Calm Your Brain

Mental exercises are activities or practices designed to stimulate cognitive functions, improve mental health, and enhance emotional well-being. These exercises can help reduce stress, increase focus, boost memory, and promote relaxation. They often involve mindfulness techniques, breathing exercises, visualization, positive affirmations, problem-solving tasks, or other activities that engage the mind and promote mental clarity and resilience.

Suggested mental exercises, that should be performed silently: 

• Name all the objects you see in your mind. 
• Describe the steps in performing an activity you know how to do well. For example, how to shoot a basketball, prepare your favorite meal, or tie a knot. 
• Count backwards from 100 by 7 (or any other number). 
• Pick up an object and describe it in detail. Describe its color, texture, size, weight, scent, and any other qualities you notice. 
• Spell your full name, and the names of three other people, backwards. 
• Name all your family members, their ages, and one of their favorite activities. 
• Read something backwards, letter-by-letter. Practice for at least a few minutes. 
• Think of an object and “draw” it in your mind, or in the air with your finger. Try drawing your home, a vehicle, or an animal.

This game is part of the toolkit ‘Facing trauma - A toolkit on trauma-informed support for children and youth’. This toolkit is a cooperation between StreetSmart, Minor-Ndako, Save the Children Romania & SolidarityNow, cofinanced by the European Union. It provides simple tools to explore important topics like trauma, stress, self-care and emotions in a way that’s easy to use with different target groups.

Familiarize yourself with mental exercises