This blog explores how games can keep your mind active. Some of them you will know about already, but some of them will be new.
Keeping your mind active while you’re at home can be challenging. But if you can find the right games, you can make the whole process so much easier. You’ll feel like your IQ jumped 30 points by the end of a few sessions.
This blog explores some of the games you can use to keep your mind active. Some of them you will know about already, but some of them will be new.
Puzzle Games
The first place to start is with puzzle games. Sitting down to complete a crossword or spending a morning on sudoku can be an excellent way to get your brain cells firing.
What’s great about these puzzle games is that they test your mind in new ways that differ substantially from what you’re used to with regular work or relationships. You have to think out of the box to solve problems and deal with issues.
Problem-solving skills can also emerge from these games, allowing you to transfer them to other areas of your life. You get used to thinking in a certain way and seeing the connections between things. You can spot patterns and think critically more often.
Card Games
Don’t underestimate the ability of card games to keep your mind active either. These force you to think probabilistically and strategically at the same time, making them among the most mentally stimulating of any game.
The best games for this are poker, bridge, and solitaire. These involve planning, strategizing and using specialist techniques to win. Rummy is also an option because of the sheer level of mathematical theory involved.
The more you play card games, the better you get at them. Over time, you notice trends you can exploit to win more often. Of course, there are never any guarantees when random chance is involved, but if you can get your strategy right, you can often beat your opponents.
Word Games
Some people also enjoy word games. These get you to expand your vocabulary and use new words to enhance fluency and knowledge retention. They can also be highly addictive if you get into the swing of them.
The best word games are Scrabble and Boggle. Scrabble gets you to invent words from your existing tiles and connect them to those already on the board (in a crossword pattern), while Boggle randomizes letters and gets you to create words from the connections you see, with higher scores for longer words.
Word games are fun because they get you to interact with other people and expand your vocabulary. If the word is in the Scrabble dictionary, you’re allowed to use it, meaning you will encounter all sorts of strange words if you play it for long enough.
Strategy Games
If you like the idea of strategy and want to test your brain that way, then playing strategy games at home can be an excellent way to keep your mind active. These encourage you to think ahead and consider all the possibilities, including the risk of individual players outflanking you.
Risk is perhaps the ultimate board-based strategy game. It requires you to think critically and make decisions that strengthen executive function and adaptability. You have to be prepared to gamble it all and put it on the line to capture territory from opponents and risk losses elsewhere.
What’s fun about risk is the probabilities involved. The game encourages players to attack each other and take territory, but you also have to be careful to avoid overextending yourself and allowing other players to take you by surprise or from behind. You often see a buildup of forces on critical borders and fewer in the regions behind them, meaning that a single breakthrough can lead to a catastrophic loss. Furthermore, the way the dice-rolling scoring system works, it is possible for defending or attacking parties to lose a lot of units in individual battles, changing the fight dynamics significantly.
Chess is another strategy game that stretches the mind, as is Catan. These require you to think differently each time you play them to avoid a series of events that could lead to your eventual demise.
Physical Movement Games
Sometimes, playing physical movement games can be fun. These games encourage you to move around more and train your mind-body connections.
Many of these use VR but you can also get options for the Wii Sports and dancing games that keep you active at home.
These games are ideal for brain training because they combine physical activity with gaming elements. This means that any learning that takes place is often more effective because you are active while you’re doing it. You’re not sitting there passively, trying to force yourself to do something.
Creative Games
You could also consider playing creative games if you want that part of your personality to thrive. These let you think outside of the box and, sometimes, create your own world.
Minecraft is perhaps the best example of this in reality. This game encourages strategic planning and creativity, allowing you to make pretty much whatever you want, whether your environments obey the laws of physics or not.
The Sims is slightly different. It gets you to think strategically about conditions for your in-game family, encouraging you to think long-term and plan for emergencies.
Some people create their own games or environments in 3D design programs. These programs are fun to use because they are educational and help you build skills for the future.
Educational Apps
Finally, some educational apps are forms of gaming that keep your mind active while at home. These often train specific cognitive skills, like attention and memory, allowing you to solve problems better and giving you transferable skills.
Peak and Luminosity are good examples of this in practice. These apps drill down into specific cognitive capacities and help you improve them over time with the right approaches.
Duolingo is different because it focuses on languages. However, it, too, can be useful if deployed in the right way. Increasing verbal fluency is still an excellent way to brain train.