Action Steps

Take some time by yourself with a pen and a journal or notebook. Get somewhere quiet and reflect on the person or people closest to you. Ask yourself some of these questions:

• How might they experience your losing your cognitive abilities?
• What impact would cognitive decline have on your closest friends and family members?
• How has cognitive decline in people you know affected you personally?
• Who is the ONE person that would be most affected if you were to experience cognitive decline, years from now?

You may even want to have some conversations with those closest to you. Open up and try being vulnerable about Alzheimer's Disease with someone you trust. How would it affect your relationship? Who would take care of whom? These conversations are not easy or comfortable, but they can help us to dig deeper into our own motivations to keep our cognitive abilities as long as we can.

Beyond journaling and conversations, which are definitely the most difficult action steps in this program, you may want to watch the following short video from Simon Sinek, author of Finding Your Why.

Brain health expert Dr. Daniel Amen has created the "One Page Miracle." It's a simple tool that helps you think about your brain and why you may want to be intentional about protecting it. It may be helpful to incorporate it into your journaling exercise.