Our mental well-being is as important as our physical well-being, if not more. We direct our focus towards physical fitness by adopting a healthier lifestyle that involves a healthy diet and a good amount of exercise. Similar to physical activity, various mental exercises help the mind stay fit. Brainpower boosting exercise enables your mind to stay sharp. They support our minds remain active and alert by continually being stimulated.
In addition to keeping our minds sharp and functioning, brain exercises also contribute to reducing the risk of developing certain illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease. If you look into some of the presenting signs of dementia, the majority of the patients report memory problems, confusion, impaired thinking, inability to carry out everyday tasks and much more. Brain exercises can efficiently combat all of the changes. In fact, one of the protocols to dealing with dementia is employing brain exercises.
Mental health is a rising concern in the world we live in at present. What makes the issue so prominent is its direct effect on other aspects of our everyday life such as physical health, socializing ability, productivity, happiness, and work performance. According to statistics, approximately 74% of the people who took part in a study reported feeling so stressed that they were unable to cope with their circumstances. Amongst these, an alarming 51% reported feeling depressed, 61% feeling anxious, 37% feeling lonely, 16% confessing to self-harm and 32% claiming they had experienced suicidal thoughts.
What is the best way to incorporate brain training in one’s day-to-day routine so that they too can improve their psychological function? Brain training apps are designed to help not mental health as such but rather the brain and its cognitive functioning. These apps work by incorporating different activities into one’s routine in an attempt to get them to participate more thus helping reduce any kinds of symptoms.
Here are the top 10 apps that you can use to improve your mental cognition and overall mental health.
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Lumosity
Lumosity is a popular app that features sessions of three games each personalized to your specific goals. Be it memory, attention, processing speed, problem-solving, thinking, or anything in between, Lumosity has games that are timed to help you improve your processing speed and cognitive skills over time. You can monitor your progress and also compare your performance with others to assess how well you are doing or how you have improved.
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CogniFit Brain
An app designed by neuroscientists, CogniFit Brain helps to improve cognition including concentration, focus, memory, etc. The app employs the use of fun and addictive games that allow users to track their progress and access perceptions associated with brain health. The apps set a difficulty level for each player after initially assessing them and also lays out recommendations for them based on results.
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Personal Zen
As the name suggests, Personal Zen is an app that helps cater to those with anxiety and helps reduce it by training your brain to direct its focus on the positive as opposed to the negative. We tend to adopt a pessimistic approach towards life, and it is essential to step away from that every once in a while and focus on being optimistic. This helps us become more resilient and robust when facing adversity.
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Brain Trainer Special
This app features numbers, letter sequences, and problem-solving math questions, as well as other quick quizzes to help your mind stay alert and in shape. You can choose your difficulty level depending on the challenge you wish to undertake.
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Brain Fitness
Brain Fitness is an app that uses a variety of memory training exercises aimed at increased one’s concentration, memory, focus, and problem-solving skills. Over time, these exercises can help improve one’s general cognition as well as attention span duration.
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Happify
The perfect way to eliminate negativity from your mind and your life is to train your brain to become happier. Be grateful, empathize with others and most importantly, learn how to deal with stress. This app focuses on enabling individuals to feel fulfilled and happy by employing multiple quizzes, polls and even a gratitude journal. The aim is to gradually make the user feel satisfied with what he or she has while simultaneously learn good habits that will make them happier.
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Positive Activity Jackpot
An app designed initially to help troops deal with a high risk of developing PTSD, Positive Activity Jackpot uses your phone’s GPS as well as imaginary situations to help users find activities. The point is to allow the user to think of a solution to help another in need. If the user cannot find a way to help, they can just pull the lever and allow the app to make a choice for them. A form of behavioral therapy, Positive Activity Jackpot is based on pleasant event scheduling to help someone’s mood get better and overcome sad and stressful thoughts.
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Fit Brains Trainer
An app meant to help mental agility using a variety of tasks, this app features more than 360 puzzles and games; each unique and catered to different objectives. You can opt for your desired level of difficulty and keep track of your progress. The app also offers recommendations depending on your skill set.
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ReliefLink
ReliefLink is an app designed for suicide prevention; however, this app can also be used as a mood tracker in general. The app features coping mechanism ideas, voice-recorded mindfulness, relaxation exercises, music, and much more. It also connects you to nearby support groups, therapists, helplines, and facilities if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to.
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Eidetic
Spaced repetition is a technique that helps you memorize anything ranging from phone numbers to facts to spellings. Eidetic used spaced repetition to help you remember important things like your partner’s phone number, your father’s birthday, your bank account details, etc. It also notifies you of any appointments and tests your memory as well using multiple tests to help improve long-term memory.
When it comes to brain training, playing video games is also said to improve your memory, processing speed, and overall brain function. There are countless apps on the market nowadays that claim to do many things including enhancing memory, improving cognitive skills and also even increase your I.Q. level. Brain training apps do not make you smarter, but they allow you to get better. They enable you to have more control over your emotions and your thoughts. They do not ward off the need for a licensed health professional in the case of a severe mental disorder, but they do help make things easier progressively over time. Employ the use of various braintest to help you assess your brain health. The mind and body are a single entity when considering overall health. Do not let one overshadow the other.
