All those who have been following this blog for some time know that I’m a big proponent of boosting your brain power in order to become more productive.
If you want your car to run faster, you tune up the engine. Likewise, if you want to get more done in less time you look for ways to enhance your brain’s performance. Below you’ll find 12 ways to boost your brain power.
photo credit: LoreleiRanveig
Believe It’s Possible to Be Smarter
In Brain Builders!: A Lifelong Guide to Sharper Thinking, Better Memory, and an Age-Proof Mind
“Believe it’s possible to be smarter, wield more brain power, and have a wider, sharper range of mental abilities. Resolve to transform your attitude.”
Keep Your Brain Alive With Neurobotic Exercises
In the book, Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises
- It involves one or more of your senses in a novel way.
- It engages your attention.
- It breaks a routine activity in an unexpected, nontrivial way.
Examples of neurobic exercises include brushing your teeth, eating, drinking, opening doors, using the control remote, and so on, but done with your opposite hand instead of the hand you normally use.
Also, taking a shower, eating, tying your shoes and so on, done with your eyes closed, are neurobic activities.
What happens in your brain when you do these activities in such a novel way is that dormant or new associations (brain cell connections) in your brain get activated. When you close your eyes when doing a task, for instance, your brain must rely more heavily on other senses not normally used for that given task. By activating and using those brain connections you strengthen them.
Eat Smaller, More Frequent Meals
Forgo the usual three square meals a day and eat more frequently – four or five small meals a day. Small meals are easier to digest and keep your brain and body constantly energized and nourished. Large meals divert nutrient and oxygen-carrying blood to your digestive tract and away from your brain. (From 20/20 Thinking
Play Fillomino and Futoshiki
Neuroscientist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg explains that scientific research shows that you can improve the functioning of your brain by engaging in brain fitness training.
Your brain is constantly creating new neurons and new connections, which is called neurogenesis. This means that you have the power to strengthen your mental muscles in the same way in which you strengthen your body’s mucles when you lift weights at the gym. In order to do this you need to exercise your brain in a way that’s novel, has variety, and presents constant challenge.
One way to exercise your brain is to play games such as sudoku, filling out crossword puzzles, and so on. Make sure that you play different types of games for variety, and that you keep increasing the level of difficulty.
A fun game you can try is Fillominio, which is a logic puzzle with very simple rules. You have a grid of squares, some of which contain numbers and some of which are left blank. The numbers indicate how many squares are in each group. So, for example, if you see the number “7″ that means that there are seven squares in that group. Groups with the correct number of squares in them are shaded.
The completed grid is a collection of groups, each of which is the same size as the numbers in its squares. There’s only one right solution for each grid. Play for free here.
Another fun brain teaser is Futoshiki, which you can play here.
Choose the Indian Restaurant Instead of the Steak House
Scientists from the University of California discovered that curcumin, a yellow-colored compound found in the curry spice turmeric, can slow the onset of memory loss. Small doses of curry could also help protect the brain against Alzheimer’s disease. Curries with a yellow tinge have the highest curcumin count. (Source).
Follow the Ancient Aztec’s Advice
The cacao bean, minimally processed, has in recent years been shown to be a veritable powerhouse of cognitive enhancement. For a tasty brain and body-fueling drink, do the following:
Mix a large spoonful of 100% organic cocoa powder with a bit of espresso and organic unsweetened soy milk; add some cinnamon and sprinkle with a bit of cayenne red pepper. You’ll be making a drink not unlike what the ancient Aztecs used to make.
You get protein from the soy milk, brain-enhancing cinnamon, a little brain-enhancing caffeine from the espresso, and theobromine from the chocolate. As an added benefit, the cayenne pepper helps with digestion and is also brain-enhancing. (Source).
photo credit: xicana_momma
Smell the Sandalwood
Michelle Schoffro Cook, doctor of natural medicine and author of The Brain Wash
“Natural scents have a direct pathway to the brain and research shows that some chemical constituents of aromatherapy oils, particularly . . . sesquiterpenes [a chemical compund found naturally in plants] can cross the blood-brain barrier and increase oxygen flow to the brain.”
Extra oxygen increases energy, immune function, positive moods, and learning. Frankincense and sandalwood are particularly effective at increasing oxygen levels in the brain. An easy way to improve your brain health is with aromatherapy.
Go Dancing
The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a study on the effects of different recreational activities on mental acuity in aging. The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity. They discovered that frequent dancing offers protection against dementia.
Quoting Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary: “The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use.” That is, dancing improves cognitive reserve and increases the complexity of neuronal synapses, which makes a person more resistant to the effects of dementia.
By involving yourself in activities which require split-second rapid-fire decision making, and dancing is an excellent example of this type of activity, you will stimulate the connectivity of your brain by generating the need for new pathways.
Another suggestion that the study makes is that you do it often. (Source).
photo credit: lepiaf.geo
Add Walnuts to Your Salad
Walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an essential omega-3 fatty acid, and other polyphenols that have been found to improve mood and calm inflammation that may lead to brain-cell death. They also replace lost melatonin, which is necessary for healthy brain functioning. (Source).
Keep Your Brain On Its Toes: Stimulate Creative Thinking
Michael Michalko explains in Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius
For example, when asked “What’s one-half of thirteen?” most people will say “six and a half”. This is thinking reproductively based on similar problems they’ve had in the past.
However, creative people think productively, not reproductively. When confronted with a problem they look for all the different ways they could possibly solve it, instead of just asking how they’ve been taught to solve it. Then they come up with many different responses, some of which are unconventional. This is how a creative thinker might answer the question “What’s one-half of thirteen?”:
- Thir-teen (four letters on each side) = 4
- XIII = XI and II = 11 and 2
- 1 and 3
Productive thinking is about generating as many choices as one possibly can. A creative thinker thinks about the problem from many different angles. This gives them a number of possible solutions to choose from.
The next time you’re confronted with a problem, instead of jumping to the first obvious solution, take a step back and see if you can find several alternatives. By stimulating your creativity in this way you’ll be keeping your brain on its toes.
photo credit: ivoryelephantphotography
Improve Your Critical Thinking
Just as you should improve your creative thinking, you should make an effort to improve your critical thinking. In Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms, the word “critical,” implies “an effort to see a thing clearly and truly so that not only the good in it may be distinguished from the bad and the perfect from the imperfect, but also that it as a whole may be fairly judged and valued.”
Alvaro Fernandez, co-founder of sharperbrains.com, explains that instead of just believing what you’re told or what you read you should always ask yourself, “Where is the evidence?”. He adds that even if an article has been endorsed by 20 Harvard Medical School researchers and doctors, nothing should substitute your own brain in action.
Other aspects of critical thinking are to think of counterarguments–to make sure that you’ve examined both sides of the issue–, to look for an author’s motivations, and to check if what you’re reading or what you’re being told is in alignment with your own personal experience.
Improve Your Attention and Short-Term Memory
The YouTube video below shows a chimp taking an attention and short-term memory test in which numbers are flashed briefly and have to be recalled in numerical order. In each successive trial, the numbers are flashed for a briefer time. By the way, the chimp out-performed college students in this test.
Ready to test your attention and short-term memory? See if you can beat the chimp at this game. (I had to do it four times before out-performing the chimp.)
Related Posts:
- 15 Brain Hacks – Gym and Spa For Your Brain
- 20 Ways to Raise Your IQ
- Four Ways to Achieve a Productive State of Mind
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