The best ways to exercise your brain

Every muscle needs a bit of a workout on occasion, and your brain is no different. If you want to keep your brain healthier for longer, then it’s important that you take the time to pay some attention to the occasional bit of mental exercise. There have been enough studies and research carried out that the link between brain stimulation and better cognitive ability later in life is now proven. Luckily, exercising your brain isn’t something that has to be boring or tedious. Check out these top three ways to give your brain a workout, and not only will find your concentration improving, but your problem-solving skills and your memory as well.

Learn something new

Learning new skills is a fantastic way to keep your brain stimulated, and you get to choose whatever you want to learn. If you’re planning a holiday next year, then why not see how much of the local lingo you can pick up before your flight? Languages are particularly good for mental exercise, but are not your only option. Perhaps learning to play a musical instrument is more your style, or you could even contemplate signing up for a cookery or carpentry class. Learning new skills can be mentally exhausting, but they can also be fun, productive, and useful as well.

Read books/Kindles

It doesn’t matter what you read, and magazines and newspapers count. Of course, the more that you challenge yourself when it comes to choosing your reading material, the better it is for your brain. That doesn’t have to mean picking up that weighty Dostoevsky novel, but it’s certainly worth picking up something other than the daily dose of newspaper doom and gloom. There are so many benefits to reading a novel, and exercising your brain is simply one of the best ones. You could choose books that teach you something about a historical period or the culture of another country, as learning about something that interests you makes reading much easier. Pick something fun to read! Reading doesn’t have to be a chore, and you get to choose from the endless available options.

Play some Puzzles

Whether you tackle them alone or in groups, puzzles are everywhere and they’re proving very popular. From crossword puzzles in every newspaper and magazine on the shelves to Rubik’s Cubes that are as popular now as they were when they were released, right up to computer games that involve pulling the right levers and pushing the right buttons in the right order before moving onto the next level, puzzles are simply everywhere. One of the newest forms of puzzle is the Escape Room, and you certainly won’t struggle to find one close to you. These are fantastic ways to give your brain some exercise, and you can even get some mental prep in beforehand by learning about the best escape room strategy methods that will help you to win the game. Not just great for your brain, escape rooms are also a brilliant activity to do with friends, and have become very common in the business world as team-building exercises.

Just like the rest of your body, the more that you challenge your brain, the better a workout it gets. That’s why staring at the television just makes you feel lethargic. Get your brain fit and healthy, and you’ll notice that your concentration, problem-solving skills, and even your memory, start to show incredible signs of improvement.