Choose a leisure activity that offers a spatial challenge to keep your brain engaged and stimulated.
- Do you like being in nature? Learn to navigate with a hiking map instead of relying on your phone
- Do you like exploring urban life? Challenge yourself with finding your way or exploring new routes in the city with minimal reliance on apps
- Do you like solving puzzles? Find spatial activities, such as some suggested puzzles here and here.
These activities not only provide enjoyment but also significant psychosocial benefits. Our brains may also benefit from new spatial challenges – findings from studies on taxi and bus drivers show that regular spatial orientation activities lead to measurable brain structure changes.
Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Frith, C. D. (2000). Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), 4398–4403. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.070039597