Improving Spatial Awareness
If you don't want to get lost, then it helps to be able to use a map to navigate, and this involves being able to understand the world around you from different perspectives, or points of view. Being able to go from a projection on a piece of paper through to actually navigating a route in the real 3D world from different angles and perspectives is something many people find challenging, but is an essential life skill in the modern world where we all do so much travel.
The majority of people are very image based, whether you realise it or not. If you are asked to call to mind a common object that you actually eat - a food item, if you will - then actually it is probably the visualise side that comes to mind first and not the taste which you might imagine to be the most significant or important element of that food item.
For instance when you think of a tomato, you will think of something round and circular before you actually recall how it tastes.
Since we are image based, then we can use this knowledge to help improve our shape and space skills. By creating mental pictures of different perspectives and what things 'look like' from different angles we can really improve our spatial awareness.
Here is a simple test. Look at an object in the room, and draw it from the left, right, above and below. It could be something as simple as a shelf on the wall. Many people find it very hard to do something as simple as this.
Write down what you think it would look like from each angle, and then actually physically look at the chosen object from each of those angles and see if you were right.
This is a powerful simple brain training game you can play in your head - periodically when you see an object imagine what it looks like from various points of view.
Also draw simple shapes on paper and try to draw what they look like rotated by various angles. To see if you got it right, simply actually rotate the object and see what it does look like. Practicing in this way is a fantastically simple but effective way of developing your spatial awareness skills.
Another task that will help is following instructions to create something practical - whether that is constructing a bookcase or putting together the stand for your new widescreen TV, following instructions and visualising how things come together and what the end product should look like are all great at improving your shape and space skills.
Shape and space awareness and improvement is all about developing an awareness of orientation and perspective - once you have that, the rest will come easily.
Read more brain training articles:
- Brain Games
Brain Games... what qualifies a game as a brain game? - Strategy Games
Start to think strategically by answering the question posed in our strategy games article and playing a simple game of strategy with which most of us are familiar from childhood... - Prisoners Dilemma
The prisoners dilemma is a classic problem from game theory - here we introduce the classical formulation of the problem with discussion... - Improving Your Memory
Your memory is as good as you methods you use to remember things. Here is a simple but powerful method that can boost your memory. - Probability Training - Improving Maths Skills
Probability. The chances are you either get it or you don't. This article tells you what probability is, why it is important, introduces some important concepts and works through a simple question to help develop how to think probabilistically.
