The Best Pastimes for Boosting Brain Function

Walking can be good for reducing anxiety and can even protect us from dementia in later life.

In a world where we sometimes focus too much on what is on the outside rather than what is on the inside, it can be easy to forget to look after our minds. Celebrity images can make us obsessed with losing weight, toning up, or preventing wrinkles, but without a healthy mind, it is impossible to enjoy any of this. Happiness and health are intrinsically linked, of course, it is important to look after our bodies, but it is just as important to look after our brains.

Whether you’re Buddhist or not, there is perhaps nobody who has summed up true happiness better than Buddha. ‘To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.’ So, if you’re ready to enjoy a healthy brain and a happy life, try taking up one of these new pastimes.

Chess

For a long time the chess player has been stereotyped as a nerdy guy in glasses, but since the runaway success of chess series like The Queen’s Gambit, and the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen also being a professional model, that stereotype is changing. Of course, the stereotype didn’t come from nowhere, chess is enjoyed by plenty of exceptionally brainy people because it requires incredible logic.

If you feel that your brain could benefit from some challenging logic puzzles then chess could be the perfect pastime for you. If you’re very lucky you might have a chess club close by where you can learn from real people. Otherwise, you can play chess completely free online and many of the world’s top chess players share videos where they explain complex strategy on Youtube. You can keep this as a casual hobby, or as a serious investment of your time, but either way, your brain will thank you for it.

Card Games

Card games have an altogether ‘cooler’ image than chess. We often imagine the likes of James Bond sipping a Martini over a game of poker, but you don’t have to wear a tuxedo to enjoy this hobby. Card games, like chess, help you to improve your logical thinking, but they usually require more speed than chess. If you work in a fast-paced environment, then learning how to play poker, or blackjack could be beneficial to your decision-making skills. Understanding hands quickly and reacting accordingly is one of the first things a new player will learn.

More advanced players will eventually be able to understand people’s faces, look out for tells, and become masters of the silent ways we accidentally communicate. If you want to start off as a complete beginner then online is a good place to start. There are tutorials for hundreds of games, from rummy to whist, all the way down to snap! As well as this, the pressure of other players is relieved and you can practice at any time of the day. Look out for pay by phone casinos, as you’ll be able to deposit at your convenience and reduce the possibility to go over your spending limit.

Walking

Perhaps a surprising entry to the list, walking can be very beneficial for not just our bodies, but our brains as well. One of the best gifts you can give your brain is to spend time in nature. The federal government has recognized the importance of our national parks for developing the eco-tourism market, and also improving our own citizens’ well-being. Of course, not all of us have a national park on our doorstep, but simply surrounding ourselves by nature can relieve feelings of stress and anxiety, making us more able to cope with the challenges that life throws at us.

For those of us that live in cities, finding green space can be more difficult, but nature is not the only beneficial element of walking, Studies have shown that walking seems to reduce the risk of dementia. The neural pathways between our brain and our feet are very important and can be strengthened by taking regular walks. The improvements have been noted to be even more significant in those who walk without shoes. Perhaps you might look a little unusual walking around your local shopping mall, but it could be an experiment worth trying in a park or by the sea.