Simple Brain Exercises
Exercises and activities that strengthen the conections and
processes in the brain can be as simple as having an intelligent
conversation or reading about something new to you. They can
also be more involved, like doing crossword puzzles or solving
lateral thinking puzzles. Here are few general brain exercises
you can do anywhere, and then a few ideas for exercising specific
areas of brain function.
One of the more entertaining mental exercises is to invent
things in your mind. There are many techniques for doing this,
but you can start as simply as looking at things and asking "How
could this be better?" Look at a clock, for example, and
you might wonder if it would be better if you didn't have to
look at it. A clock that periodically announced the time and
even reminded you of appointments might be useful.
For more on inventions and how to come up with them, visit:
www. 999 Ideas.com.
Other simple, but not necessarily easy exercises are those
that involve puzzle solving. These can range from crossword puzzles
to difficult lateral thinking puzzles. A simpler, fun version
of the latter, is the basic riddle. "Why wasn't Bertha put
in jail after killing dozens of people?" Because she was
a hurricane. Riddles can be easy or difficult, but either way
they get your mind thinking in new directions, and this is good
for developing your creativity.
Inventing jokes is a great brain exercise. This can be a tough
one if you haven't done it before. Take a topic or a word at
random, and find a way to make a joke with it. "Justice,"
for example, could become "What's the one place in the world
you can find justice?" In the dictionary! If you get nothing
after five or ten minutes, move on to the next word or topic.
Brain Exercises for Specific Purposes
There are times when you may want to work on a particular
area of your brainpower. I have some trouble with visual imagination,
for example. If I wanted to be an architect, I would want to
improve that. This can be accomplished by concentrating on scenes
in one's mind. Imagine walking through your home, for example,
and repeat the process until you can easily "see" everything
in each room.
To learn better concentration, practice identifying "mind"
irritations. Anything that is going on just below the surface
is sapping your ability to concentrate. When you become aware
of these things, you can put them on a list or otherwise dismiss
them. Meditation can help with this, but simple mindfulness exercises
may be enough to let your natural powers of concentration function.
Brain exercises to strengthen your memory can just be the
repetitive use of any memory techniques. Mentally placing a list
of items to be remembered at predetermined locations in your
house, and seeing them there in an unusual way (think cucumbers
dancing in the microwave), is one such technique. Imagining where
you'll see a person next, and calling to them by name in your
imagination is a good way to remember names.
To develop your creativity, get a little wild. Look around
and imagine something absurd, like flying lights. To make it
more than just an exercise in imagination, though, you have to
create some sense of the image. In this case, I am thinking that
maybe there would be a market for little lights on helium balloons.
Have a more or less neutral buoyancy, and a party could be full
of colorful floating, moving lights.
There is no question that exercising your brain makes it work
better. In fact, a more active brain has even been shown to postpone
or reduce the incidence of age-related decline of mental function.
Why not start today with some simple exercises like the ones
described here?
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