8 Ways To Stimulate Your Brain Outside Of GamePlay
8 Ways To Stimulate Your Brain Outside Of GamePlay
8 Ways To Stimulate Your Brain Outside Of GamePlay
When you are a seasoned gamer, either online or playing board games, you will know just how effective games are for stimulating your brain. Games teach your brain strategy, tactics, long term decision making, risk calculation, fun, healthy competition, and so many other key traits that can be transferred into our everyday lives.
But one common mistake that game lovers, researchers and teachers make is to get tunnel vision. If you become a game play connoisseur who invests hours per week on trying new games, you might neglect some other ways that your brain needs to be stimulated. Balance is always important, and in this post, we will explore 8 ways to stimulate your brain outside of game play.
This isn’t to say that games are bad for you - on the contrary! - but simply to remind you to nurture other forms of cognitive stimulation and development too. These activities can also help improve your game play by supporting your overall cognitive health and nurturing your skills. Let’s get started!
Spending time in nature.
Nature is an amazing stimulator for our minds, even if you aren’t the outdoorsy type. Whether you are a certified homebody or you love hiking and exploring the world, you should try to spend more time soaking up what nature has to offer.
If you have reached a particularly frustrating moment in your game playing life, or perhaps in other areas of your life, nature helps your mind to gain perspective. You will feel refreshed and rejuvenated by the enormity of the world, and this can help you focus when you return to the board!
Flying a drone.
Drones are becoming increasingly popular, due to their affordability and accessibility. Drones are a great stimulator for people who love to game, because they involve flexing similar cognitive muscles: exploration, curiosity, strategy, perception, risk assessment, to name but a few.
If you want to stay in game mode but do something a little more outdoorsy and explorative, flying a drone is a great place to start. You can find a great guide on how to buy the right drone here https://www.drdrone.ca/blogs/drone-news-drone-help-blog/drone-buying-guide-2021.
Physical activity that gets your heart pumping.
Solo exercise, like yoga, weight lifting, running, cycling or swimming, is an excellent stimulant from your mind. Although it’s a far cry from poring over an intricate board game, your brain will thank you for it.
Exercise produces endorphins that are scientifically proven to reduce stress and make your brain happier. You will feel more balanced, your mood will even out, and you’ll feel more prepared to come back to the game table with a new sense of clarity!
Team sports.
Speaking of exercise, have you ever joined a sports team? Team sports give you the brilliant benefits of physical exercise that we detailed in the previous section, but with an added bonus: you will be working on your game play too.
Making strategies, forming tactics, analyzing potential outcomes of certain moves - all of this and more is involved in playing a team sport. This means that by joining a sports team you can improve the way your brain tackles challenges during game play. It doesn’t have to be a super physical sport either; if you are not a sporty person, you could opt for snooker or darts to work your mind in a different way.
Learning a new language.
If you love to study other cultures and have wanted to learn a new language, now is your opportunity. The skill of speaking more than one language expands your brain’s ability to comprehend different forms of communication, which is essential in game play.
Your mind will be more receptive to different paths you can take during game play, as well as being able to remember previous plays by your opponents. In short, languages expand your brain and train it to have better short and long term memory. This is a great way to stimulate your mind both in and out of the game.
Cooking and eating good food.
Your brain is an organism that needs to be nurtured. Scientists are constantly finding more and more ways that your diet affects the way your mind works day to day. Your mood, hormone levels, concentration span, memory and ability to focus are all affected greatly by the food you eat.
Cooking and eating good food is a relaxing experience that helps settle your mind, so you can do what you love with greater focus and discipline.
Coloring and crafting.
Believe it or not, adults find coloring and crafting very soothing. If you play a lot of games each day, your mind might stay “on the treadmill”, as it were, when you’ve finished for the day. It’s hard to switch off sometimes, which is why coloring and crafting is so effective.
By doing something entirely non-strategic, like coloring in shapes and patterns, your mind can be stimulated in a different way. You can soothe your racing brain and try to switch off from the intensity you had built up to throughout the day.
Spending time with friends!
We all know that it’s easy to get cooped up inside, obsessing over a certain game or certain piece of research. Especially during lockdown, when face to face contact was all but nonexistent, many players leaned into playing long hours without breaks.
Now that COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed in many parts of the world, it is important to see friends. Social contact helps your brain feel joy - laughing, eating, and even playing with friends is the perfect way to get some happy hormones flowing. This will ultimately improve your quality of life and the state of your mental health in a very positive way.
Final Thoughts…
Although we are all enthusiastic about gaming in one way or another, it is important to get perspective and engage in other enriching activities. Try some of these awesome tips this week and see how much your game play, as well as your overall mood and state of mind, improves!