Why you should play chess every day

We all know chess improves critical thinking. In my personal experience it brings your logical ability before your emotional response, this is going to help you a lot with daily life. Apart from developing creativity and improving confidence, it works both sides of the brain.

You are NOT preparing for competition and you are NOT planning on becoming grand master. Just by simply playing one game of chess every day either with computer or individuals, will help you a lot in decision making process.

If you don't have time for a complete game you can try puzzles. If you register in chess.com, they have daily free puzzles you can solve. Just solve puzzles and play a game if you have time. They also have weekly free learning videos, if you are interested in improving the game.

I slap my hand whenever I am not able to think beyond 2-3 moves. Sometimes I feel like "why you are not able to think about this simple thing". That will keep your brain challenged. 

Lot of incidents in your life you react emotionally than logically without even noticing, this will take a toll on your mood and increases stress. Even if you are able reduce a little bit of this emotional reaction, you will be saved from lot of stress. Remember life is about 1% what happened and 99% how you react to it.

Pick an activity everyday that keeps your Soul pleasant (may be meditation for 1 minute), keeps your Brain challenged (5 minute puzzles or chess), keeps you Physically active (running couple of miles, pushups etc.,), keeps your Heart refreshed (Family time, comedy scenes, music). Remember the key point, its not about how many different things you can do, its all about how consistently you do. Even if you have to keep a calendar reminder , do it. You may or may not realize this will help you in the long run. 

Any activity that is helping you shutdown your current thought and makes you think about something completely different is needed every day. This will put a stop to dozens of thoughts you are having every hour and enormous stress you are mounting without even knowing and tons of scenarios you create in your own brain and doesn't exist in the real world.

Remember thoughts are like energy, neither you can create nor you can destroy. you can only transform from one thought to other. The person who can do this switching creatively and positively will ultimately be more happy with his life.