14 Weird Brain Exercises to Help You Get Smarter

Exposing yourself to new experiences, especially positive ones keep your brain healthier. Always try to engage yourself in positive thinking, as well as attending programs that will improve your Intelligent Quotient, IQ. More so, do things that you are not familiar with in order to keep your brain healthier. Regular mental exercise helps to prevent memory loss. The following ideas are adapted from Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness by Lawrence C. Katz, PhD, and Manning Rubin.

“Neurobic” exercises (neuro + aerobics!) are like cross-training for your brain.

Your brain is connected to your sense organs by sensory nerves. Therefore, the brain interprets what your sense organs feed it with. It is therefore very important that you engage yourself with things that gladden your heart. This will not only make your brain healthier but also make you a lively individual. It increases your IQ and also makes you have a sound positive mind. There are many factors that help build a healthy brain and exercise is one of them. Engaging yourself in physical exercises, playing games that need you to think and attending programs that excite you are very important for the development of the brain.

1. BRUSH TEETH WITH YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND

Research has shown that using any part of your body that you are not familiar with can result in a rapid development of your brain. For instance, if you make use of your left hand while brushing will ultimately increase your IQ. Brain exercise: Brush, and don’t forget to open the tube and apply toothpaste in reverse, too.

2. SHOWER WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

If you have taken your surroundings for granted, this exercise is for you. Brain exercise: While closing your eyes, use your hand to locate the tap, adjust the water temperature and wash your body. Be careful not to harm yourself or increase the water temperature abnormally to avoid burn.

3. SWITCH AROUND YOUR MORNING ACTIVITIES

Our brains act like a magnet. We notice that we perform certain task easily without thinking about it while some tasks require us to think deeply before we could do them. This is because large areas of the cortex are exercised when the brain is not used to the tasks thereby, increasing the level of brain activities. However, this activity is reduced when we are used to the task, making us to complete the task without knowing when we did. Brain exercise: Get dressed after breakfast, change your TV station to one you are not familiar with. You can even go ahead and watch kid’s program like Sesame Street. This may make you realize what you have been missing all the while.

4. TURN FAMILIAR OBJECTS UPSIDE DOWN, LITERALLY

Each time you view things in an opposite manner, you brain is usually undergo some stress in interpreting what it saw. This helps to develop the brain. Brain exercise: Turn pictures of your family, your desk clock, or an illustrated calendar upside down.

5. SWITCH SEATS AT THE TABLE

Our brains highly benefits from trying new things. Brain exercise: Switch seats whenever you want to eat your meal. This will change the way you view everything around your dinning, creating new experience.

6. MAKE A NEW CONNECTION WITH YOUR NOSE

Everyone loves nice scents. Linking our nose to a new odor alerts neural pathways. Brain exercise: Inhale the odor of your favorite fragrance every day.

7. OPEN THE CAR WINDOW

The area of your brain that processes memories is known as hippocampus. It is especially involved with odors, sounds and sights. It is usually stimulated when we perceive new odors and sounds. Brain exercise: Try to identify new smells and sounds when driving by opening the windows of your car.

8. PLAY WITH SPARE CHANGE

Our brains easily identify objects by merely touching them. This explains why a blind person is able to read Braille letters by touching them. Brain exercise: reach out for your dress in the dark by touching each of your cloths. You will notice that you will end up picking the exact cloth you wanted.

9. PLAY “10 THINGS”

Engaging yourself in regular thinking exercise will help keep your brain healthy. Brain exercise: Someone hands you an ordinary object, and you must demonstrate 10 different “things” that the object might be. Example: A fly swatter might be a tennis racket, a golf club, a fan, a baton, a drumstick, a violin, a shovel, a microphone, a baseball bat, or a canoe paddle.

10. SCAN AT THE SUPERMARKET

Going to the supermarket can be very interesting to some people. Brain exercise: Take a good look at the items and pick an item that you are not familiar with. Read the ingredients and think about it. This helps to develop your brain as you are experiencing something new.

11. DO AN ART PROJECT IN A GROUP

Art makes you creative. Brain exercise: Ask each person to draw something associated with a specific theme like a season, an emotion, or a current event.

12. MAKE MORE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS DURING YOUR DAY

Going out for events and meeting people makes your brain healthier. Brain exercise: Buy things directly from the seller so that your exchange pleasantries and probably make friends with the person.

13. READ DIFFERENTLY

Practice the habit of reading aloud. It creates different brain circuits than when we read silently to ourselves. Brain exercise: Read aloud with your partner. It makes you to spend quality time with that person.

14. EAT UNFAMILIAR FOODS

The organ responsible for perceiving smell is known as the olfactory lobe. It has the capacity to distinguish millions of odors. Brain exercise: choose among varieties of food items and prepare meal that you are unfamiliar with.

Get More Brain Workouts

Keep Your Brain Alive, by neurobiologist Lawrence C. Katz, PhD, and Manning Rubin, is packed with 83 neurobic exercises to increase mental fitness and help prevent memory loss.

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Reference: www.rd.com