Believe it or not, your mind needs to be kept young and fresh. Treat it like your body. If you just laze around all day, you might get flabby and fat and sluggish. If you keep an active lifestyle and exercise, you can be as agile as a teenage track star. So avoid being mentally atrophied by keeping your brain functioning and worrying less. Pining over a single issue can rob the spring off of your mind’s step.

Be wary of signs. If you always find yourself repeating a single statement or crack a joke repeatedly (and with same level of enthusiasm at that) then you might be letting your mind focus on just one idea or train of thought. Also, if you also find yourself using too many tag phrases repetitively.

To remedy these, jump start your brain by doing any of the following:

Read. Get an interesting book to read and read actively. Try to comment on the author’s takes on certain issues. Make sure you pick one that’s unrelated to your field or expertise.

Diversify. Try learning something that you haven’t tried to learn before. It can be something as simple as origami or a similar hobby. Or learning another language.

Play. Try playing board games. Bring out the old Pictionary set. Or even Monopoly. Or the more cerebral ones like Chess or Taboo.

Expose yourself to a different environment. Go to a place that you haven’t been in for a long time. Say, the museum perhaps. Or a poetry cafe. Or a rock concert. Sometimes, a change in atmosphere can refresh your brain to start thinking in a new light.