TRAINING THE MIND

As we all know, it is not only important, but crucial to train your mind. You need to train both the mind and the muscle equally, as training one without the other will lead to you being a less well-rounded athlete in the long run.

There are countless ways to train your brain, what should I do?

Stick around, as in this very blog post I will be discussing the importance of training the mind, as well as giving some tips and tricks to help you in your journey.

HOW SHOULD YOU TRAIN?

As I stated before, there are countless ways you can train your sharp. Some ways of training might appeal more to you than others, but sometimes it is crucial to incorporate different types of brain training techniques into your weekly training routine.

What is crucial to understand, that training and bettering your mind doesn’t have to be boring and dull.

There are more traditional ways of training, as well as some really useful modern resources which help achieve our current goal — enhance the functionality of the brain.

APPS

You have all probably seen a lot of brain training apps out there, that promise to make you a genius in a matter of weeks. Absolute gobshite!

Can they give your brain a little workout? Yes. But will they really be that effective? They definitely can, but it will take an immense amount of time and energy.

Here I would like to introduce one app in particular, which I have used for a while. Although I only used the free version which is very limited ( yes, I’m that broke ), I can definitely say that their little basic yet effective brain games work.

I used these specific games for one purpose only — to make my brain work. I believe the app that I’m about to introduce to you is a great resource, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you use.

LUMOSITY

Lumosity is a great resource to train, sharpen and enhance your brain’s cognitive abilities. Lumosity has 40+ games and puzzles which test you mainly on the following:

• Logic
• Maths
• Memory

It is important for you to understand that Lumosity is by no means necessary perfect! Make sure to incorporate it into your weekly brain training routine, but do not stop there! I love to mix it up with some of my other favourite exercises.

Some might consider them being too boring or even old school, but I believe they have served me well enough to recommend them to you.

OLD SCHOOL

So, what are some old school brain developing games? The one that I enjoy the most is a game which has been around since the 6th century.

Chess

Playing chess can significantly boost your cognitive ability, as well as help develop the following:

• Memory
• Processing Speed
• Fluid Reasoning

If you want to learn more on the benefits that playing chess provides, make sure to check this blog post out!

Sudoku

Sudoku is another game which most of us have played at some point in our lives. Some are challenging, some are not so much. But all of them have one thing in common — they improve our concentration and logical thinking.

Sudoku is a great add on to your already existing training routine. I personally played it a lot, while watching some of my favourite TV series such as “Lucifer” and “Gotham”.

I know I’m getting off topic, but I believe that playing sudoku once in a while, can help your brain stay sharp and focused.

This is exactly what we are looking for, therefore this makes it a great resource to use in your brain training journey.

If you want to learn how to play sudoku, I recommend you read through Sudoku’s official “How to play Sudoku” page.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU TRAIN?

So, how often should you train your brain? How much time should you allocate to your weekly trainings? Those are very great question to which I unfortunately do not have the answer to. At least not in the way you would think.

I believe that you should try and squeeze in at least half an hour of training every two days. I’m not going to lie, I am guilty.

I do not always have the time to train my little noggin everyday, but I try my very best to do something every single day which challenges me.

Try to find a specific activity which is challenging, but doesn’t seem extremely difficult or overwhelming. Playing games like chess or sudoku can go a long way. As long as you stick with your training, you will see results!

CONCLUSION

Training the Mind is incredibly important and you should not neglect it. I’m not proud to say that I have neglected it in the past, I’m not planning to continue to live with my past habits.

To enhance my ability to think rationally and to increase my cognitive abilities I have incorporated chess, sudoku and the Lumosity app. I recommend you do too!

There is one more thing that I haven’t touched upon in this post, which in the long run was far more effective in increasing my focus, ability to structure my thoughts and ideas as well as supercharge my problem solving skills, than everything that we have discussed in this post.

Can you guess what it is?