This Thanksgiving, add some games to build social bonds and brain health at your gathering. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest. Many of us look forward to a Thanksgiving feast featuring traditional favorites such as turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.
Go ahead and eat what you want, but don’t forget to watch your social diet carefully. Caring and supportive relationships with family and friends matter more for brain health than what’s on your plate, especially if you want to get better with age. Ask a SuperAger!
Social connection drives resilience 
Researchers have found that people who live long and well over age 80, called SuperAgers, are different from other people. In key areas related to attention and memory, SuperAgers have more brain connections than their peers or even younger people in their 50’s and 60’s!
The difference in SuperAgers is not limited to the brain. These vital elders are more socially engaged than most people their age, maintaining strong relationships and a positive, inquisitive outlook on life.
Super-Agers do not have better luck or better genes than the rest of us. They don’t even eat all the “right” foods and exercise a lot. But what these savvy seniors have is resilience, the ability to bounce back from difficulties. They rely on a combination of inner strength and social support to rid themselves of the negative emotions that conjure up anxiety, depression, and chronic inflammation.
So how can we build resilience? According to the website of the American Psychological Association, resilience comes not primarily from diet, exercise, or good genes, but from “having caring and supportive relationships within and outside the family. Relationships that create love and trust, provide role models and offer encouragement and reassurance help bolster a person’s resilience.”
Executive functions, which can be improved, are the key to maintaining healthy relationships and resilient behavior.
Games build social bonds and brain health
After the Thanksgiving feast, turn off the tube and the electronic devices and have some old-fashioned fun. Sing songs together, look at a family photo album, or play one of these popular games for all ages:
- Board games: Clue, Scrabble, Sequence, Trivial Pursuit
- Card games: Blackjack, Go Fish, Hearts, Uno
- Party games: Apples to Apples, Bingo, Charades, Codenames, Jenga, Pictionary
If games are played with the right spirit, everyone wins by having fun together. Enjoy your Thanksgiving festivities with friends and family, for your brain’s sake!
To learn more about SuperAgers and how the brain gets better with age, see chapter VII of “Better with Age: The Ultimate Guide to Brain Training.”
