Think of your brain like any other muscle in your body — it needs regular training to stay strong. Just like cardio strengthens your heart and boosts oxygen flow throughout your system, and weightlifting builds muscle to protect your joints and improve your physique, exercising your brain has powerful benefits. Keeping your mind active can help reduce the risk of early memory loss and cognitive decline. In fact, studies suggest that brain training may lower the risk of Dementia and even sharpen your attention span.
Most people don’t know how to train their brains, but it’s as simple as playing a few games once or twice per day. Honestly, you just need to pick games that involve a lot of brainpower. Here are three to cycle through daily:
Scrabble
To be fair, you could play any word game to train your brain every day, but Scrabble is an easy one. Play the online version or find something similar, and you work your brain by getting it to find words from a jumbled-up bunch of letters. Use a word unscramble tool if you ever get stuck, but the whole idea is that you’re constantly trying to fit things together, almost like a puzzle, but with words instead of pieces.
This type of game will improve your vocabulary and aid your general cognitive abilities because you’re forcing yourself to think things through. It’s suitable for anyone and is excellent if you’re bored and need to pass the time.
Chess
Playing a game of chess is the mental equivalent of walking for 30 minutes a day. It is the ultimate brain training game because you have to think about things on so many different levels. Your mind focuses on the following during a chess match:
- Where can you move your next piece?
- Where could your opponent conceivably move their next piece?
- What are the consequences of your next move?
- How will you respond to your opponent if they make a certain move?
That list of questions is enough to send your brain into overdrive, and a game or two of chess is like a proper mental workout. Chess has become so accessible to the point that you can play it online for free, so it’s a really easy game for you to start enjoying if you want to boost your mental capacity.
Sudoku
Scrabble targets the linguistic part of your brain, chess is more about problem-solving, and Sudoku is here to tackle the numerical side of things. Most of you have played this game in the past; if not, then it’s the game with a grid full of numbers and you have to fit 1-9 in every line, row, and box.
It can be really challenging, but the good thing about Sudoku is that you can work your way up. Start with the easier stuff to train your brain and get it whirring around for a quick little workout. It’s an easy thing to do while you’re sipping on your morning coffee or having an afternoon break.
For something a bit different, try the Google Memory Game, but do make time to train your brain as you would the other important parts of your body. Play these three games once a day and you’ll have the ultimate mental workout.