Exercising your brain is as much as important as exercising your body. Giving your brain “exercise” will keep it healthier. Brain exercise also helps in improving working memory for people of all age groups.
When thinking about “brain exercise”, most of us will automatically thinking about playing chess, answering crosswords, or solving mathematics problems; which seem not very effective in training your brain. But, just like fitness exercise, brain exercise actually can be fun too!
Here are some tips to train your brain in fun ways:
Play video games
Video games can actually beneficial for intellectual growth. The specific benefits vary from game to game based on the type of challenges with which the player is tasked. Super Mario, Call of Duty, and Starcraft are among the games that have been theorized to improve motor skills, problem solving abilities, spatial reasoning, and even reading comprehension. Just remember to not getting too addicted to those games, though.
Use your non dominant hand to do tasks
Just like how physical exercise improves your body’s functioning and grows muscles, using your opposite hand will strengthen neural connections in your brain, and even grow new ones. To train your brain, try using your non-dominant hand to do tasks. For example, put on the toothpaste and brush your teeth with your opposite hand. You’ll notice it’s much harder to be precise with your movements. You can also switch hand and try to draw or write.
Listen to music
Music can affect your memory, mood, performance, blood pressure and brain activity. Listening to familiar songs of your past help you recall memories, and even giving you vivid flashbacks. Listening to new songs, especially with different genres is also said to have beneficial effects on mental development. Learning new instruments will also help!
Read also: music schools in Jakarta
Switch around your usual routes
You must have favorite routes to go to the office, shopping malls, or to your home. You are familiar with these routes, and you know every nook and cranny of them: where the U-turn is, the street food peddlers on the road, or even the location of speed bumps that you really hate. Tomorrow, try to go through different route. Brain imaging studies show that novel tasks exercise large areas of the cortex, indicating increased levels of brain activity in several distinct areas.
Make more social connections
This does not always mean that you have to go to a club or get-together and mingle with new people you meet there. You can expand your social connections by doing simple things like talking with the barista where you usually buy coffee in the morning, or simply greet the cleaning service staff in your office building. This is to prevent social deprivation which has severe negative effects on overall cognitive abilities.
Get creative with arts
Art activates the nonverbal and emotional parts of the cerebral cortex. When you create art, you involve the parts of your brain that are interested in colors, forms, and textures. The thought processes during art creation are also very different from the logical, linear thinking that occupies most of your day. You can get artsy by drawing, coloring, knitting, or sculpting.
Read also: learn art and crafts in Jakarta.
