Look for difficulties! 30 day brain training program

When we want to get the body in shape, we train hard. It’s the same with the brain: use it more often, complex tasks will only benefit it! Anything that makes our convolutions tense leads to the formation of new synapses and neural networks. So the main training for the brain is to learn to meet difficulties with joy. And, if possible, intentionally look for them. Remember, it’s better to exercise a little than not to exercise at all.

Day 1: Brush your teeth or shave with the wrong hand

So you can develop fine motor skills of the non-dominant hand (for right-handers – left, for left-handers – right), as well as learn how to perform actions with both hands. It is known that musicians who play the instrument simultaneously with the right and left hands have a denser structure of the cerebral cortex and corpus callosum (the tissue that connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain). In this case, the posterior part of the frontal lobe is activated opposite to the hand that performs the swing.

Other ways to use the non-dominant hand are to apply makeup with it, to press the buttons of the mouse or the TV remote control.

Day 2: Play a game of chess

Chess trains the skills of concentration, problem solving, pattern recognition, strategic planning, and perseverance. All of this (except for pattern recognition) is initially handled by the prefrontal cortex, located in the front of the frontal lobe of the brain. This game involves all possible cognitive processes and keeps working memory active.

Day 3: Get off the bus early or late

By turning off the beaten track and discovering new routes and places, you complete your imaginary map and hone your spatial orientation skills. It is connected to the inner part of the temporal lobe – the hippocampus – and the adjacent cerebral cortex. Research shows that when we practice route finding, the hippocampus gets bigger. How about turning off GPS on your mobile to keep your brain sharp?

Day 4: Get on the bike, then get off the wrong side

Habitual movements are stored in a kind of motor memory that allows us to act on autopilot. By disrupting routines, you challenge your brain and strengthen synapses that were rarely used. In this case, the cerebellum and the motor cortex of the cerebral hemispheres interact.

Day 5: Take on new household chores

If you switch jobs with a partner (for example, decide to pump up the tires of a car or learn how to sew on a sewing machine), you can try something new. If you live alone, change your tires yourself, sew on a broken button, or prepare an elaborate meal. When searching for a solution to a completely new problem, the most anterior part of the frontal lobe is involved – the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Day 6. Learn to rotate the pencil around your thumb.

As you develop coordination, new synapses are strengthened and the insulating material (myelin) around neuron extensions (axons) becomes denser, allowing faster signal transmission. Have you noticed that when you solve a new problem, you concentrate only on it, but when you solve it again, you start to get distracted and think about other things? This task gradually becomes part of the motor memory, for which the cerebellum is responsible.

Day 7. Answer the questions of others in a foreign language all day

This exercise is probably best done on a day off. In situations where you communicate in a language other than your own, the neural connections that were first formed during the period of learning this language are strengthened.

Day 8: Ask and listen

Give up today on duty question “how are you”, which is usually answered “fine” and rarely tell something. Ask what your colleague, classmate, teacher or neighbor is working on and try to understand what it is about. When we delve into other areas of knowledge, new neural networks are again formed in our brain.

Day 9: Shop for groceries at the new store

In a store you don’t normally go to, the display of goods is likely to be unfamiliar, and you will have to focus on more actively searching for what you need. The autopilot won’t work. This will begin the interaction of several parts of the cerebral cortex, and the occipital lobe will help you visually find what you need and understand where to go.

Day 10. Remember your bank card number

Previously, it was necessary to remember the account number by heart. Now, when you need to enter the card number when buying online, remembering it is just convenient. The hippocampus is the save button in our brain that allows us to store information in our long-term memory.

Day 11. Calculate without a calculator

A separate area of ​​the brain is responsible for calculations, and it should also be kept in good shape. Neural connections that are not used are weakened or used for something else. If possible, avoid calculating on a calculator – it is better to double-check your calculations later on a piece of paper.

Day 12: Hold the computer mouse in the wrong hand throughout the day

The brain benefits from getting out of the routine. When you train the motor skills of the opposite hand or you have to press the keys in reverse, the brain is trained, new synapses and bundles of nerve fibers are created.

Day 13: Go to bed an hour earlier than usual.

Nothing is more beneficial for the brain than restful and uninterrupted sleep, which will give vivacity, freshness and complete clarity of consciousness. With a lack of sleep, brain activity decreases, and this affects you all day long.

