Chapter 3: How to Train Your Brain
After examining how food and exercise boost brain power and brain health based on scientific findings and explanations, we’ll proceed on this journey by highlighting and explaining how you can train your brain to boost its functioning. The following tips will help in this regard:
Your ability to recall events and memories is a crucial part of your brain power. The good news is that you can enhance it by putting it to good use. You can be deliberate about boosting your brain power by engaging yourself in memory activities that will task your ability to receive, analyze, and remember. In her book, The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp explained how she increased her brain power by trying to remember the first twelve to fourteen corrections of her choreography performance she wants to discuss with her cast without writing them down.
This is not a feat you should take for granted because most people aren’t able to remember more than three! Unlike her, you mightn’t have dancers to correct. Still, you might be expected to give feedback on a presentation, or your friends might ask you to highlight the things you find interesting about a location. Take advantage of those opportunities to flex your memory muscles.
You might have noticed that many people start their day with a cup of coffee. This morning ritual is scintillating to the taste bud, but it is far more than that. It has short-term benefits by boosting your cognitive functions until the effect wears off. The reason this impact has is that it contains caffeine, which makes you more alert. Meanwhile, you need to be very focused and alert, especially when you’re doing tasks that are tedious and repetitive.
Such tasks put a lot of demand on your reasoning and reaction time. So, ingesting a substance that can enhance your alertness goes a long way in helping you to be more effective when carrying out such tasks. Note that you shouldn’t abuse this substance so that your brain will not be too dependent on it. Take it moderately when necessary to keep enjoying its impact when you need it.
Research has proven that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) isn’t a static measure. In other words, you can raise your IQ through some activities. It has been proven by researchers from the University of Edinburgh that education is the most robust, consistent, and durable method of increasing IQ. Another study showed that each year of exposure to academic content increases an individual’s IQ by five points.
So, if it matters to you to increase your brain power, you should consider reading more books. Generally, reading books makes you smarter because you’ll have knowledge about things that others don’t. Therefore, when you talk, you’ll offer unusual insight into subject matters that will make you earn the respect of others. Many successful people in the modern world are known for their culture of reading books. There’s no doubt that it’s a habit that will make you smarter and wiser in your approach to different situations.
When you do something in a particular way, your brain creates a neural pathway for it. When you repeat it at different times, your brain gets used to it and saves that pathway. So, your brain isn’t developing when you’re always doing things in the same way. A change in approach will mean that your brain will have to create a new pathway, which enhances its abilities. A change in approach can help you break free from a bad habit.
For example, if you have a habit of consuming alcohol whenever you come back from work stressed, your brain has documented that neural pathway. That’s why you’ll notice that you’re not thinking through the process before you find yourself doing it. So, you can make a difference by choosing to visit a friend instead of going home directly on a day you’re stressed. Of course, it shouldn’t be a friend that would welcome you with alcohol. A change in approach can be all you need to break free from addictions while enhancing your cognitive abilities.
Many people have activities that they assume will help to improve their cognitive ability, and crossword puzzles are one of them. Crossword puzzles can be fun, especially for people who find them interesting. It can help you to improve your fluency too. Most people assume that playing this game will make them smarter. However, studies have proven that this activity strains the brain instead of sharpening it.
To make it worse, research has shown that it doesn’t offer much value in training the brain or preventing a disease like Alzheimer’s. This doesn’t mean that you should stop playing it, especially if you find it fun. Yet, don’t think that it’s contributing much to your ability to solve practical problems. If you want activities that can boost your decision-making and problem-solving ability, crossword puzzles shouldn’t be in that list because it doesn’t offer much when it comes to these aspects.
Stories enable us to solidify memories, share moments, and interpret events. So, you can boost your brain power by telling stories about events in the past to your friends and family. It’s also an effective way to relieve great moments. Try to avoid telling stories about traumatic events unless you’re very sure that you have overcome them. If you can make a joke out of a bad experience, it shows that you have moved on from it.
Turn off Electronics Thirty Minutes Before Bed
Our digital devices are meant to help improve the quality of our lives. Sadly, they have done more harm than good in the lives of many people. Many people are addicted to digital devices in such a way that they affect the quality of their sleep and increase their anxiety levels. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is one of the mental health issues that have been discovered as a result of excessive exposure to social media.
Studies have proven that screen media activities have adverse impacts on brain activities. So, it is better if you spend more time on exercise and spend time with your loved ones than play games or watch TV. Moving your body during exercise teaches your brain to learn new muscle skills, practice balance, and estimate distance. Try to turn off electronics and digital devices at least thirty minutes before you go to bed to ensure that you have quality sleep.
Improving your skills is one of the best ways you can boost your brain power. For example, if you learn how to play a new instrument, it increases your ability to translate something you see to something you do. Your brain will have to create several neural paths during this period, which bodes well for your brain power. Learning a new language can also have the same impact because it increases your ability to think and express yourself in different ways.
Research has shown that learning how to dance can help seniors reduce the risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Ensure that you don’t just learn something new for the sake of it. Endeavor to learn something you find interesting so that you’ll not quit in the middle because you’re struggling with it. So, think twice before you choose what you will prefer to learn. It should also be a skill you’ll find useful.