FIVE BRILLIANT CHALLENGES TO BOOST YOUR BRAIN POWER
PUZZLES and games are fun. But scientific studies show most ordinary puzzles don’t necessarily make you cleverer or better at handling life’s challenges.
These exercises, however, have been specifically selected to expand your capacity to think and remember better.
1 MULTIPLY TWO-DIGIT NUMBERS IN YOUR HEAD
WHY is it so easy for most of us to multiply 6 times 3 in our head, but so difficult to multiply 16 times 32?
Part of the reason is that most of us learned our times tables as schoolchildren — so we don’t have to think of the answer — it’s already stored in our long-term memory.
We’ve seen how important your ‘working’ memory is — it’s like a mental notepad that keeps track of a conversation, remembers why you walked upstairs and helps you think through a problem.
Multiplying two-digit numbers is a good way to test your working memory — and to strengthen it in the process. Mental multiplication actually improves your working memory. It’s a fundamental skill that gets better with practice.
Here are ten problems. Do them once... and then spend five minutes a day doing other two-digit multiplication problems in your head. 18 x 21 43 x 82 96 x 58 29 x 72 35 x 19 84 x 33 17 x 71 97 x 63 24 x 45 12 x 81
2 SPELL WORDS BACKWARD IN YOUR HEAD
SPELLING words backwards forces your brain to think hard and use your working memory. Here are ten words. Look at each one, then close your eyes and spell it backwards in your head. You’ll be surprised how hard it is!
To really build your brain-power, though, you need to keep doing it. Spend just five minutes a day thinking up words and then spelling them backwards in your head. Try it the next time you’re on a bus or on a train. Try the following:
3 START USING YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND
UNFAMILIAR activities force brain cells to sprout new connections. It’s amazing how badly most of us write with our nondominant hand. The part of your brain that controls that hand simply hasn’t been challenged. Try using it, and you will literally be building brain connections — and strengthening your neurofitness.
4 EMBRACE THE GREAT OUTDOORS
EXPOSURE to nature improves your mental functioning. A study by the University of Michigan found that students who took a memory test scored 20 per cent better if they walked in a forest rather than in a city before they did the test.
Another study, in the journal Psychological Science, found that walking in nature, or even just looking at pictures of nature, significantly improved attention and shortterm memory.
And just an hour’s walk in a park will relieve stress, stimulate your mind, lower blood pressure and strengthen your neurofitness.
5 GET YOUR NOSE IN A BOOK
READING a book makes people smarter. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare or Stephen Hawking — but pondering a new idea, guessing how a story will end or trying to figure out a character’s motivation all makes you use your brain. The more you use it the stronger it gets. Pick whatever subject appeals to you and just get stuck in.