Train your Brain and Sharpen your Mind

artwork by: matthiole 

As time goes by, I am finding that my brain is just not functioning the way it used to. It's nothing serious. It's just the way it works -- "use it or lose it". My memory could be better. I am horrible with directions and get turned around and lost quickly (though that is nothing new). Also, I would like to speak better. My verbal communication skills pale in comparison to my skills on paper. I just can't think quick enough to verbalize my thoughts, and when I can, they are not terribly lengthy. This is something I am working on this year.

Enter Lumosity.com. I can thank my sister for sending me an invite to this amazing website. I was lucky enough to get a free trial out of this and gain full access to the site (yes, completely free, and no credit card information needed to sign up). I tried out their program and was immediately hooked. This really works!!! It consists of series of games and exercises. Each exercise is designed to improve a particular area of cognition. You can follow a guided 30 session complete brain fitness course, or you can take charge of your training and directly train the areas that need the most work. The best part is that you’ll receive detailed information and feedback on your training and improvement.

I am happy to report that my scores have been going up, up, up! My memory is improving, my sense of direction is improving (I have tested this out in my new area of residence), I am able to process thoughts more quickly and as a bonus, my general mood has improved. I do feel like my brain is sharper and clearer after using the program for only a week. The games are surprisingly fun and addictive!

I am planning to buy a membership once my 7 days is up. You can have limited access as a free user but I don't know what that entails yet. This is exactly the kind of brain feeding that I have been looking for.

If you want to check it out, let me know, and I will send you an invite. Comment here with your email address (or if you don't feel comfortable with that, feel free to email me at kittyglampants@gmail.com with "Lumosity invite" in the subject). I highly recommend this website!

More Ways to Feed your Brain

Sporcle.com - How well do you know Geography? Do you know all of the countries in Europe? Better yet, can you place them on a map? I couldn't. Not since high school could I do that. This free site quizzes you on the countries on each continent by asking you to label them on a map. I am proud to say that I can once again picture where countries are when I hear about them in the news. Check out the other quizzes this site has such as naming all of the U.S. Presidents (in order), U.S. capitals, and even less serious trivia such as naming all of the Simpsons characters by picture.

FreeRice.com -  You may be familiar with this site as it gained popularity a few years back when it first launched. For each answer you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger. They are multiple-choice-style quiz questions.The site started out with vocabulary words but did you know they have expanded their subjects to now include Art, Chemistry, Math, and Foreign Languages? Try it out. It's very cool!

Do you know of any other similar sites that increase your brain power? I am always looking for new ones.