10 Exercises That Can Bolster Your Brain Power

The 4-Details Observation Exercise

Being watchful of others around you is a great social skill. Some scientists have labeled brain exercises passive memory training. Passive because there’s no unique memory technique. You’re simply asking your mind to do what it was designed to do, and that is to remember!

You may wonder why this matters. We don’t ask our minds to practice observation enough, and if we don’t do that, we fail to observe and recall the information it brings. We also fail to follow things that we aren’t seeing, making it impossible to take mental pictures. We can teach you all about how to do that with these simple visualization exercises. Gary Small, MD, talks about memorizing four details of people you come across in public.

For example, someone is wearing a blue hat, has blonde hair, a round ring, and a yellow sweater. Your goal is to observe the details first and then recall them later. You can start by watching just one person per day. Once you’ve gotten good at recognizing four details of just one person, you can add more information, more people, or both.