5 Mind-Relaxing Games I Love

As y’all know, I read and review a ton of books. I need to let my mind focus on something else…occasionally. I’m always searching for new ways to challenge myself. I play games using many different individual apps like Mobilityware and King, but I get frustrated by the many ads I have to watch between rounds and games, so I went searching for different options.

I recently discovered Solitaire.org and am loving it. This has quickly become my go-to site for playing games on my laptop and iPad.

What I love about this site!

Here are a few of the things I am most impressed with about this website.

  1. No ads! Can you believe it? I love not being constantly interrupted with ads for random things or even to upgrade my account. I haven’t found the first ad on Solitaire.org.
  2. There is a large selection of games to choose from, so I can play what I am in the mood for at that moment.
  3. Full-screen capability eliminates distractions and makes it relaxing for me to play. The same is true for the ability to mute game sounds and music if I don’t care to listen to them.
  4. I can share my scores on Twitter (or Facebook) to challenge my friends.
  5. I just have to mention one more time that there are NO ADS on Solitaire.org! That is so rare these days.

Five of my favorite games!

Let’s move on to different options. Here are five of my favorite games.

  1. Classic Solitaire. I have been playing classic Klondike-style solitaire since I was a little girl. I come from a family of card players. This game was an easy way for the adults to keep me occupied, so I didn’t interrupt their games.
  2. Hearts is another fun game. I love the strategy of passing cards to your opponent and adding points to their hand, then trying to pull those cards out to benefit my score. When I was first married, our neighbors used to gather for cards frequently. This was a favorite of theirs. I lost a lot back then, but I definitely learned the best strategies for this game.
  3. Spite & Malice is a recent addition to my card-playing games. I suppose it is a bit telling that I enjoy blocking my opponents while taking advantage of the cards I’m dealt to stump them.
  4. Gin Rummy is an all-time favorite classic card game in my family. There are many variations, but I tend to fall back on the games my Grandma taught me when I am in the mood for a distraction.
  5. Crossword Puzzles combine my love of words with my love of puzzles.
Spite and Malice game image
Spite & Malice gameboard

More games available on Solitaire.org

I’m still discovering the myriad of games offered here. There are seven main categories to choose from.

  1. Solitaire
  2. Cards
  3. Mahjong
  4. Hidden Object
  5. Match 3
  6. Logic Puzzles
  7. Word Puzzles

When you click on each heading, you’ll find a long list of games available in each category. I tend to stick to my favorites, but occasionally I get adventurous and try new ones.

Daily Word search games image from solitaire.org
The Daily Word Search Puzzle is available in many languages.

Why I think games are important.

I rely on my games for two main reasons. The first is to de-stress my brain, especially after reading a particularly intense passage in a book. I “might” be known for getting angry and frustrated with the characters in my books occasionally. Playing games is a quick way to get my mind back on an even keel, so I don’t bark at someone in real life. Do you ever let books and movies influence your mood?

The second reason is to exercise my brain. I’m a firm believer in using games to keep the brain sharp. I have no specific proof that this helps. However, My family was always playing cards. Their favorites were Poker, FanTan, and Blitz. Alzheimer’s and dementia were not prevalent in the family. My husband’s family were not card or game players at all, and those diseases do run in their genes. See what I mean…nothing scientific to it, just an observation.

Now perhaps those reasons are purely an excuse to play…but it works for me. I tend to be a bit on the competitive side. My husband and I like to play the same daily puzzles and compare scores. We even compete with our adult kids on the daily Wordle puzzle. There might even be a bit of trash-talking involved, but we manage to keep it friendly.

Question of the Day

Do you play online games? What are your favorites? Leave a comment and let me know. I love finding new games.

 

I’ll save this post on my resources page in case you are ever in the mood to play card and word games and need a reminder about Solitaire.org. It’s my favorite No-Ads website.

I am not an affiliate of Solitaire.org.

 

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Posted 08/30/2022 by Gina in Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Resources/Entertainment / 6 Comments

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6 responses to “5 Mind-Relaxing Games I Love

  1. Eve

    Thanks for the gaming tips. Right now I’m going through a cash-pusher game phase, that’s loaded with ads, but the ads will get me back to writing or at least reading soon. 😆

  2. Hi Gina, thanks for your post on games, today.
    I have become a big “Wordle” fan and have fun talking and sharing our daily scores with family and friends. “Spelling Bee” is another daily game I play to take a break from reading, writing and drawing. I agree, it’s very healthy for our brains, too.
    I’ll check out your suggestions.
    Thanks again.

    • I’m glad you liked it! It was a little different than my regular book review posts, but I enjoyed writing it.

  3. I play online games to destress and take brain breaks! I still play 5 min of candy crush every day! I play a word game called Word Connect, a spatial game which consists of just moving blocks around called Woody, solitaire….especially Spider solitaire for some odd reason, and a puzzle app. I have others but these are my frequent ones.I tried Words With Friends but I prefer IRL scrabble!

  4. I do play a lot of online/app games, but without ads would be awesome. I play Wordle and Quordle every day. I also play mahjong and some boggle type games. Thanks Gina, I will check out this site.