Some people seem to be born with an internal compass; they inherently know where they are within their surroundings. It is not connected to intelligence, in fact I know a woman with learning difficulties who has a fairly good internal compass. Conversely, research has shown that many very intelligent people, often in professional jobs find themselves easily lost on a mortifyingly regular basis.

Much research is being done at the present time to try to understand why a portion of the population suffer from a profound inability to recognise the surroundings they use regularly, this article does not try to tackle this complex issue. However many “lost souls” can become more “found” by developing the cognitive tools required to meet navigational challenges.

There is a mass of material on the web at the moment explaining how the human brain is capable of physically changing itself with the right input, it is called Brain Plasticity and a whole market full of brain training material has emerged from this idea. Brain training programmes practiced on a regular basis can tone your brain just as physical exercise tones the body.

Developing skills such as mental flexibility, problem solving and memory will obviously boost every area of your life but this article focuses on four aspects of brain training that benefit our ability to navigate.

Visualisation– Space is all about shapes, as we move around our environment we are required to understand how the shapes around us are changing. After you have studied a map can you close your eyes and recreate the shape of the area border, or the shapes the roads form within it? To sharpen your mental images use games such as Tangrams or jigsaw puzzles. Knot tying is sometimes used to develop visualisation skills required for wayfinding.

Memory- Remembering a sequence of landmarks along a route is essential not only to find your way back but to repeat the route in the future. When driving, a memorised list of the road numbers and junctions you use will save you needing to glance down at a map and maybe miss a sign. Memory trainers recommend using vivid colourful images linked to a list to embed it into our mind. Numbers memorised as objects, so 2 is a swan, 5 is a hook and so on enable us to picture the number. There are many tips for memory training out there, give some of them a try.

Spatial Orientation– An aptitude for imagining how structures and shapes will look if viewed from a different direction is defined as spatial orientation. If someone is stood facing the view to your right, can you picture what they see? Can you stand still but manoeuvre your mental image to various positions around you so that you can visualise the eyeshot from that orientation? Computer games that require you to move around a three dimensional landscape will help with this.

Attention– There are many demands on our attention as we move around from place to place People, our thoughts, traffic, all distract us from keeping an eye on our bearings. Fortunately there are many games on line to help us strengthen our focus and be able to switch our attention quickly and “keep all the balls in the air”.

Regularly engage in training that builds these cognitive strengths, particularly the ones that you personally feel need to be fitter and you will crack some of those navigational challenges.