24 Fun Ways To Keep Your Brain Sharp And Active

A concern of many people is that their cognitive abilities will decline as they grow older, and it’s a valid concern – our memories and our ability to think are a key part of how we define ourselves, so the thought of losing them can be frightening.

The good news is, there are things you can do to stimulate your brain, and keep it sharp and active.

This entire area of study is called neuroplasticity, and it’s all about your brain’s ability to change and adapt, often by creating new pathways as new connections are made between different memories. This is, therefore, an effective way to exercise your brain.

Alternative Uses

This is a game you can play either by yourself, or with others – and it’s simple.

All you need to do is choose a random object (e.g. a screwdriver) and then list ten alternative uses for that item.

If playing with somebody else, it would be usual for them to choose which item you need to work with, and vice versa.

Break Convention

Marketing and advertising has become a real science over the past century or so – everything you encounter when shopping, for example, has been carefully placed and designed to maximize the company’s sales.

One way to use this to your advantage is to recognize that this is the case, and do everything you can to break free from your programming.

For example, the most popular items are usually placed on shelves that are at eye level – so look up and down at the other shelves, and take notice of what you find. You may even discover things you end up preferring!

Change The Order Of Routines

When you get out of bed in the morning, it’s likely you have a set ritual that you follow every day. For example, the order in which you go to the bathroom, have a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, what you do while you’re eating, go get the mail or a newspaper, walk the dog, are probably the same each morning. (Well, they will probably vary based on whether it’s a work day or not, of course)

So, try altering your routine for a change, where this is practical.

Anything new activates areas in the brain’s cortex, which means it’s being stimulated. (By contrast, tasks we perform on autopilot decreases activity in this area.)

Maybe you could eat breakfast before you shower and get dressed.

Or you could walk the dog before breakfast, instead of after it.

Luke Rhinehart, in his life-changing book “The Dice Man” (well, it was for me), takes this to extremes by varying more radical routines. For example, he walks backwards to work, and randomly alters the order of words in sentences (like Yoda on steroids). This is my all-time favourite book, but be warned, it’s a bit “out there”, and there is a lot of sex that goes on (all in the name of science and in keeping with the theme of the book, of course).

Do Everyday Activities With Your Non-Dominant Hand

There are many daily rituals we all have that we have done so often that we do them on autopilot.

But try to do those using your other hand, and, at first, you’ll have to devote a fair bit of mental energy to mastering it.

Good example of things you should try include:

• Brushing your teeth.
• Combing or brushing your hair.
• Using a knife and fork. (I grew up using a knife and fork the opposite way to most people, and at primary school I was forced to change, and even now, I remember it was not an easy thing to do.)
• Working your computer mouse.

Go “pro mode” and learn to eat using chopsticks – and if you already can, use your non-dominant hand. (An American friend of mine who lived in Asia for a while told me that you know you’ve become an expert when you can pick up two peanuts – side by side.)

Engage With More People

One of the problems of modern society is that we are becoming more disconnected (from each other and from nature).

For example, many people’s preference is to use automated machines, cards, social media, or any other technology – largely to avoid having to deal with other humans face-to-face.

But isolation (which happens in spite of the fact we live in large cities, surrounded by thousands or millions of strangers) can be dangerous from a mental health standpoint.

So, try to talk to more people, and this doesn’t mean holding long conversations. Any short interaction (e.g. asking a question, saying “Thank you”) will do.

This may make you anxious and uncomfortable at first, but communicating stimulates specific areas that will help you maintain an active brain.

Focus On Different Senses

When doing certain activities (e.g. walking to the store, shopping, sitting in the garden, working at your office desk), try to focus on one specific sense (e.g. smell) and detect as many different things as you can.

Even though the activity you are doing is probably one you do frequently, it is likely that you have been taking many of those sensations for granted.

Then, rotate around your senses on different days, so you give each of them a work-out.

You will be surprised to notice all sorts of things that you’d never detected before.

Another variation of this is to do activities that use all of your senses at once (e.g. camping).

Learn A New Language

While it’s true that learning a new language can be more difficult as you grow older, that does not mean it’s impossible.

Learning a new language (e.g. vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation) engages various parts of your brain, as you not only try to remember new information but also associate it to things you already know.

Learn Braille

Trying to detect subtle differences in items that are very similar is a great way to stimulate your brain’s cortical areas.

