We hear all the time about how important it is to exercise our bodies. But what about our minds? It’s easy to go through our days simply following our routine without ever really using our brains, making things all the harder for ourselves when we face a challenge and really do need to think. What’s more, just like not exercising our bodies can cause our health to decline, not exercising our brains can lead to cognitive decline, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. When you want to give your body a workout, you can go for a walk or head to the gym. When you want to give your brain a workout, you can checkout BrainHQ through your Lafourche Parish Library. All you need is a library card and an internet connection.
BrainHQ has used scientifically proven techniques to develop a series of activities to improve functions such as attention, brain speed, memory, people skills, intelligence, and navigation. You can use their personalized training system, which evaluates your strengths and weaknesses and suggests exercises that will give you a boost in the areas where it finds you need help, or you can choose a course for yourself. With twenty-nine courses spread over the six categories, you are sure to find one to challenge you. Either way, BrainHQ will track your performance over time so you can see your improvement in hard numbers. Working just fifteen minutes a day, it is possible to see those numbers rise. And these exercises really are work, with some having reaction times measured in milliseconds.
Whether you are a retiree looking for a way to keep your mind sharp in all of your free time, a gamer looking for a more productive-feeling way to flex the skills you've honed in the virtual world, or just feeling like you need a little help cutting through some brain-fog, BrainHQ has something to offer you, and here at your library we are happy to provide it. Once you have found a skill set that you what to focus on, consider giving our catalog at look to see what books and other materials we have on the topic. There are plenty of authors out there offering tips and tricks for things like improving memory that might help you if you find yourself stuck on a level of BrainHQ, and we are here to help you find your way to them.
Best of luck keeping sharp out there!