Many people are looking for brain-stimulating activities to do, but they don't realize that there are many brain-healthy and brain sharpening exercises that can be done at home. When you feel brain fog, your brain isn’t functioning as it should, you are experiencing a brain drain. To help improve your brain health and keep it sharp, many activities can be done regularly.
Here are some of the best ways you can keep your brain healthy and sharp, and many of these ideas can be done in a short amount of time without having to leave your home!
Keep your brain active with brain games:
Puzzles like crosswords jigsaws, brain-teasers such as quizzes or brain games, and games such as chess and Scrabble help keep your brain sharp because they involve strategy and problem-solving skills. Chess is a great game for people of all ages to get into because it's not too demanding, and they can improve their brain power while having a lot of fun. Scrabble is also good because it requires players to learn new words and with this guide from wordgiraffe.com, you could come up with clever ways to use words in the right context, which makes for an interesting brain workout.
When you are playing these games against someone else, one player's brain will be actively calculating moves while the other brain will be coming up with strategies. If you are interested in getting your brain into shape, add these games to your repertoire and see how sharp you can get!
Read for at least 20 minutes every day:
Studies have shown that brain activity can be improved by reading for at least 20 minutes every day. Reading increases brain activity in areas of the brain responsible for language, creativity, and emotional expression. Reading also improves brain wave patterns. A study of brain activity in older adults found that those who read daily for 15 minutes showed increased brainwave patterns similar to those seen in much younger people.
Take a break from your daily routine and do something new:
Get a new perspective on life with some fresh air. Take your brain for a walk in the park, explore an art gallery or museum, go and listen to live bands perform their songs. With so many options out there for doing something different, it should be easy enough finding one that you can enjoy as well as your brain.
Change things up by trying a new hobby or sport for the first time, playing video games with friends who are in different countries and miles away from you, or reading an outdoor book at night under the stars. Your brain is always more active when it's learning something new, so if there's anything that piques your interest, give it a try.
If you don't want to do anything outside of your usual routine but still want brain stimulation, there are so many ways that can be achieved nowadays. Try out brain training games online or brain training apps on your phone. You could also grab some puzzles and see how quickly you can complete them, or take a brain-teaser.
You can also try to do some brain training at work by organizing your tasks for the day and prioritizing them, using different parts of your brain in each task you're doing, or choosing one word as a focus word and find creative ways to incorporate it into every sentence that you speak throughout the day.
If you're a student, brain training can come in handy by doing homework for different subjects that are unrelated to one another or completing your work with a timer set so that it takes less than two minutes per question while still being thorough and detailed. These activities will help keep your brain sharp and healthy!
Start a garden or plant flowers in your yard to help keep your brain active and healthy:
Gardening has been shown to reduce brain inflammation and improve brain function in the elderly. Planting flowers also helps keep your brain sharp by making you use more of it when figuring out which plants will go together well, what types should be grouped near each other, and how much sun they need.
Practice yoga or meditation:
Yoga is a form of exercise that strengthens your brain. It also forces you to focus on the present and not let your thoughts wander, which has been proven to help improve memory. When someone practices yoga for an extended period, they can increase their brain wave frequency by 44%. This means the person will be more alert, less stressed, and more focused.
Meditation is another brain sharpener that has been proven to help reduce stress levels. This activity clears your mind of the day's worries and allows you to reflect on what needs attention. It can also lead to an increase in brain activity among those who practice it regularly, as well as increased brain-cell connections. To keep your brain sharp, you must practice these activities:
- Yoga promotes brain health by strengthening the brain and allowing for better focus on the present time instead of worrying about future or past events.
- Meditation clears the mind of anything negative from the day and helps create brain-cell connections that lead to brain activity.
Exercise regularly:
Exercise is brain food. It increases blood flow, reduces the risk of Alzheimer's and dementia, strengthens neural connections, helps brain cells grow new connections to make you more flexible in your thinking, improves memory as we age by bolstering brain cell repair and preserving cognitive function. Exercise also helps brain cells produce brain chemicals that are associated with improved brain function.
The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, which control mood and memory respectively, are the regions of the brain most sensitive to exercise. In a brain scan of people who exercise, it was observed that the brain cells were larger. Exercise can also help improve sleep, which in turn reduces stress and anxiety.
There are many ways you can help keep your brain sharp and healthy, but these five activities have been proven to be especially effective. Start today by implementing even one of the above tips in your daily routine - it's time for a change! You'll see improvements in mental health as well as memory retention and cognitive function.