So, while you can try to distinguish different denominations of coins in your pocket, say, learning to read Braille takes this exercise to a whole new level – because subtle differences in patterns you can only touch is exactly what Braille is all about.

Learn To Play A Musical Instrument

This is effective for many of the same reasons that learning a new language is – with the added bonus that it requires physical coordination too.

Mathematics

Yes, I know this will be anathema to many people, but doing math the old-fashioned way, i.e. with pen and paper or in your head (aka mental arithmetic) rather than calculators, will exercise parts of your brain that may be used rarely these days.

Meditation

Even though you may not classify meditation as fun, I would be remiss in omitting it from this article because there are many benefits to this practice, including calming you down and helping you to concentrate, focus, and keep your mind sharp.

There are many different ways to meditate, and you’ll find a few articles on the subject here.

Memorize Something

It doesn’t really matter what it is that you try to memorize, as long as it’s something you find interesting. This is not meant to be an attempt to force you to relive your schooldays, learning useless information by rote!

Remembering new information is something we do all day, every day, of course, but setting out to memorize a specific thing can be a great way to exercise your brain.

Here are a few things you could try to memorize, but there’s really no end to what you might choose:

• Bible verses
• Country names (and their capitals)
• Digits of pi
• Geographic lists (e.g. tallest mountains, longest rivers)
• Poems
• Formulae
• Playing cards
• Quotations
• Sporting statistics and records
• Stock market codes
• US state capitals

Perform Personal Hygiene Rituals With Your Eyes Closed

This forces you to rely on other senses (e.g. touch), which activates different parts of your brain.

Obvious examples here would include:

• brushing your teeth
• combing your hair
• shaving
• taking a bath or shower

And, of course, it goes without saying that you need to make sure what you try is 100% safe!

Physical Exercise

I know, exercise may not bring the word “fun” to mind, if, like me, your overriding memory of it is when you were forced to participate in various activities at school.

However, there are many benefits to exercise, not just for your body but for your mind too, and there are so many types of exercise you could choose from, it’s likely you’ll find one that works for you and that you do actually enjoy.

Examples include:

• aerobics
• canoeing
• cycling (including a stationary bike)
• dancing
• diving
• gymnastics
• hiking
• jogging / running
• martial arts (e.g. aikido, judo, karate, kendo)
• mountaineering (including climbing walls)
• orienteering
• sailing
• skiing
• sports (e.g. baseball, cricket, table tennis, squash, tennis, golf, soccer)
• swimming
• tai chi
• walking
• water skiing
• weight lifting
• yoga

Play Around With New Aromas

While humans don’t have as good a sense of smell as many animals do (because we no longer need it for survival), aromas can still be a powerful trigger for us. Most people will remember smelling something that brings a certain memory to mind, for example.

If you associate certain smells with certain activities or times of day, try to replace that smell with a new one.

For example, the most obvious example is the smell of coffee being associated with the start of the day.

But it doesn’t have to be like that – you could have a quick inhale of a bottle of some other scent (e.g. cinnamon) when you wake up, and just before breakfast.

It seems like an insignificant change, but it will activate new neural pathways as your brain makes new connections.

Randomize Places At The Dinner Table

The more you look at your life, the more you realize how many things we do automatically.

One example is where we sit at the family dining table – everybody has their place. This isn’t because it was discussed and agreed – it often just happens, and then nobody ever thinks to change it

But when you change places, you’ll see quite a few things from a different perspective:

• The people you sit next to or opposite will change.
• Your view of the dining room (or maybe what’s outside, through a window) will be different.
• Even the layout of what’s on the table may be altered.

You could try the same thing in the living room too, for example, since people often always sit in the same chair. Switching this around will give you a different view of the room, a different angle when watching television, and a different view out of the window(s).

Read Out Loud

This is a great tip when trying to proofread something you have written, but it can also be a great way to stimulate your brain.

Not surprisingly, when we read, usually silently, to ourselves, it’s a very different process to reading that same information out loud.

Of course, it’s not always practical to read out loud (e.g. you’d get some very strange looks in the office or on the train on the way home), but there are places at home (or maybe even in a local park) where you could try this.

Again, you can do this by yourself, or you could take turns with your partner to read out chapters of a book you both want to read.

