Summary
This page contains some mind exercises that are quick, easy, and effective.
The image at the top of this page “Mind Your Head” is a photo from Pexels, a free service made possible by photographers donating their pictures to be used as stock photos. In this case, mind your head has a double meaning. The sign in the photo reminds people to avoid bumping into a low entry. But minding our head can have another meaning — caring for the stimulation of our mind.
This is a 2022 compilation of some available exercises inspired by a 2012 post on the topic of readable encryption. [View] If a significant revision of this document is created, it will be given a new release date year in the title, but for now this is the current one.
Reading Exercises
Try reading the text below. Your mind should quickly convert the encoded messages into readable text. A natural inclination might be to slow down since the text seems jumbled, but if you read the text quickly, skimming over it, the mind will process the text easier.
MIXED LETTERS:
- It deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm.
NUMBERS AND LETTERS
- Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.
- 7H15 M3554G3
53RV35 7O PR0V3
H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N
D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!
1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!
1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG
17 WA5 H4RD BU7
N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3
Y0UR M1ND 1S
R34D1NG 17
4U70M471C4LLY
W17H 0U7 3V3N
7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17,
B3 PROUD! 0NLY
C3R741N P30PL3 C4N
R3AD 7H15.
PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F
U C4N R34D 7H15.
The uppercase characters help make the text more readable.
Listening Exercise
This section provides some listening exercises. In the reading exercises above, your mind saw words with letters represented by text similar in appearance to the original. In the video listening examples below, your mind will experience the audio equivalent of slight character variations. Initially it takes the mind a while to automatically detect this. The cognitive process is similar to the auto detect feature used by Google Translate.
Accents and Dialects
It’s long been demonstrated that learning different languages stimulates and strengthens the mind. A good listening exercise that has similar benefits is to listen to people speaking your own language with a different accent.
Most of us grow up hearing an isolated specific dialect and accent for our own language. If you go to another country where English is spoken, you might have trouble understanding some of what’s being said. This might even happen if you go to another region in the United States.
Some unique accents are more pronounced and seemingly easier to understand — particularly with the interference of background noise. For this and other reasons, smartphones like the iPhone offer English in accents from: America, Australia, England, India, Ireland, and South Africa. In addition to the regional accent, localized terms are used such as “torch” instead of flashlight.
The following videos are of people speaking English with slight accent variations. These are listed in chronological order with the source and date for each heading.
The examples below are considered very attractive and desirable English accents, and thus easy to listen to for extended periods of time.
Having a nice accent is a benefit to YouTube presenters who want many subscribers and views. For example, Ali Abdaal has 3.4 million subscribers. A unique accent combined with a cheerful spark of inquisitiveness about the world is another aspect that makes these types of influencers attractive.
Nischa (8 Jan 2023)
In this video Nischa provides an example of what sounds like an Australian accent. [Source]
Lim Reviews (22 Dec 2022)
The Lim reviews presenter has a great accent and cheerful style. [Source]
Wrexham Volkswagen (21 Dec 2022)
The above video is from an auto dealer in the United Kingdom. Note the word “trunk” is referred to as the “boot” of the vehicle. [Source]
Elina Charatsidou (18 Dec 2022)
Elina is in Stockholm, Sweden. Her work takes her around the world, and from her accent it seems she may be multilingual. [Video Source | Website]
Sabine Hossenfelder (17 Dec 2022)
This video offers spoken English with a slight German influence. [Source]
Thu Hien Vu (5 Dec 2022)
The presenter in the above video is in the Netherlands. Some other language and accent influences are apparent. People who speak a high-level academic-version of Mandarin (Chinese) will have some of the accent markers noted above. [Source]
Helen Rennie (15 Sep 2022)
Helen has a nice Russian accent which she explains in a video from 28 Feb 2022. [View]
Dani Connor (31 Mar 2022)
Dani Connor has an interesting accent with influences from the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. The cute red squirrels in this video are a bonus. [Source]
Thao Huynh (17 Feb 2022)
SEVLOG (3 Feb 2022)
The presenter above lives in Maryland and uses some localized phrases and words unique to that state and the East Coast. [Source]
Hayls World (27 Oct 2021)
The presenter in this video has an accent that seems to be a blend of U.K. English and perhaps the English spoken in India. [Source]
Katie (21 Aug 2021)
Video description from YouTube: “Here is a beautiful Glasgow accent example, provided by lovely Glaswegian, Katie. Scottish accents are loved far and wide, but some people struggle to understand Scots. This is partly to do with the large Scottish dialect which is used. Katie and I discuss some common Scottish words and phrases, and she gives us some insight into what life is like with a Glaswegian accent. Do let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about this, and feel free to leave feedback or suggestions for future lessons.” [Source]
Leila Gharani (10 Aug 2021)
In the video above, Leila Gharani speaks with an accent influenced from living in Iran, Canada, Austria. [Source]
Priyanka Chopra (12 Mar 2021)
Priyanka Chopra has a great English accent representative of the English spoken by some people who live in India. [Source]
Ali Abdaal (9 Apr 2019)
Ali Abdaal was born in Karachi, Pakistan. He lives in the U.K. but he has also spent time at Cambridge University, so may have an academically influenced accent. [Source]
Claire Foy and Graham Norton (27 Oct 2017)
Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. [Source]
Graham William Walker (born 4 April 1963), better known by his stage name Graham Norton, is an Irish actor, author, comedian, commentator, and presenter. Well known for his work in the UK, he is a five-time BAFTA TV Award winner. [Source]
Siobhan Thompson (17 Jun 2014)
Siobhan Thompson performs a tour of the accents of the British Isles – and the celebrities who speak with them! [Source]
Visual Exercises
Visuals exercises can be found online and in books. Examples would be art, puzzles, and 3D stereogram posters like those shown below. [Source]
Artists like M.C. Escher produce images that exercise the mind. The book cover below is from the hardback edition. [More]
