Just as it is essential to strengthen your muscles through physical exercises, it is also necessary to keep your brain healthy with various activities. The brain will stop developing when you stop challenging it with new things because it will have gotten used to routines. However, you shouldn’t allow this to happen because you will need your brain for many years. The good news is that you can use several ways to sharpen your brain, not just through the conventional use of games such as Word Finder. Learn how to play conkers, and you will be astonished to know how it can help you improve your concentration.
Here is a brief look at some of them.
Brush with your non-dominant hand.
If your dominant hand is correct, brush your teeth with the left hand. This will force the opposite side of the brain to help with the coordination that the dominant hand is used to doing. Studies reveal that getting used to your non-dominant hand can lead to a rapid and substantial expansion of the cortex – the part of the brain responsible for processing and controlling tactile information originating from the hand. Don’t just brush with the non-dominant hand; use it to open the tube and apply the paste onto your brush.
Take a shower with your hands closed.
When you close your eyes when taking a shower, you give your hand a chance to feel and notice the varied textures of your body, some of which you will usually never see or simply ignore while in the shower. Once you get to the battery, close your eyes and start finding what you need only with the help of your hand. Reach for the taps with the eyes closed, go for the soap, wash, shave, and use the towel with the eyes closed.
Do the math in your head.
It is sad how people are surrendering the use of their mental faculties to technology. With the smart mobile phones that the masses have, instead of using them to enhance their cognitive skills, they sometimes use them to cause more damage to their mental faculties. For example, people use a calculator for elementary arithmetic. Such should be avoided if one desires to improve one's brain power. Start practicing solving sums in your head without popping up the calculator. It will not be an easy task initially, but you must stick to it to enhance your mind and avoid reliance on technology for straightforward things.
Eat with chopsticks
Unless you are from an Asian country that uses chopsticks to eat, there are higher chances that you don’t know how to use them, making using them an excellent brain exercise. Using chopsticks forces you to eat gently and, most importantly, mindfully. You will move your brain to be very aware of what you are doing, and the struggle to not spill the food over will get your brain working at enhancing the coordination of your hands from the bowl to your mouth. A part of your brain that hasn’t been used in a long time will get work, which will help the overall development of your mental faculties.
Do things backward or upside down.
This doedoes not mean that you should start walking on your head or upside down and wear your watch in the reverse. As such, hands, but simply to reverse the order you usually do your things. A simple way to start this is to stimulate your brain to observe things upside down. For example, turn the wall clock, your brain will be forced to think whenever you want to figure out what the time is, stimulating brain cells that are probably lying dormant to start working. With time, and as your brain is more exercised, you can graduate to doing other things upside down, such as typing on your phone while it is upside down, writing backward, etc.
Read books aloud
If you have reading sessions in the family or just love to read in the company of friends, family, or significant other, you can take turns reading and listening to each other loudly. When the same word is read, spoken, or heard, three distinct brain regions lighten up. If you are not in a position to read loudly, try to alternate reading silently with listening to audiobooks.
Learn to use new routes.
The essence of brain games for improving memory, such as word finder, is to challenge the brain into doing things it is not used to or thinking out of the box. Routine is never a good recipe for brain development, so you should learn to use new routes to various destinations. Ways that are well known to you will be nothing but routine, and you could even walk or drive on them subconsciously, which is not suitable for increasing the power of your mental faculties. With new routes, your brain gets stimulated, and the hippocampus and cortex regions of the brain get to work. Whether biking, driving, riding on public transport, or just walking, learn to change routes from time to time to keep your brain stimulated.
Try new things
Another way to increase your brain power is to try new things. There are many items and experiences you haven’t been through, and all those are opportunities to improve your brain. Think about learning a new skill, traveling to a new destination, trying a new recipe, meeting strangers, facing your fears, trying out the foods you don’t like, etc. Every new thing you try will stimulate your mind to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that not only works up your motivation but also creates new neurons. It is always good to challenge your brain to try new things, or else you will get used to routines, and the brain will not see any sense in getting activated to do more.
