
Brain Strengthening Exercises for Stroke Patients

Stroke recovery requires extensive physical and mental rehabilitation. Various physical exercises can help the affected individual regain mobility and strength. In addition, brain exercises can benefit stroke patients, improving cognitive function and aiding in early functional recovery. Here are some of the best brain exercises for stroke recovery.
Brain teasers
Brain teasers like puzzles, anagrams, and cryptic crosswords can help develop coordination between different brain parts and improve critical thinking skills. This boosts memory recall and helps regain lost abilities due to a stroke, such as problem-solving or making decisions quickly.

iStock/ Getty Images Plus | Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke
Memory games
Memory games can improve short-term and long-term memory functions by regularly engaging with different stimulus patterns. These include memorizing stories or ideas, visualizing places or objects with sound to recall words related to them, or using diagrams and shapes to remember colors or numbers associated with them.
Meditation
To reduce stress from a traumatic event like a stroke, meditation has proven effective in relieving emotional disturbances such as depression or anxiety seen in many stroke survivors after their incident. Meditation also improves focus and awareness, along with managing pain levels in patients suffering from chronic stroke pain.
Mental simulations
Visualizing scenarios within our mind strengthens neural pathways connected to logical thinking processes by forcing the person’s mind to work harder at comprehending new information while remembering events that have happened previously. This is especially useful for people who struggle during activities requiring short-term memory, such as reading comprehension tasks or following directions quickly as they recover from their strokes.

Irina Myriam/ Kiddy123 | Brain training involves a series of activities aimed at strengthening your cognitive abilities
Problem-solving activities
Playing board games that involve math-based solutions is a great way of keeping your brain active while dealing with challenging problems that require creative solutions, such as puzzles, Sudoku, etc. Putting your mental faculties into practice regularly increases cognitive efficiency leading to better problem-solving skills necessary for day-to-day operations of life post-stroke recovery period.
Word games
Playing word games like Scrabble, Hangman, and Boggle can help improve language skills such as reading, writing, and speaking. These activities also challenge the brain to think more creatively by recognizing patterns and forming words and phrases while learning new ones. This is especially beneficial for individuals who have suffered from aphasia due to a stroke, as it helps them relearn language abilities to taking meaningful conversations with others during their recovery process.

Getty Images/ Everyday Health | Stroke rehabilitation may involve occupational therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
CBT is extremely helpful when dealing with anxiety, depression, or emotional issues that stroke victims may experience due to their disability. A therapist can assist the individual in understanding how thoughts affect our emotions, help identify negative thinking patterns, and provide tools to cope with physical or psychological limitations posed by recovering from a stroke.
Overall, brain exercises have shown significant promise in helping individuals recover from strokes more quickly. With proper guidance and support, people on the road to full recovery should consider trying out these activities to achieve better results than traditional rehabilitation techniques alone.
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