Solve Puzzles

This is one of the best activities for exercising your brain, and there are so many options you can choose from, including:

• Anagrams (e.g. how many words can you make from a given set of letters)
• Boggle (which is a game where each player has to list as many items in a set list of categories that begin with a specific letter)
• Crossword puzzles (e.g. cryptic or synonym-based or general knowledge)
• Jigsaws (and if you want to make it more challenging, you can hide the picture, or get one of those jigsaws where there is no picture on the box at all, or you can try a double-sided puzzle, or a 3D jigsaw)
• Logic puzzles
• Mathematical (including magic squares)
• Murder mysteries (i.e. can you work out who did it?)
• Nonograms
• Rubik’s Cube
• Scrabble
• Sudoku
• Tetris
• Word searches

Stop Relying On Technology

A lot of what technology can do for us, we used to do by ourselves at one time.

I’m not saying technology isn’t useful, but you have to wonder what effect it has had on the way we use our brains.

Turning off your technology (e.g. smartphone) and doing things the “old-fashioned” way can be challenging, fun, and helpful in keeping our brains active.

One example might be no longer using the map app on your phone. Instead, get a paper map (I’m assuming they still make these) and plot your route out on that.

Or maybe stop using some power tools and go back to the manual way (e.g. a tenon saw instead of an electric one). Alternatively, in the kitchen, don’t use those “labour-saving” gadgets, and do tasks by hand (e.g. making bread, cutting vegetables).

Even reading can be a different experience, so put away your Kindle and pick up a real book. (Real books have a unique smell and feel that you will never get from an ebook.)

And try to stop using search engines and find information the way we used to (e.g. when I was young). Back then, you used a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopedia, library index cards, public information offices, or you asked people who might know what you were looking for.

Yes, it’s a lot more effort (which is why we invented the technology), but it will force you to use your brain differently.

Take Different Routes To Places

In many cases, we take the route that is quickest, because who has spare time these days, but that does get you into a mental rut.

So, whether you’re driving to work, or to the mall, try taking a different route. This means you’ll have to concentrate more, learn new landmarks, and you’ll notice things you never saw before.

And if it’s practical for you, you could even try different modes of transport (e.g. bicycle instead of car, bus instead of train).

Try New Foods

Most of us have a list of foods (and drinks) we prefer, which is usually more out of habit than anything else (although some people do have, of course, medical reasons for not eating certain foods).

But trying different foods will expose you to different combinations of tastes and smells, and that in turn will create new associations and pathways in your brain.

Turn Things Upside Down

The human brain gets used to seeing certain objects in the same orientation all the time, especially human faces.

So, to give your brain a quick work-out, try turning a few things upside down, such as:

• calendars
• clocks
• photographs (either of people or places)
• your watch

And if you want to level up to advanced mode, try reading a book or magazine upside down!

Undertake Art Projects

When you draw, sketch, paint, etc. you activate very different parts of the brain (e.g. creative parts) to the ones we use for normal, day-to-day activities (e.g. logical, rational ones).

Doing something related to art can therefore be a great way to give parts of your brain that are often dormant a good work-out.

This activity can work well both individually or in groups (e.g. where you all draw something based on a common theme, and then compare results later).

Writing

Primarily, I’m talking about creative writing here, and there are two forms you could consider:

1. Free-format, which would include novels and short stories, as well as some styles of poetry
2. Structured, which usually includes many types of poetry, including haiku (which are a traditional Japanese style of ultra-short poems).

Both have their individual merits, and stimulate different parts of the brain.

Writing a short story, say, allows you to get into the flow by writing more or less whatever you want.

One variation of this is called free writing. The idea here is that you start with three randomly chosen words (there are websites that will make this easy for you), and your first paragraph must contain each of those three words. After that, you just keep writing whatever comes into your head (without worrying about typos or doing any editing), either until you have written a specified number of words, or you’ve been writing for a certain number of minutes.

Structured writing, such as certain formats of poetry (e.g. sonnets, haiku) requires a different type of thinking, since you have to take into account the “shape” of the poem, the number of syllables on each line, how many lines there are in one stanza, etc., which makes is more of a combination of both the logical and creative parts of your brain.

Conclusion

So, there are a ton of ideas here for you to try, and as I’ve said elsewhere on this site, pick one that appeals to you, because that will be an easier way to develop a new habit, and then gradually include more of them.

And remember, you don’t need to do all of them every single day – any variety in how we do things is better than none at all.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. 750 Words
2. Aromatherapy Oils
3. The Dice Man