Everyone knows it is important to exercise your body. Similarly, you need to exercise your most important organ too. To always stay sharp and top of your game, you need to work out your brain. Regular mental stimulation enhances your cognitive function. It helps you operate faster in your daily life. Your brain needs to be challenged. More usage of the brain makes it better.
One excellent method to exercise your brain is by playing brain training games. Not only are these games fun, but they also provide the exertion your brain needs to stay alert at all times. Brain training games postpone and prevent mental illness. By keeping your brain involved in stimulating activities, a mentally demanding game is quite likely to help you stay sharp. This will help delay or even avoid dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are our top picks for you to keep your brain fit.
Chess
Chess is indeed one of the most mentally stimulating games for you to train your brain. The rules of chess are pretty simple. Each player gets 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 8 pawns, a queen and a king. The goal is to use all your chess pieces to protect your king and checkmate the opponent’s king. Chess requires you to devise a strategy. You have to think two steps ahead of your opponent to win. It makes your brain focus and thinks continuously to make plans ahead of time. You have to anticipate your competitor’s moves. Chess is a fun yet demanding game for all ages.
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game for two or more players. Each player starts with seven tiles to make up words on the board in a crossword manner. Each tile has a different score on it. After using your tiles to construct a word on the board, you replace them from the tile bank. If you think your opponent made up a word that does not exist, you can challenge it and check it in the dictionary. At the end of the game, scores are calculated and the highest score wins.
Scrabble forces you to think of words to unscramble your tiles. Your brain has to visualize words that can be made up. If you get stuck at some point in the game you can get some help from some online scramble tool, thanks to technology. This tool generates words that can be built from your tiles. It is a great way for you to learn new words and use them in your daily life. Teaching yourself new words will build your vocabulary and enhance your thinking capacity.
Crosswords
Lumosity
This is an online gaming app that you can easily download on your phone. It comes with different types of puzzles and exercises to challenge your mental abilities. You can customize it to generate brain workouts that cater to your exact needs. Lumosity tests your memory, processing speed, problem-solving speed, attention, and flexibility. It even keeps track of your progress!
Sudoku
Sudoku is a single-player game that is played on a 9×9 grid. There are rows, columns, and squares. The game starts with a few spaces already filled in the grid. Your object is to fill the rest of the grid with numbers from 1-9 in such a manner that within a row-column or square, no number is repeated. Even though this might sound a bit complicated, it gets easier once you get the hang of it. Sudoku teaches your brain to think about multiple scenarios at once. If numbers excite you, this game is the perfect way for you to have fun as your brain function improves. Also, there are several sudoku apps for you to play easily on your phone. You can even choose a difficulty level yourself.
Eidetic
An eidetic memory refers to what we call a photographic memory. If you are looking to improve your memory; Eidetic is the perfect game for you. It is an online brain exercise app you can install on any of your devices. This game enables you to input information that you want to commit to memory. Once you input the information, Eidetic generates flashcards in a repetitive method to help you memorize. You can learn anything from a phone number to notes for a test.
Your brain is constantly learning. It figures out ways to overcome day-to-day challenges. Anything you practice becomes easier because your brain learns to adapt. You need fresh and new exercises after a while to keep training your brain and stay sharp. You can play online games or use mental math apps to make sure your brain always stays fit.