It’s no secret that the four of us like working out together. It’s great for keeping our bodies strong and healthy. After all, these dad bods don’t make themselves! That’s why we focus one of our Core 4 pillars on physical fitness – beFIT.
But there’s actually more to our pillar than just physical fitness. We also want to devote a significant amount of our time and focus to mental fitness. You can’t hit the gym to bulk up your brain, but here’s a list of some ways to give your brain a workout.
1. Riddles
Riddles are an excellent way to get you to start thinking outside the box. A good riddle can keep you puzzling for hours. It may be frustrating at first, but keep at it and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of solving a challenging riddle (without cheating).
If you’re up for the challenge, check out some of these riddle sites:
2. Puzzles
I’m not talking jigsaw puzzles… although those can be therapeutic as well. Remember those interlocking metal puzzles that you bought at the science museum gift shop but could never solve? Or, if you did ‘solve’ it by throwing it against the wall in a fit of rage, then you couldn’t put it back together?
Yeah, those things are back with a vengeance. There’s a whole industry built around them: puzzle creators, puzzle collectors, puzzle solvers.
Here are some of my favorite links:
- Puzzle making: Art of Play
- Puzzle solving: Chris Ramsay
3. Reading
There’s nothing like a good book to expand your mind. Any type of reading is good, but there are definitely genres that lend themselves better to brain building. Non-fiction books and biographies are great ways to learn more about our world.
Andrew just posted a book review last week and we’ll continue to bring you some of our favorites as we come across them. Joe Weigel also discussed some of his favorite and most influential books in his life during our interview with him.
4. Learn a new skill
Learning a new skill helps you develop new pathways in your brain. Try to learn something new every week.
If you work on learning to play music, that’s a bonus! Playing, or even just listening to music has been proven to have positive effects on mental accuity.
Here’s a list of skills (some probably more valuable than others) that you could pick up fairly quickly:
- Juggling
- Magic/Card tricks
- Painting
- Sketching
- How to tie knots
- Speak a new language
- Sign language
- Basic computer skills
5. Exercise
It’s true, working out physically also gives your brain a boost. I know that I’ve personally felt it. After a morning workout I feel ready to tackle the day and I tend to do some of my best thinking.
If you get stumped by a problem, it can help to take a little break and get some physical activity in. Go for a run, bust out some push-ups, or even just do a couple jumping jacks. Sometimes that extra blood flow can shake something loose and make a solution seem obvious.
Conclusion
There are tons of ways to keep your brain strong, but the main point is to keep it active. Just like it’s recommended for adults to be physically active for at least 150 minutes a week, challenge your brain on a regular basis to keep it sharp.