When I think of brain exercise, it takes me back to the older days where my parents would only purchase mentally stimulating video games in hopes that the gadget wouldn’t kill my brain cells, and do just the opposite. It turns out they were completely right.
Apparently, staying mentally fit and constantly stimulating your brain shows huge benefits. Everybody knows that staying physically active shows positive results in your mental health as well as your entire body. If you put as much effort into working out certain parts of your brain as you do for, say, cardio or strength training, the outcomes can be just as significant.
It’s not hard to stay fit mentally. Supposedly, just as you would repeat reps of a certain exercise to see results, you can do the same mentally. You can accomplish this by simple crossword or Sudoku puzzles. Who would have thought?
It’s all about leveling up. Once something gets redundant or boring, you take yourself up for the challenge and attempt harder problems. Your brain can expand in knowledge just by doing tasks like these. This is why people feel anxious or tired after sitting around doing nothing all day– if you are spending your day on Facebook and not retaining new information or challenging your brain, you are exhausting it in all the wrong ways.
In a 2013 Stanford study, 21 breast cancer survivors used 12 weeks of training with a brain-enhancing program called Luminosity. They challenged the volunteers on aspects such as processing speed, flexibility, and task involving memory. Of course, the group that used Luminosity showed mental improvement based on another group that did not use the same program.
Exercising your brain does not simply mean getting better at that video game. By improving attention span and memory, real-life events like learning in a classroom or attending a meeting can go much more smoothly.
By playing this online game for only a few minutes a day, you can experience so many more benefits to help you with everyday tasks.
www.howlifeworks.com/a/a?AG_ID=1307&cid=7340bi2/
This was a really interesting topic to post about. I don’t think everyone knows how important it can be to continuously be challenging your brain. Here’s another website if anyone wants to play more “brain challenging” games too! They talk about the different ways the games will help your brain; from enhancing your memory to helping you more easily multitask while doing things.
http://www.brainmetrix.com
I always saw commercials for Lumosity and wondered if it worked. Over the summer I worked as a cashier at a restaurant which included sitting in a corner all night playing games on my phone, so I downloaded the app. First they quiz you to find out what you want to improve on, such as: memory, multitasking, avoiding distractions, increasing productivity, etc. Then they give you different games, tell you how many days a week, and you begin your “workout.” I found that I really enjoyed these games. They are fun, and I feel like I’m actually getting something out of them.
I did not continue playing consistently enough for me to see any results with the game, and definitely have no time for that currently, but I wonder if it actually would help in the areas you want to improve. Maybe next summer I can find out!
I always saw commercials for Lumosity and wondered if it worked. Over the summer I worked as a cashier at a restaurant which included sitting in a corner all night playing games on my phone, so I downloaded the app. First they quiz you to find out what you want to improve on, such as: memory, multitasking, avoiding distractions, increasing productivity, etc. Then they give you different games, tell you how many days a week, and you begin your “workout.” I found that I really enjoyed these games. They are fun, and I feel like I’m actually getting something out of them.
I did not continue playing consistently enough for me to see any results with the game, and definitely have no time for that currently, but I wonder if it actually would help in the areas you want to improve. Maybe next summer I can find out!
Natalia,
This post was interesting and pointed out great points. However, I was a little confused. Is the Luminosity program an online program?? How does it work?? It seemed like the last part was referring to Luminosity being an online brain stimulant. On another note…now I understand the meaning behind the saying “brain teasers.” Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles and other “exercises” are designed to “tease” or stimulate the brain to work harder. I always just thought they were meant for smart people. I was in a program called sage in elementary school. It was a program for “out of the box thinkers.” Now I realize why the teachers always gave us brain teasers in that class. The puzzles are “working out our brains” because they force us to look at problems and try to find solutions in a different, more creative and out of the box way. I have a slight addiction to candy crush. Do you think candy crush could be considered a brain exercise? I mean after all you’re trying to move candies around and get them to the bottom, looking for new paths and directions…I guess it could be classified as a jigsaw puzzle. Haha…I just Googled “brain teasers” and Luminosity was the first link to appear: http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/412?gclid=CLSi3aXAiroCFYWd4Aod4Q8Aag
There’s a diagram that’s really interesting that shows which part of the brain is being activated through the activity.
Natalia,
This post was interesting and pointed out great points. However, I was a little confused. Is the Luminosity program an online program?? How does it work?? It seemed like the last part was referring to Luminosity being an online brain stimulant. On another note…now I understand the meaning behind the saying “brain teasers.” Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles and other “exercises” are designed to “tease” or stimulate the brain to work harder. I always just thought they were meant for smart people. I was in a program called sage in elementary school. It was a program for “out of the box thinkers.” Now I realize why the teachers always gave us brain teasers in that class. The puzzles are “working out our brains” because they force us to look at problems and try to find solutions in a different, more creative and out of the box way. I have a slight addiction to candy crush. Do you think candy crush could be considered a brain exercise? I mean after all you’re trying to move candies around and get them to the bottom, looking for new paths and directions…I guess it could be classified as a jigsaw puzzle. Haha…I just Googled “brain teasers” and Luminosity was the first link to appear: http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/412?gclid=CLSi3aXAiroCFYWd4Aod4Q8Aag
There’s a diagram that’s really interesting that shows which part of the brain is being activated through the activity.
Natalia,
This post was interesting and pointed out great points. However, I was a little confused. Is the Luminosity program an online program?? How does it work?? It seemed like the last part was referring to Luminosity being an online brain stimulant. On another note…now I understand the meaning behind the saying “brain teasers.” Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles and other “exercises” are designed to “tease” or stimulate the brain to work harder. I always just thought they were meant for smart people. I was in a program called sage in elementary school. It was a program for “out of the box thinkers.” Now I realize why the teachers always gave us brain teasers in that class. The puzzles are “working out our brains” because they force us to look at problems and try to find solutions in a different, more creative and out of the box way. I have a slight addiction to candy crush. Do you think candy crush could be considered a brain exercise? I mean after all you’re trying to move candies around and get them to the bottom, looking for new paths and directions…I guess it could be classified as a jigsaw puzzle. Haha…I just Googled “brain teasers” and Luminosity was the first link to appear: http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/412?gclid=CLSi3aXAiroCFYWd4Aod4Q8Aag
There’s a diagram that’s really interesting that shows which part of the brain is being activated through the activity.