Play Mind Games as you Play Physical Games

We all know that learning in the classroom while listening to our teacher's lesson is the most common way to acquire knowledge. Although these are the proven ways for us to use and exercise our noodle(the brain), still there can be a be fun and challenging way to be engaged in to such activity.

What I'm talking about is to encourage people of all ages to play mental games. These are mind games that are fun and really puts your brain to the test by letting you think outside the box, use your strategies and even remember information. Playing such games will not only allow your mind to stay sharp, but also does more than that.

Known to be beneficial to the overall function of the brain, these games are also beneficial in other aspects of your mental health and wellness.I highly recommend playing mind games to people who are known to use their brains most of the time like statisticians, engineers, teachers, scientist, computer programmers as well as students.Working out your brain on those cognitively-demanding tasks and activities decreases your mortality rate. Many studies and researches have proven that people who are cognitively-engaged are least likely to suffer from memory loss, Alzheimer's disease and other mental disorders. Although other contributing factors are counted to overall benefits such as a healthy and active overall lifestyle, effective management of stress, and being active in social interactions, still mentally-healthy people are at their best in proving that it brain health is an important factor for long survival in today's modern world.

1. Chess. Known by many as the game of thy royalty(with sets depicting Middle-ages characters) this two-player strategy game is truly worth brain workout activity. This game not only allows a player to just move a piece and win. You're main objective is to think and find ways to attack your opponent's King via and at the same time keeping your King safe from your opponent. So basically, while you're attacking the other party, you also need to defend your base. Playing chess on a regular basis sharpens your strategic thinking and improves even your problem solving skills.

2. Crosswords and puzzles. As a kid, we all experienced having jigsaw puzzles as our very first puzzle to solve. Now that you're too adult for it, you might consider browsing into your newspapers and other publications, and a form of brain exercise is found : in the form of a crossword puzzle. This puzzle is never too old for a mentally-challenging brain exercise. Your goal is to fill the white boxes with the correct word being asked from the questionnaire below. A crossword puzzle is successfully solved if all blocks filled when read across forms a significant word, as well as when it is read downward that satisfies the correct answer to the question being asked.

Other forms of puzzle you might consider is the sudoku puzzle. It comes partially solved, the objective of the game is to fill the 9x9 grid with numbers 1-9, without creating duplicates of a specific number vertically, horizontally and within the 3x3 sub-grid block. There is much brain power needed in playing this game, so frequent playing of this game will actually sharpen one's mind the fun way.

3. Apps that offer trivia and knowledge. In this digital age, many of the conventional way of getting things done has now been converted to its digital counterpart. Search the App Store, Android Market and even the Windows Marketplace to download several educational apps.Try the memory games which enhances your ability to remember. There are also apps that are formatted like your favourite game show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire, where you can practice answering trivia questions. Answering such questions allows you to think back of what you mostly learned in school, watched on TV, read on the newspaper, allowing you to make use of how you well you remember when you've acquired that certain topic, but most importantly a definite basis for measuring a person's IQ (intelligence quotient).

4. Playing Cards. This article is not intended to encourage gambling, but believe it or not, playing those deck of card games like solitaire, poker and others you are familiar with actually helps the brain in thinking strategies and tactics to win the game by outsmarting your opponents. This includes on what card to select, series pattern creation of consecutive cards or even whether to take the opponents card or not. Studies show, that the brain is mostly to stay focus and thinks of strategies twice than any normal thinking phase when playing card and gambling games. It has got to do with the desire to win in order to double the money a gambler has dealt and never screw the game.

This however, does not include casino-types of games like slot machines,roulette,dice and tile games, where winning depends merely on probability and luck.

Below are some tips and pointers one should follow for an overall brain health achievement.

1. Being physically fit. Along with being able to stay physically healthy, try to utilize your brain in controlling your action. Refrain from taking non-prescribed drugs and tobacco. Enjoy it while listening to your favourite music, which proves to be beneficial to mental health as well.

2. Practice being mindful of things from remembering someone's face or name to doing the necessary tasks you must accomplish for the day.It enables you to attain long term memory, which will always save the day whenever you need to recall on something very important.

3. Discover new and fun ways of learning things as a continuous aspect in life. It will not only be a non-boring way of getting it done, but it also unleashes your creativity in doing tasks that you think you could never have accomplished before.

4.Always stay hydrated. The brain is composed of 70% water. When we use most of our brains in heavy thinking, we often times tend to make our brain performance poor.