Train Your Brain: These Hobbies Will Make You Smarter

Contributed Post, October 19, 2017

We live, and we learn, but some hobbies teach us a lot more than others – and many live lives where they learn way more than the rest of us. When everything we do is to improve ourselves and continue prospering, it makes sense to consider what we fill our spare time with. Netflix may be educational enough, but learning something new just gives you so much more.

Here is a handful of the best brain-boosting hobbies to get you started this weekend already.

Play a musical instrument

Both listening to and creating music can be incredibly therapeutical, but it’s also ideal to train your creative skills, analytical skills, language, maths, et cetera – the list truly does go on. Scientists have agreed, once and for all, that playing musical instruments is incredibly good news for your brain, but some of them claim that simple team sports can provide you with the same benefits.

While sports such as football and hockey also boosts your brain power, music does something team sports can’t do; it strengthens the corpus callosum that links the hemispheres of the brain by creating new connections between them.

When your corpus callosum is improved, you’ll be operating with even better executive skills, your memory improves, and you’ll also be better at problem-solving – everything we’re striving for, in other words. Not sure how to even get started with playing an instrument? Have a look at this article, and you’ll be off to a good start.

Workout your brain

Exercise is also excellent for your brain, by the way, so don’t ditch your weekly gym sessions to sit an hour with crosswords instead. You should still find time to give your brain a good workout, though, as it’s a great big muscle that wants to become stronger; treat it to rounds of board games, sudoku, puzzles, riddles, you name it.

The more mentally challenging it is, the smarter you’ll be at the end of it – even though it doesn’t always feel that way.

You can find so many mind games online, by the way, and you don’t have to head off to the shop to buy an actual board game if you’d like to get started right away. Have a look at these free origami instructions and diagrams that you can bother your mind with over the weekend, and enjoy the creative benefits it gives you too.

Read all the time

You probably feel like you’re reading a lot already, right? You’ve made it this far into the article, so reading should come easy to you already – according to scientists, it doesn’t even matter what material you read as the brain benefits are the same.

You’ll experience a reduction in your stress levels, and make you feel better about yourself in general, in addition to improving three types of intelligence: crystallized, fluid, and emotional.

Pick up a new book, keep reading these articles, and you’ll be giving your brain a good workout at the same time – without even noticing it. Which is, of course, the best kind of exercise.