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We all understand the importance of looking after our bodies. We know that it works best when we feed it nutrient-rich food. We are aware that moving more to raise our heart rate can help us stay in shape. But we can sometimes forget about the importance of looking after our minds too.
In the last few years, we have begun focusing more on mental health and well-being, understanding that it’s important to manage stress and make time for ourselves. According to the Alzheimer’s Society and the UK’s National Health Service, keeping your mind active, when combined with other healthy habits, can also reduce your risk of developing dementia.
Exercising our brains can also make us better in our work by helping us think more critically, be more creative, and develop our reasoning skills. A great way to do this is by playing games that make us practice these abilities, all while having fun. Here are some of the best games for keeping your mind sharp.
Chess
Playing chess is often associated with being intelligent. Many of the members of Mensa, a membership club for people with high IQs, are known to play chess.
It’s a game that’s been played and studied for more than 1,000 years, testing the strategic thinking and foresight of players. Success in chess is not just reliant on making the right moves, but understanding the approach your opponent is taking and counteracting them many moves ahead.
A study has also shown that playing chess requires the use of both sides of the brain, while another showed that people who play chess were more creative in their thinking.
Poker
Poker is one of the most popular card games played around the world and it’s enjoyed by people from many different backgrounds. Part of its popularity comes from the challenge it gives to players, requiring them to understand the different values of each hand, think several steps ahead of them, manage their bankroll, bluff other players, and read the mannerisms of their competitors to understand when they’re bluffing.
The basic rules of poker are easy to pick up, understanding how the cards are dealt and the different hands takes just a few minutes and a little bit of practice. However, as in chess, you can spend years developing different strategies and styles, such as whether to be tight, loose, aggressive, or passive. This will give your brain a great workout as you focus on your own strategy while trying to suss out the other players, all while you have fun.
Sudoku
Sudoku is a number puzzle that requires you to place the numbers 1-9 in every column and row of a 9×9 grid. The numbers 1-9 must also be included in each 3×3 grid that’s placed inside the larger square.
The game has been played for centuries, though the modern version first appeared in a Japanese puzzle book in the mid-1980s. It wasn’t until the 2000s that the games became more widespread after computer software was invented that could generate many puzzles quickly.
The nature of Sudoku gets you familiar and comfortable with numbers, using small, unintimidating digits while forcing you to problem solve. Players who can successfully complete Sudoku puzzles quickly will be forced to develop a set of strategies and techniques, such as number elimination and directional scanning.
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First-Person Shooters
Video games are often criticised for being violent and distracting people from more productive pursuits. But this may be unjustified as playing shoot-’em-up games actually requires a lot of skill.
As well as testing your hand-eye coordination, these fast-paced games have been shown to improve your reaction times.
The difference between winning and losing in a first-person shooter can often be fractions of a second. Apart from players who use long-distance sniper rifles, these types of shooting games require players to shoot and move, having almost no time to aim before pulling the virtual trigger.
This helps to improve the reaction time of players which is translated into other areas of life. One study conducted by the University of Rochester found that players who trained their reflexes on Call of Duty 2 made decisions 25% faster than those that played Sims 2. This speed didn’t compromise the quality of the decisions they made either, which was reportedly the same across both groups.
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