Brain Fitness has changed my life!

"Brain Fitness classes have changed my life.  I thought I was doomed to have poor retention and a poor memory for the rest of my life. Since childhood, I thought something was abnormal about my brain.  I had trouble learning and understanding, not only through my school years but also in many work situations.  I learned to cope and hide these things from classmates and coworkers.  I was ashamed and stressed.  I overate to stuff my feelings of inadequacy and to keep people from finding out that I was "stupid".

In January 2010, I discovered a new class at my local senior center - Brain Fitness.  I signed up wondering what good could it do, and much to my surprise, happiness and gratitude, it did a great deal of good.  I enjoyed learning about the brain; that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Doing brain exercises and games, both in class and online, my brain miraculously became normal.  Where I couldn't recall or relate, for example, about a book I just read, I have now learned, memorized, visualized and can recite all of the United States presidents in chronological order.  And, with some effort, can recite them backwards.  I now have a normal brain and want to make up for all the years that I couldn't learn.  I watch the TV program, "Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?", and am learning and retaining much of the information from that show that I couldn't learn when I was actually in the 5th grade.  I wish this program had been available when I was younger.  I can only imagine how much better my life would have been.

I impress people now with information I know that others don't know or recall.  It's like I have started my life over.  At a lecture, I heard a neuroscientist say that one of the best ways to grow new brain cells is to learn a musical instrument.  So, I am now learning to play the piano.  Soon I am going to take bridge lessons.  Then, maybe a foreign language.  Thanks to brain fitness, my senior years are now becoming the best years of my life.  I love my brain and I love life."

— contributed by Jill Davis, Brain Fitness class/Elsie Stuhr Center 2010