Sudoku Fu

Ever since I saw that PBS special on brain exercises, I have added a new anxiety to my list. I don't want my brain to atrophy or go senile young. Granted, it might seem absurd that at 31 I am worrying about the health of my brain. But I am 31 and a stroke survivor. I know that my brain has plasticity and I was really lucky. There are areas of my brain that weren't able to recover so I am already have a handicapped brain. I want to keep it strong and stimulated for as long as possible.

I've been doing Sudoku puzzles to keep my logic synapses in tiptop shape for a while. It is really fun noticing how I've learned and adapted! I've gone from barely able to complete a puzzle to breezing through easy and medium and maybe getting stuck at an occasional difficult. The trick for me is that I do not jot down all the options for each square. I used to do that because I didn't trust that I could remember all the options and it wound up making the whole process confusing and convoluted. Now, I only write a number down if I'm sure. Getting to sure isn't as agonizing as it used to be. I had the same problem with multiple choice exams. I could narrow down to two possible answers and go crazy picking between them.

I try to complete two puzzles before going to sleep each night. Rasputin lies by my side and as I think, I let him gnaw on my pencil. Sometimes I'm so into my puzzle he winds up scaring the crap out of me by jumping on the bed. Researchers say that the frontal lobe controls problem solving. So, I hope, by doing my nightly puzzles, I have a hulking frontal lobe.