WORDLE puzzles are played electronically and are similar to Jumbled word puzzles, but you only have five attempts to find the correct word.  It is mostly left brain thinking and some right brain thinking to do the letter permutations to arrive at the correct word. See attachment “Wordle.pdf” for a list of common words and an example puzzle.

CROSSWORD puzzles will definitely help improve your left brain detail memories and thinking, mainly because it makes you look up the meaning and spelling of unsure words in the dictionary.  If the word “pops p” in your brain it’s a left brain memory, but if you have to figure it out doing permutations of the letters you’re using your right brain.  There are easy “commuter-type” crossword puzzles plus much more difficult puzzles.  If you have never done a crossword puzzle it is best to start with the easy puzzles and when confident, move on to the more difficult puzzles.  It is very satisfying to complete an entire puzzle, but sometimes that’s not possible, but you should be happy with what you have achieved and do better the next time.  The "across" and "down" words you choose can have many answers, but some of that can be resolved if you are aware of the attributes of the desired words.  A word can be a noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb or verb, which helps when you look it up in a dictionary/thesaurus.  Other than a word's definition, you also need to be aware of its tense, plurality and abbreviations.  After buying and discarding numerous reference books, I narrowed it down to the hardcover printings of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (12th edition) and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Thesaurus (2nd Edition) to be the best source for the correct word.  Also, it helps to keep a list of the crossword puzzle maker "pet words" that are reused, some of which may not be in the dictionary.

JUMBLE word puzzles mix up the letters of words that need to be unmixed, which helps strengthen your left brain memories that contain the correct spellings.  If those word memories are weak or don’t exist you have to look up the spelling of the words, which may require many word look-ups, which acquaints you with many new words.  It requires mostly left brain thinking for word recognition, but also requires right brain thinking to do the letter permutations to arrive at the correct word.  It also requires creative right brain thinking to solve the final phrase jumbled word puzzle.  See attachment “JUMBLE.pdf” for a list of common words and an example puzzle.

CryptoGRAPH puzzles contain words whose letters are replaced by other letters to end up revealing a famous person or quote.  This requires left brain thinking since you need to know the popular phrases, but also requires right brain interactive thinking to decode the possible words.  See attachment “CrypytoGRAPH.pdf” for a list of common words and an example puzzle.

CryptoQUIP puzzles are basically cryptographic puzzles that contain clever or witty remarks instead of just a famous quote or person.  They require mostly right brain interactive thinking to decode the phrase and also to create the made-up “quip” words.  See attachment “CryptoQUIP.pdf” for a list of common words and an example puzzle.

SUDOKU puzzles and all unique number-only puzzles requiring mostly right brain interactive thinking, as long as you have a methodical left brain procedure for solving them.  There are many variations of Sudoku and include: Sudoku-X, Jigsaw Sudoku, Calcudoku and Suguru.  The simpler Sudoku puzzles are the best to start with and then move on to more complicated puzzles.  See attachment “Sudoku.pdf” for an example puzzle and answer.  Next month’s pearl will be a procedure for quickly and accurately solving any Sudoku puzzle along with numerous easy and difficult puzzles to solve.

WUZZLES puzzles contain, letters and words in or out of above or below a box frame, portrayed in a graphic manner that has many possibilities. The best way to look at it is to pick out words and think about phrases using that word.  The "fill-in" boxes for the answers are also a clue to the phrase.  After doing many Wozzles how to approach these puzzles will become obvious.  See attachment “Wuzzles.pdf” for an example puzzle and answer.

There are many other written and computerized mind puzzles not mentioned here that can help you to exercise your entire brain—most of them are variations of the puzzles noted above.  Mind puzzles require a lot of time to solve, some much more than others.  I usually spend about 2 to 3 hours a day doing mind puzzles and find it entertaining as it improves my memory.  I am gaining more left brain memories, but I’m still poor at remembering names—I also have fewer “senior moments”.

IMPORTANT: You should play brain games by yourself, hopefully as a daily routine.  Or, do them when you can find some me-only-time when you’re not distracted by others.

Some Thoughts on Memory:

About MEMOPRYL: I received an A.I. generated scam email about Memopryl and decided to see what it was all about.  Its main ingredient is caffeine, which stimulates brain activity by blocking adenosine, a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep and relaxation.  I took three capsules/day for 10 days—it contained 450 mg of caffeine or about 5 cups of coffee—otherwise, I rarely have caffeine.  The caffeine destroyed my sleep, only allowing me to only get half as much as usual and my daily blood pressures increased significantly.  It's effects actually did the opposite of helping my memory, reversing the beneficial aspects of doing these brain exercises for more than a year.  I stopped taking Memopryl and my memory has improved, with the brain word puzzle answers "popping into my mind" again.

I hope that this pearl has provided you with some insight on how to exercise your right and left brains to keep them healthy and viable.