Looking for ways to stimulate your mind? Stimulating your mind doesn’t always have to be studying or solving math problems, it can be enjoyable and you won’t even realize you’re strengthening your brain. Below are 10 easy everyday ways you can strengthen your brain and you probably will realize you already do some of them!
- Puzzles: Crosswords? Sudoku? Jigsaw puzzle? These are just three of the hundreds of types of puzzles out there. Good news is besides being an enjoyable activity, puzzles have a positive impact on your brain function. A study published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society focusing on crossword puzzles and dementia found that those who completed regular crossword puzzles had a 2.54 year delay in dementia onset.
- Chess: Chess is a game played and enjoyed by many, but the amount of effects it has on your brain isn’t thought about. Chess increases your problem solving abilities, the ability to think and react quickly, and even your creativity. While playing chess, both the right and left hemisphere of your brain are activated and more neural connections are formed. Chess also has been seen to improve memory from remembering the rules as well as previous moves that have worked or ones that didn’t in past games. Check out all of the health benefits of chess here.
- Read: Reading has so many advantages for your body including relaxation, improvement in intelligence, concentration, and so many more. Reading expands our mind by learning new vocabulary, learning how to read “in between the lines”, and by understanding certain situations or societal issues. Fiction also has the advantage of increasing our creativity by placing ourselves in the story or visualizing the fiction qualities as real. Read about how reading is especially healthy during the pandemic here.
- Physical activity: A good workout not only makes you feel good physically, but also emotionally and mentally. During physical activity, the brain is stimulated significantly. In a study published in the Frontiers in Psychology, exercise was found to increase gray matter, blood flow, academic achievement, cognitive abilities, and decrease risk of developing dementia.
- Learn how to play an instrument: Learning to play an instrument and playing an instrument, in general, has positive effects on the brain. The process of learning how to read music notes and then translate that into playing creates numerous neural pathways that weren’t there before. Instrument playing also increases your ability to retain information and your memory function based on memorizing the notes. It also increases blood flow to the brain, specifically the left hemisphere. In a study published in the Neuropsychology journal, music players with 10 years of experience had better nonverbal memory, naming, and executive processes.
- Meditate: Meditation is a form of relaxation for many that has been proven to reduce anxiety and to clear the mind. However, more than that it has a particular effect on the brain structure. A study performed by Harvard Medical School studied meditators who performed a 30-minute meditation each day for an eight week period and compared them to non-meditators. It was found that the meditators had an increased concentration of gray matter in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for memory, learning, and emotions, so having more gray matter means meditation plays a role in increasing all of these abilities. It was also found that meditators had a decreased amount of gray matter around the amygdala, relating to the reduced amount of stress and anxiety.
- Draw/color: In a study performed by Drexel University, it was found that drawing, coloring, and doodling all increased brain flow to the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision making, cognitive behavior, as well as social behavior. These activities sharpen the mind especially in regard to cognitive behavior, including memory, reaction time, and problem solving.
- Write Notes: Has your teacher ever suggested handwriting notes instead of typing them? The reason behind this is because it requires your brain to think about what you are writing instead of just endlessly typing. By physically writing information, it automatically is processed by your brain and it enhances your learning. Also, when studying notes, it is easier to process and remember your own handwriting than typed notes.
- Switch up routes: Have you ever been in the car and then all of a sudden you reach your destination without even knowing how you got there? The reasoning behind this is because your brain is constantly using the same pathway, so if you go to work or school the same way every time, no new connections are being formed. A quick and easy way to enhance your brain function is by taking a different route to work, even one different turn will make a difference because it will force you to pay attention and be spatially aware of where you are, resulting in new pathways.
- Switch to non-dominant hand: Doing simple activities such as brushing your teeth, writing, or brushing your hair with the non-dominant can actually stimulate and improve your brain function. By using your non-dominant hand, it strengthens existing neural connections and can even create more. If you’ve tried doing anything with your non-dominant hand, you know you have to think about what you are doing. This may seem like an inconvenience, but by “having to think about it” you are creating new neural pathways instead of just going autopilot on constantly used pathways.
