Your brain plays a major role in almost everything that you have to do every day. With that in mind, it makes sense to give it proper care. One way to care for your brain and improve your mental health is to exercise it often. By exercising your brain regularly, you can improve your focus and memory. It also aids dealing better with your daily professional activities. To start getting the benefits of brain workouts, here are just some of them that are proven to be good for your mental health:
Mathematics
That’s right, for most people mathematics at school probably did not leave positive memories. But if you regularly solve puzzles or math problems in your head, it will boost your thinking. But you don’t have to solve long and complex equations like Albert Einstein or Steven Hawkins. To keep your brain active, even simple puzzles and basic calculations that can be solved in your head (subtraction and addition) are sufficient.
Visualization
This exercise promotes your creativity and at the same time gives you a feeling of calm. For example, visualize your personal or professional goal. If you imagine these goals, decorate them imaginatively. How do you feel when you reach this goal? How does your environment react to this success?
Another advantage of this mental exercise is that it stimulates your subconscious and enables you to make informed decisions that will lead you to your goal. Visualization trains your ability to find creative solutions to problems.
Games that encourage logical thinking
You can also train your brain through play. A classic in this genre are crossword puzzles or Sudoku. Meanwhile there are so many apps and games on the topic of “brain jogging” that you will surely find a suitable logic game for your taste. It does not always have to be colorful, expensive and digital. How about a game of chess or another board/society game? In company games are much more fun!
Improvement of your vocabulary
Another way to train your brain is to develop an extensive vocabulary of another language. A vocabulary lesson can actually be a stimulating challenge for your brain. Several parts of the brain are simultaneously busy with tasks related to vocabulary storage. These areas include those that are particularly important for auditory and visual processing.
A popular method for learning new words is to address several areas of the brain at once. Visualize the meaning of a word that you do not know. Read it several times, pronounce it and write it down several times. Research its definition and use the word at least five times the next day. This should help you memorize the word permanently.
An exciting way to learn vocabulary is to use “visual dictionaries”, which also appeal to the visual memory by illustrating the words. In this way, you will be able to visualize the word immediately for the exercise just mentioned.
Meditation
Even in calmness you can train your strength, because another effective brain training that benefits your mental health is meditation. With regular practice, meditation helps you to reduce mental and physical stress, reduce anxiety and increase your concentration. Just find a quiet place, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing for 5 minutes. Even a 5-minute daily meditation can have a wonderful relaxing effect on body and mind. Find here a short instruction how to meditate easily.
Card games
You can also play cards to keep yourself mentally fit. Some card games are even very demanding for brain performance, such as Skat. It doesn’t matter if you play online or offline. Different card games, including Solitaire, Crazy Eights and Poker, activate different areas of your brain and are therefore a fun way to train.
Puzzle games
When solving a puzzle, the brain boosts its activities. This kind of games not only demand your logical thinking skills, but also your imagination and problem solving abilities. Puzzle games are fun, both alone and in a group. Why not solve a game with the whole family? Nowadays there are puzzles on many topics, even 3-dimensional puzzles, so that you can surely find something suitable.
Conclusion
Body and mind are equally important for your health. Nowadays, there is a very wide range of exciting and entertaining games and applications that allow you to train your mental abilities in a playful way. These “brain workouts” are not particularly time-consuming, so you can easily integrate them into your everyday life. The results you can achieve in such a simple way are amazing. You can improve your memory, concentration, logical thinking and general mental health in a playful and lasting way.
