Talking about the value of exercise is probably beating a dead horse, but most often, when we think about exercise, we have physical exercise in mind - loosing weight, gaining strength, body building, or simply reducing any unwanted features like life-savers around the waist.

But mental exercise is often restricted to the early years. Obviously we have to practice our multiplication table when we are in school, or do a few more proofs in algebra, but mostly the idea of mental exercise is over when we are done with college.Unfortunately this is a very incorrect point of view, because keeping the mental muscles in shape has many benefits.

One fascinating experiment was recently conducted. Two groups of people were observed in their later years, one group very active mentally, reading books, studying new subjects, conducting challenging conversations, the other one the general couch potato.

Both groups eventually developed physiological symptoms that would indicate Alzheimer's desease, but the active group did not suffer from any symptoms despite the fact that their body showed the changes that is normally connected with this disease. The 'couch-potato' control group exhibited the expected Alzheimer's symptoms.

Two down - physical and mental - one more to go - the spiritual. Yes, you can do spiritual exercise. Of all the exercises this is the most often forgotten, but by far the most important one. Imagine you feel sad and without hope - like when you just got a huge bill from the IRS - how much mental or physical exercise will you do while in this state?

Right, probably not too much. But if you know exercises that will bring you out of this range of emotions, to create a positive outlook, despite any external conditions, soon the mental and physical exercises will be in again.