What Is Mental Agility? Mental agility indicates the ability of an individual to think, learn and quickly absorb new information, systems and processes, in other words, how well our mind can adjust to new circumstances. Our brain has to absorb tons of new information every day so mental agility is essential to handling multiple items with a degree of mastery.
The good news is that mental agility can be learned through training. It is a critical building block for success as we move into this next chapter of business and life. Cultivating a habit of mental agility can help you develop greater focus, efficiency, and performance for daily work tasks. One of the most powerful activities that increase mental agility is the game of chess.
If you don't play, by all means give it a shot. You may find it boring or you may find it exciting. If you find it boring it's because you may have forgotten or somebody need to be reminded that every piece has a purpose and they all impact one another. The key element of Chess is studying the board with the realization that every one of those pieces are impacted by each move. That means surveying all of them and also watching your opponents moves and How it ultimately can have a domino effect on the entire game. Mental agility in this case, is the ability to multitask with each piece. It's the ability to shape your moves while defending your moves, attacking, retreating and regrouping at the same time.
Mentally agile individuals are curious, always looking for parallels and fresh connections.
They are sponges in terms of trying to learn new information from books, TED talks, newspapers and the like. They recognize, there is no shortage of accessible information available on virtually any subject.
Agility has always been valuable in the workplace, but as we learn to navigate a new normal, it will be even more important - perhaps the one skill we'll all need. Agility is more than just being able to react well to change. It's about everyday habits and attitudes, applied continuously, that make us flexible or mentally agile.
Now, a study published in NEJM Evidence has found that regularly attempting a crossword may help slow decline in some people with mild cognitive impairment, an early stage of faltering memory that can sometimes progress to dementia.
Researchers found that those randomly assigned to do crossword puzzles for 18 months showed a small improvement in tests of memory and other mental skills. That was in contrast to study participants who were assigned to a more modern brain exercise: computer games designed to engage various mental abilities.
Guitar players and other musicians have to utilize mental agility every time they play. Its amazing to watch. Its even more amazing to think about all the various elements going on in the mind of the musician when they are in the middle of a great performance. We watch, listen and experience mental agility happening in real time.
The ability to create chords from various different strings all working together to effectively produce a pleasant sound all on a rhythm and beat is pure mental agility. That's why we love and respect our musicians so much. Learning an instrument is like learning a language but harder. You must both think and act at the same time while compensating for time, space and the resulting sound.
Puzzles activate both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. “Imagination is activated alongside reasoning or reckoning,” Danesi says. “Memory also comes into play, especially in word-based and math-based puzzles. This entails a 'whole-brain' activation.”
Jigsaw puzzles are quite therapeutic indeed! They allow for increased mental stimulation, increased “good-feelings”, and improved Interactions with others. It's exercising that ever-so-important muscle “The Brain” that makes it stronger. Mental agility is essenial when you have to speak, think and move effectively at the same time.
Give these tips a try and let us know how it goes.