Geocaching, escape rooms, and other creative pursuits to keep your mind sharp

Everyone knows someone who claims that their daily crossword habit keeps them sharp. They're not wrong; anything that stimulates and challenges your brain — word games, puzzles, Sudoku — does help ward off age-related cognitive decline.

But for those seeking a side of adventure with their cognitive fitness routine, a more active brain game may be more appealing.

Geocaching, escape rooms, and orienteering stimulate your brain, and as an added bonus, help you get some movement into your day — a boon for brain and body alike. All three take you into uncharted territory each time you play, and challenge you to use your wits to claim a prize or reach a goal. They provide new and varied challenges with each session — which is good for your brain — and they're popular with all ages. That's important, as there's evidence that the earlier you start cognitive workouts, the more of a buffer you'll create against age-related cognitive decline.

Mental stimulation for cognitive fitness: Three key rules

People with mentally demanding jobs or higher education have a lower risk of developing dementia with age. They also tend to have more cognitive reserve, the ability to compensate for age- and disease-related changes to the brain. But even if you don't have an intellectually stimulating job or an advanced degree, you can — and should — maintain and promote cognitive reserve by stimulating your brain in other ways.

Cognitive fitness challenges help maintain and promote brain plasticity and encourage new neurons to form. But you don't have to do a specific "brain training" program to boost cognitive fitness. Instead, follow these three cardinal rules of mental stimulation to help you train your brain.

• Try something new. Get outside of your comfort zone and try something you've never done before. Even if you're terrible at it, each time you try something new and expand your expertise, you forge new neural networks.
• Challenge yourself. Don't coast by on previous achievements. If you're learning a new language, get out of your comfort zone and try striking up a conversation with a native speaker. If you're primarily a walker or runner, try swimming, biking, or dance classes.
• Vary your cognitive workouts. If you rely on crosswords to keep you sharp, sign up for an art class, take music or dance lessons, or try geocaching, orienteering, or escape rooms. Just like cross-training your body, varying your cognitive workouts helps work different parts of your brain.

Geocaching: High-tech treasure hunting

If you've ever noticed people with phones or GPS devices poking around in the bushes or searching under rocks at your local park, they may have been geocaching. A kind of high-tech scavenger hunt, geocaching uses GPS coordinates to send people on adventures to find hidden "treasure." The prize at the end of the search isn't usually high value, and you don't usually get to keep it. Instead, the focus is on the fun of the search.

Reading a map and following it into uncharted territory makes your brain work harder than usual, and you get the added bonus of exploring somewhere new, or simply digging deeper into a familiar landscape to find your cache. As of June 2024, there were more 3.4 million geocaches hidden in more than 190 countries, so there's probably at least one near you. You can sign up to play at geocaching.com/play.

Escape rooms: Immersive problem solving

Escape rooms are a kind of live-action mystery game where you're dropped into a physical space (the escape room) as the protagonist in a made-up story and have to use your wits to find your way out. You're provided with a storyline and clues to help you "escape" the room by solving puzzles or mysteries as you go. You're also racing against a stopwatch, just to add a little extra stress (or mental stimulation).

While you don't need Houdini-level skills (you're aren't truly locked in), escape room scenarios are immersive, which makes them fun. They also require you to use both rational and creative thinking, thus tickling your neurons and stimulating your brain.

Escape rooms have popped up everywhere in the past decade. But if you can't find one near you, try a virtual escape room.

Orienteering: Navigational challenges for the brain

You don't have to be a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout to enjoy wayfinding with a map and compass. Like geocaching and escape rooms, orienteering stimulates and challenges your brain each time you do it. And because you'll be racing against a clock to reach checkpoints in outdoor settings, you'll be getting in some exercise too. If you enjoy competition, signing up for an orienteering event provides even more incentive. Check out orienteeringusa.org to see if there's an event or an orienteering club in your area.