Terri Ramsey Beavers The human brain is the most complex organ in our bodies. It controls pretty much everything that we do, sending signals throughout our body to tell limbs to move, other organs to function, hormones to be released, and so on. In many ways, it’s the most super of supercomputers.
We hear a lot about heart health and digestive health, with countless articles and guides teaching us what to do to keep these parts of our body healthy. However, why do we rarely hear about brain health? A healthy brain is a key to a healthier and happier life. With that in mind, did you know you could train your brain as you would other parts of the body?
It’s true, there are countless brain training exercises out there – and if you keep reading, you’ll find a video with five that you can try right now! If you have the patience to wait until the end, you will also learn why brain training is beneficial. That’s the main purpose of today’s post; you’re going to be shown a few ways in which training your brain can help you, which should encourage you to start doing it more often.
Without further ado, let’s look at these benefits:
Improve memory
A lot of brain training exercises are built around the idea of improving your memory. You do different tasks, then have to remember patterns or things as accurately as possible. By doing this, you can actually delay the early warning signs of memory loss. Your brain becomes more active, and you start remembering things a lot better than before.
As you will see if you keep reading, this can translate into regular life in many different ways.
Improve your ability to do daily tasks
The upside of a better memory is that you can do daily tasks more efficiently and accurately. For instance, let’s say you go shopping. Before, you might return from your shopping trip and realize that you forgot one of the important items on your list. Or, while you’re shopping, you spend ages looking for products because you can’t really remember where they all are.
With persistent brain training, you can improve your memory to the point where simple tasks – like shopping – are made easier. You won’t forget to buy things on your list, you can shop quicker because you’re aware of where everything is, and so on.
We have a tendency to only view memory in the sense of remembering people’s names or information. It’s not until you start suffering from memory loss that you realize just how big a part your memory plays in daily tasks. This brings us to the next point as well…
Can help prevent Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is one of the leading cognitive impairment disorders in the world. There are some scary facts relating to this! The Catholic Care Center notes that Alzheimer’s and Dementia affect 50% of all residents in long-term care institutions. That’s a shockingly high number, and it goes to show just how common these disorders are.
Thankfully, brain training can be used as a preventative measure for Alzheimer’s and Dementia. When the earliest symptoms are recognized, performing braining training exercises can help stimulate the brain and improve cognitive function. Again, it goes back to the idea of improving your ability to remember things. You’re training your memory to be better, which can fight off the effects of Alzheimer’s. It might not prevent memory loss from happening in the future, but it can delay it and leave you with a higher standard of living for longer.
Improve your attention span & reaction time
Two other benefits of brain training games are that they directly influence your attention span and reaction time. Many exercises are designed to keep you focused for longer. This translates into the real world by training your brain to focus on specific tasks, stopping you from feeling easily distracted.
Furthermore, some brain training games are all about making quick-fire decisions and reacting to things as quickly as possible. Thus, you start training your reaction times and improve them. Again, this has real-world applications – such as helping you react faster when you’re in the car.
Keeping all of this in mind, it’s a good idea to start training your brain. As promised, here’s a video that showcases five exercises you can start doing:
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