Whenever someone talks about self-improvement, it usually involves working out. While physical fitness is important, there’s another type of fitness that is severely under-appreciated — mental fitness.

What most people don’t realize is that you can exercise your mental power, becoming better at various metal tasks. You can sharpen your cognitive skills and keep your brain at the peak of its abilities. Today we’ll show you six fun ways you can achieve this on your own!

Solve Puzzles

Solving puzzles is a known way of stimulating one’s mind. Back in the day, people were limited to table games and physical puzzles. While those can get extremely complicated and challenging, the advent of computers and their proliferation has brought a whole new dimension to puzzles.

Modern puzzle games take things to the next level by adding, well, new dimensions to the challenge. Not only are there plenty of 3D puzzles now, but you have a whole array of really complex puzzle games that you can play. These games have deep storylines, enticing characters, and problems that require some serious out-of-the-box thinking.

Table Games

If you’re more into table games, there are a few options out there that will definitely give your mind a run for its money. You can always try Scrabble — one of the most popular word games in the world. It has become so popular that we now have awesome tools such as word unscramble that are designed to help people become better at this game. Playing with words will spin your cogs and wheels while you’re trying to visualize different concepts and meanings. Scrabble is a fun game that also helps build bonds with people.

Read

Reading is an awesome way to push your brain, but in a slightly different manner than our first three suggestions. Where various puzzles and puzzle games force you to find a solution, reading works your creative side of the brain. Reading a novel will stimulate you, challenge you, force you to visualize scenery and situations that you’ve never experienced before.

Making your brain do all of these things is a great exercise in mental agility. The more you read, the better your vocabulary will be. The better vocabulary allows you to explore more complex concepts, thus forcing your brain into overdrive. In short, there’s no downside to reading. Add it to your to-do list.

Sudoku

Sudoku is a rather special game. The rules are simple, but the game itself can be extremely difficult. What makes Sudoku so interesting from a mental agility standpoint is the fact that it requires you to visualize things several steps in advance. It’s not enough to reach the first logical conclusion, i.e., which numbers are suitable for one particular row or column.

Instead, you need to predict how that number will affect every other adjacent row or column. The best thing about Sudoku is that you can gradually get better at it following your own pace. The puzzles go from easy to difficult in a very linear manner. Definitely try one out!

Do Math

Math is something all of us use every single day. However, it is also an acquired taste. Doing math outside school is almost unheard of in this day and age. Most people see math as boring, like a chore you’re forced to do in school. That being said, math is also one of the most effective tools you can use to build mental power.

By trying to solve complex equations or derive various proofs, you’re pushing your brain to work within a complex framework of rules based on logic. The more you do the math, the easier it gets.

Exercise

Last but not least, make sure to exercise. The whole ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ thing isn’t just an old Latin saying. There is plenty of truth behind those words. Exercising changes the chemical structure of your brain. It improves your memory and generally makes you feel better.

By incorporating exercise into your daily routine, you’ll improve your mental fortitude and discipline as well. After all, it takes true willpower to push through exercise you don’t particularly like.

Do Something Every Day

Working on your mental power takes time, but more importantly — it takes consistency. Try to do something every day. Make it a mission to challenge your mind every morning or evening. It could feel like a chore for the first few weeks, but it only takes so long before something becomes a habit and later second nature. If you can make challenging your mind a habit, you’re on a good path.