Do you make time to relax and exercise your mind?

According to a 2020 study mentioned in Healthline.com’s article, the average number of thoughts that enter our minds is 6,000. That’s a lot, right?

So many thoughts come to our minds in just a matter of seconds. Sometimes, we are not yet finished with one thought and another comes.

I find myself distracted many times by my own thoughts. I get a lot of ideas every day and I need to pause and remind myself to focus so as not to go astray by following my many thoughts.

Even when I am already about to sleep, I am still bombarded with a lot of ideas? Does this happen to you, too?

Thus, we need to resolve to deliberately make time to relax our minds to give them time to rest. We also need to engage in activities that can sharpen our minds to keep them in tip-top shape given the many problem-solving activities it does every day of our lives.

In this blog post, I will share with you 3 tips or ways that you and I can do to rest or relax our minds and sharpen them at the same time.

IMAGINE.

Use your imagination. Visualize. Daydream. Daydreaming was one of my favorite past times when I was a child. I loved using my imagination. I would daydream about my dream houses. I would imagine myself going around the world and enjoying different cultures. I visualized going on vacation with my family. I visualized my future.

As much as possible, don’t think about your work or the tasks that you need to do. Imagine what other good things you want to do or experience in your life outside of work and other life concerns.

Do you know that our brains cannot distinguish between what is real and what is just imagined? This was mentioned in an article shared on Dr. David Hamilton’s site. Click the link to the article to read more about it.

Therefore, when you imagine your dreams, your brain or mind thinks that it is already happening. Then, as you enjoy watching the images in your mind, your body releases happy hormones as well. This leads to you becoming and feeling more relaxed.

READ.

Read for fun, not for work! Read something about your interest. Don’t read about something that will stress you. Read a novel. Read a magazine related to your interests. Read something that will spur your imagination.

One of my favorite past times is reading magazines on interior design. Reading stories there of house make-overs and stores where nice and affordable home decors can be found move me to use my imagination and visualize how I would like my future house to look like or how I would like to make over a room in our house.

I like reading stories and imagining them happening as I read through the pages of a book. I could get lost in a story that I am reading for hours. When I was still single, I would not put a book down unless I have finished reading it from cover to cover. But now that I am married and with 3 kids, I can’t do that anymore. I still read books, but I read more slowly. I read a chapter or two only. Then, I go back to my chores or tasks at work.

Just the same, reading about something that is not related to work or my life concerns enables my mind to rest and relax.

PLAY MIND GAMES.

I also play mind games to keep my mind sharp while taking time out from work. Let me share some examples.

I play chess. I play chess with my kids over the board. My kids like playing chess and they also compete. I was the one who taught them to play chess. But, nowadays, they can already beat me. Hence, I also try to improve my chess-playing skills by playing online chess so that I can still win some games.

Would you believe that even my youngest child who is only 7 years old has started beating me at 6 years old? My second child also started counting the times when he was able to beat me a couple of years ago when he was around that age. He stopped counting already because I lost countless games to him since then! That’s why I need to practice.

At Solitaire.org, you can play online chess. If you have a child who is into chess but you are not good at chess yet, you can play using Junior Chess. I tried playing chess here. However, I find it confusing looking at the pieces and the squares. When I first tried it, my 7-year-old son was coaching me so I would not lose easily. hahaha In the end, I got a stalemate.

I switched to Chess Grandmaster, eventually, even if I thought it might be harder. You will get hints, anyway, on where you should move your piece if you are unsure.

This is under the option Logic Puzzles. In this option, you can also play Sudoku, Battleships, Tetra Blocks, and many others.

I play crossword on paper and online. Newspapers usually have crossword puzzles. However, if you do not have a newspaper and you want to save money, you can just play crossword online. This is also available on Solitaire.org. You’ll know if your answers are wrong because the letters would be color red.

There are many other options for online word mind games on the site which include Word Search, Wordoku, and Letter Scramble.

If you are not a words person and you like card games like Solitaire, there are many kinds of Solitaire also available aside from other card games like Blackjack, Crazy Eights, Gin Rummy, etc. I prefer the classic Solitaire over the other variations. Click here to check out the Solitaire games on the site. (To check out the other kinds of games on their site, just click the words that are highlighted in bold in this article.)

Whatever is your interest, my point is that you PLAY. As the cliche goes, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

I hope these 3 tips help you relax a bit in the coming days.

These tips can be done even while you are at home and it can take only a few minutes if that is all that you have to spare. It can extend to an hour or hours if you are enjoying yourself and you have time to spare.

Go check out these online mind games and check out your local library or bookstore! Then, come back here again and update me on what books you are reading or you’ve read and what games you played. How did you fair in playing Chess Grandmaster? 😉