Day 14 Walk ten thousand steps in a day.

If you are not a fan of physical activity, then you will feel a great effect even from a short workout – half an hour a day will be enough. Walking stimulates the emergence of new neural connections. You can install a special application for these purposes, or use the pedometer built into your smartphone.

Day 15: Add three new dishes to your menu for the week.

Cook something you’ve never tasted before! Then you have to get creative and stretch your brain, and as a bonus, you will diversify your diet.

Day 16: Dance with a partner or friend

This will be a good workout for the body and brain – in partner dances we have to keep the rhythm, learn the steps and read the partner’s signals.

Day 17: Type all day blind

The cerebellum is an area of ​​the brain that allows us to learn automatic movements and store them in motor memory. When the process of typing on a keyboard is fixed in your cerebellum as an automatic movement, you can focus on the content of the text, and not on finding the right keys. This will make your work more efficient and at the same time be good for your brain.

Day 18: Take a new route to work

In fact, this task is close to the third exercise: as already mentioned, the hippocampus increases when we train in finding a route. Therefore, it is worth choosing untrodden paths more often and using your own internal “navigator”.

Day 19: Run

During exercise, substances are released in the brain that promote the formation of blood vessels and neurons.

Day 20. Talk to a stranger in a store or on a tram

Challenge social norms – meet new people and experience the joy of communication! In the process of recognizing faces and interpreting emotional expressions, the language area of ​​the frontal and temporal lobes, as well as the occipital lobe and amygdala, are activated.

Day 21: Shop for groceries from memory

Shopping without a list trains your memory. You can learn completely new mnemonic techniques to help you remember what you need without memorizing. Mentally forming a shopping list, you use primarily short-term memory, as well as the hippocampus, located in the temporal lobe of the brain.

Day 22: Learn five new words in a new foreign language

Learning new foreign words triggers the same reward system that is activated by delicious food, sex, and drugs. This involves the entire brain, but the most important thing for our language function is the work of the cerebral cortex.

Day 23. Guess the riddle

John’s mother had three children. The first child was called May, the second – June. What was the name of the third child? Solving puzzles is great for keeping your brain sharp. (Clue at the end).

Day 24: Skip the elevator for the day.

Of course, the easiest way to get up is to take the escalator and the elevator, but neither the body nor the brain will benefit from the fact that you do not move much. The more physical activity, the higher the brain. So go ahead, up the stairs!

Day 25: Have one of today’s work meetings “on your feet”

Research shows that meetings are 36% more effective when participants are standing. Scientists have found that a person burns 50 more calories per hour if he works while standing. And when the body is in good shape, then the brain too.

Day 26: Walk in the woods

Walking in nature, according to research, reduces blood flow in areas of the brain that are most active when we are stressed.

Day 27: Take an IQ test

The average IQ is 100, but this value is not constant. If today’s 30-year-olds take centuries-old IQ tests, the average score will be higher. This is called the Flynn effect. The intellect “is” in the cerebral cortex, more precisely, in its tortuous folds, and especially in the frontal lobe. Many do not realize the fullness of their mental faculties. How can you find out if you don’t pass the test?

Day 28: Play Scrabble, solve the crossword

When guessing and composing words, for example, in Scrabble, crossword puzzles or other games, several areas of the brain interact at once. You must simultaneously use both long-term and short-term memory to memorize and correctly form a word, as well as the language areas of the brain. In this case, large areas of the brain and, most importantly, the frontal lobe interact.

Day 29: Move gadgets away from the bedroom

Leave phones and tablets in the living room. Frequent computer and phone use in the bedroom disrupts nighttime sleep and disrupts the circadian rhythm. Research confirms that sleep is the guardian of the brain, triggering the process of removing toxins.

Day 30

And finally, guess the riddle: one of the options below does not fit the others. Which? Texas, Georgia, Colorado, British Columbia or Alaska.

This task promotes the development of thinking in categories, as well as flexibility. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the flexibility of thinking. You can put forward your proposal and rethink it if your option does not match the one below.

Answer to the 23rd day puzzle: John.

The answer to the last riddle: British Columbia, as it is not one of the US states, but a western Canadian state.

Source: Kai Nordengen “Keep your brain in good shape. Scandinavian method of training the intellect “(Peter, 2019). Read about other ways to train memory and intelligence in this book.