Brain training

I love doing brain training and try to train my brain everyday. There are lots of things that you can do that is classed as training your brain. When you have a brain injury this needs to start as soon as you can. When you are first recovering, in my case, you don’t really know what is going on. I remember being in the rehab centre and doing simple things such as telling the time or making a cup of tea but all of these can be classed as brain training. Me typing away this evening can help my brain to recover. It relies a lot on memory and cognitive functions such as spelling which I am really bad at. Once I started to improve a bit I started doing things on my computer and ipad which involved doing games specifically designed for brain training. I still use these now. I regularly use Lumosity, Peak and Brain Yoga. You have to pay for the first two but you can get some games for free and it is really worth the money. Brain training focus on cognitive abilities that are often lost when you acquire a brain injury. I have written about many problems that I have with memory, attention, concentration, decision making and planning, all executive functions. Brain training aims to enhance all of these functions and it is very easy to do. You don’t have to pay to do this, just pick up a word search or do some sudoku or a crossword puzzle. Adult colouring books are also good as you need to decide what colour to use or even as simple as which picture to colour or which book to buy. Brain training is so important in my recovery. I have been told that my recovery has been amazing and I think this is down to brain training. I feel that it is in part the reason why I have been able to go back to work, the same job as before. I am realising now that brain training can’t fix all the abilities I have lost but I has enabled me to function as a ‘normal’ person in life again. My memory is still really bad, my attention and concentration is poor, I spend ages making a decision and when I am fatigued these problems are multiplied. I would recommend doing a bit of brain training every day, it doesn’t take long to do. Try online scrabble, I love it and it great to beat the computer and helps to improve my spelling.