm watching TV and trying different ways to keep my mind alert.

[00:03:03]And I wear hearing aids. They're amplifiers, over-the-counter kind that you purchase.

[00:03:11]And they're fabulous.

[00:03:13]So that I have no trouble when I go to Bible study or my two other meetings. I have a a book club discussion group and DAR that always has a program and a long meeting. I can hear everything that everyone says because of the amplifiers.

[00:03:33]So I'm really thankful and grateful for that. That's helped a lot.