S
ome brain exercises can be as simple as an intelligent
conversation or reading something new. Others can be more
involved, like doing crossword puzzles or solving lateral
thinking puzzles. Here are some general brain exercises you can
do anywhere, followed by a few ideas for exercising specific
areas of brain function.

Some Simple Brain Exercises

An entertaining brain exercise is to invent things in your mind.
You can use many techniques for doing this. It can be as simple
as looking at things and asking “How could this be better?”
Consider a clock, for example, and you might wonder if it would
be better if you didn’t have to look at it. Maybe a clock that
periodically announced the time and even reminded you of
appointments might be useful.

Other brain exercises involve puzzle solving. These can range
from crossword puzzles to difficult lateral thinking puzzles,
but a simpler, fun version of the latter, is the basic riddle.
For example, “Why wasn’t Bertha put in jail after killing dozens
of people?” Because she was a hurricane. Whether riddles are
easy or difficult, they get your mind thinking in new
directions, and this is good for getting your mind out of it’s
“ruts.”.

Inventing jokes is one of the more difficult brain exercises,
especially if you haven’t done it before. Just take a topic or a
word at random, and find a way to make a joke with it. The word
“Justice,” for example, could become “What’s the one place in
the world you can find justice?” In the dictionary! If you draw
a blank after five or ten minutes, move on to the next word or
topic.

Brain Exercises For Specific Areas

You may want to work on a particular area of your brainpower.
Some of us have trouble with visual imagination, for example. To
be architects, we would want to improve that. This can be done
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.

For better concentration, practice identifying “mind”
irritations. Anything that’s going on just below the surface is
sapping your ability to concentrate. Become aware of these
things, and you can put them on a list or otherwise dismiss
them. More formal meditation practices can help with this, but
simple mindfulness exercises may be enough to let your natural
powers of concentration function.

Simple brain exercises to strengthen your memory can be the
repetitive use of any memory techniques. For example, 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. Just imagining where you’ll see a person next, and
calling to them by name in your imagination is a good way to
remember names.

get a little wild to develop your creativity. See things and
imagine something absurd, like flying lights. For more than just
an exercise in imagination, though, you have to create some
sense of the image. For this example, I’m thinking there might
be a market for little lights on helium balloons. With a more or
less neutral buoyancy for the balloons, a party could be full of
colorful, floating, moving lights.

Recent research makes it clear that exercising your brain makes
it work better. A more active brain has even been shown to
postpone or reduce the incidence of age-related decline of
mental function. So why not start today with some simple brain
exercises?

H ave you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it? Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to clarify it in your own mind. How can you use this to increase your brain power? Start writing.

By putting thoughts into words, you are telling yourself the logic behind what you think, feel, or only partly understand. Often, explaining a thought is the process of understanding. In other words, you boost your brain power by exercising your “explain power.”

Try this experiment. Explain how you’ll increase your brain power, even if you have no idea how right now. Just start with anything, and create an explanation. For example, start with “I’ll learn chess,” or “I’ll read an article on the mind every week.” Explain how that will help. You’ll be surprized how often this becomes a workable plan, and if you actually do this, you’ll have a better understanding of your brain twenty minutes from now.

Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember. Many, if not most, highly productive people are always taking notes. You can try keeping it all in your head, but if you keep a journal of your ideas the next time you’re working on a big project, you’ll probably have more success.

To Write Is To Understand

Want to understand a topic? Write a book about it. That’s an extreme example, but if you are learning something new, write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better. Want to invent something? Write a explanation of the problem, why you want to solve it, and why it is worth solving, and you’re half-way there.

Writers don’t always write because they clearly understand something beforehand. Often, they write about something because they want to understand it. You can do the same. Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

When you are getting ready to do some challengin task, it helps to “warm up” your brain.

The goal is to not get sucked into another activity, but to just get your brain working and your mental juices flowing.

Before we start, I want to emphasize that this is meant to be a fun and engaging activity.  Your brain enjoys a challenge, but start slow because if the challenge far exceeds what you can currently do, you will get frustrated and quit.  That is not the goal.

Here is a quick way to do just that:

1. Think of a number between 1 and 20.
2. Double it in your head.
3. Keep doubling it until you can’t keep track of the number or you feel warmed up.

This isn’t a contest and you shouldn’t get frustrated when you lose track of the number. If this happens, just start over.

A few minutes should be enough to get you going.

Be creative, you don’t have to just double numbers. Try squaring them.

Maybe numbers frustrate you. No problem. Say the Alphabet backwards, go every other letter. Or how about thinking of an actor and then try to name all the movies he/she has been in.

Again, this is just to warm up your brain. Have fun with it and think up new ways to warm up your brain. The possiblities are endless!