Take the Long Way Home for a Change

new-route-brain

Try this today

• Become a first-rate noticer. Pay attention to the visual cues that orient you to your surroundings — topographical features such as mountains, vistas, landmarks, turn junctions — and how they change with new routes.
• Take different paths to the same destination. Instead of your usual itinerary, explore the scenic route, even if it’s slightly longer. Expanding your sense of how roads connect and relate to each other builds your capacity to create a robust virtual map. Here’s a smart way to use your GPS: Navigation apps tend to offer multiple routes — by switching it up you’ll develop a fuller lay of the land.
• Get lost, on purpose. Navigate your way back to your destination through cardinal directions (north, south, etc.), topographical features, familiar landmarks and informed guesses. Getting lost — and found — bolsters your knack for regrouping in an unfamiliar context.
• For extra credit. Draw a map of your town or neighborhood from memory, being sure to include key landmarks. Activating your spatial recall muscle can help you hone your eye for detail as well as enhance your spatial mastery.

Why

In addition to the traditional five senses, there’s another sense we are born with — our sense of direction. Spatial awareness is what allows us to walk and, eventually, to drive. According to research on navigation and the brain, wayfinding is not a fixed trait, but can grow with practice. So if you’ve ever berated yourself for having a terrible sense of direction, things can take a turn for the better.

 

Through playing close attention to your environment and body position, you can develop detailed mental maps of your physical location. And having good navigational skills doesn’t just serve you well in new locales — it may help protect your gray matter as well.