Games to Increase Brain Power

At every turn we are reminded how important exercise is to our general health. Equally as important is exercising your brainpower. Maintaining mental sharpness is essential to counter the memory loss that comes with age. There are dozens of problem-solving games and puzzles that help enhance brainpower and increase mental focus. Mental exercises are available for every level of development, young and old.

Lateral-Thinking Puzzles

• Puzzles increase mental acuity and help stimulate the problem-solving part of your brain. Start each morning by solving a crossword or Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper. A more classic lateral-thinking technique is to draw a row of three dots evenly spaced on a piece of paper. Mark two more dots evenly spaced below each of the dots in the first row. You should have a 3x3 box of dots on the paper. The challenge is to connect all the dots using four straight lines without lifting the pen or pencil off the paper.

Learn a New Skill

• Learn to play an instrument or, if you already can, a challenging piece of music. When you learn a new skill, your brain creates new neural connections while also strengthening old ones. It can be as simple as using your opposite hand to brush your teeth before bed. By choosing an action that's part of your daily routine, you're more likely to stick to it. Once you have mastered that task, move on to a new daily challenge.

Exercise Your Senses

• Incorporate one or more of your senses in a routine task. Eat breakfast with your eyes closed. If that is too easy, try eating with your opposite hand and with your eyes closed. Daily exercises that use your physical senses help stimulate the growth of brain cells and encourage mental focus. Another variation is to utilize two of your senses, like listening to music and smelling a new perfume.

Solitaire

• Card games such as solitaire, poker and variations of classic strategy games help increase your speed of thinking. If you're playing a game alone like solitaire, use a stopwatch to time yourself. Try to beat your fastest time with each new game you play.

Language Games

• Flex your short-term memory with language or word recall games. Favorites like Scrabble or Word Search will not only improve your memory but also help you expand your vocabulary.