Five Ways to Train Your Brain–Right Now!
It’s often tempting to put off setting up a brain fitness program, or to skip some of its elements, like exercise. But you don’t need to set aside a specific time for brain fitness. In fact, you may do better if you integrate brain fitness into your daily routine.
Here are five things you can do to improve your brain fitness right now. Each targets one of the key elements of brain fitness or brain training. They’re free and easy to include in other daily activities.
Take a deep breath. Breathing deeply can help improve the level of oxygen in your blood and reduce stress. It’s hard to be tense when you’re taking a deep breath.
Break a habit. While habits are shortcuts we develop to get things done efficiently, they don’t improve brain fitness. Always take one route to work or the grocery store? Try a new one. Exploring what’s around you probably will help your brain form new connections between neurons.
Do mental arithmetic. Look around you and find two numbers. Add them, subtract them, multiply them, divide them.
Focus! Developing better attention may help you improve your memory and probably will help you be less likely to get distracted when you’re doing something. Take a few seconds to pay attention to something around you – look at the chair on other side of the room. Look at its form and color. Could you draw it from memory?
Don’t focus! When your brain is idle, a group of structures in it are activated in something called the default network. Problems in the activation of the default network are associated with brain disorders as different as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Making the transition from from focused attention to not attending may help improve your brain fitness.
