Four exercises that will boost memory and protect wellbeing.
Your brain may not in fact be a muscle, but it does work in much the same way as those in your body – the harder you work it, the stronger it gets and the better it performs.
Maintaining brain activity, regularly and effectively, is vital for keeping things in good working order, and a positive mind can lead to a positive body.
Here are four easy exercises that you can carry out over a four-week period – try them and see if you start noticing the results.
Exercise 1: Sleep treat
Just as you’re ready to go to sleep, think over what you did that day from the time you got up until you got into bed. Follow your entire day step-by-step, trying to recall as much detail as possible, visualising in your mind each and every step from beginning to end.
Don’t worry if, in the beginning, you can’t remember much detail – you’ll probably move rapidly from task to task or think of the day in larger, broader sections. It’s important to really try to slow down and remember as much as you can, and with time and practice, you will soon start to notice significant improvement in your recall of events and details.
Exercise 2: Map attack
Continuing with the theme of visualisation, sit down with a pencil and a blank piece of paper. Now draw a small square for where you live, and begin to add in roads around you. Gradually build a map of your square mile until you reach the edge of the paper.
This is a great exercise as it promotes an ability to picture an environment, also factoring in scale and perspective. You will also find rapid recall of memories attached to certain streets, parks, junctions and shops.
Try the exercise again the following night with a previous place of residence, or workplace.
On each occasion, compare side-by-side to a real map and see what you included and missed.
Exercise 3: Non-dominant hand
Our use of a preferred hand is done for ease and efficiency, and so accomplished is the brain that it makes complicated, technical tasks appear very easy.
Testing the efficiency of those tasks with your ‘wrong’ hand is a great way to get brain activity increasing as it aims to focus harder and find solutions to what are, in fact, regular jobs.
Moving your brain out of its comfort zone in this way is a great way to stimulate it, all the while encouraging it to reach out further in the pursuit of other tasks, at other times.
Exercise 4: Socialising
Perhaps the most satisfying task of them all! Experts say the brain is at its most challenged when in a social or party situation, particularly when around strangers. The adaption to uncomfortable surroundings and our desire to present ourselves, interact with others and remember details is a huge task.
So in simple terms, the more we interrelate with others, the better.
How brain exercises help you:
- They help improve your memory
- They aid your ability to visualise things
- They help improve your concentration
- They boost perceptiveness at every point throughout the day
- They improve powers of observation
- They reduce stress
- They help us live in the moment
- They may well result in you falling asleep faster because your mind is exercised
