Our brain is an organ we wouldn’t be able to live without. It can be compared to a CPU that controls all the mental, physiological, and neurochemical processes happening within our body. Metaphorically speaking, our brain is a machine that allows us to think, move, perceive things, and perform any activity. If you’re wondering if there’re any other colorful metaphors, you can always buy essay online and satisfy your curiosity.
There are a number of tricks and techniques that can make our brain function faster and more productively. Unfortunately, we don’t usually pay much attention to the agility with which our neurons interact. Instead, we continue to do things that negatively affect our brain’s health.
Keep Your Brain in Top Shape: How Do You Achieve It?
Keep in mind that the exercises and strategies aimed at improving your concentration won’t work if you continue to harm your body and brain.
We’ve come up with ten tips that will help you improve your brain health. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Quit Smoking
Smoking is bad for our body, and it is particularly detrimental to our brain. It increases the chances of dementia in old age, which means that the more you smoke, the more likely you are to develop it. However, it’s never too late to give up the bad habit and reverse the negative process.
2. Relationship With Other People
Have you ever heard of transactional memory? You must have noticed that we usually remember some things, and forget others when communicating with people. Some of us never forget a face or a name, while others can easily remember hobbies or professions.
To cultivate personal relationships, you need to get your brain to explore new things. That will foster your creativity and make you more susceptible to experiencing new things. All these factors combined enable our brain to process information and learn new things faster.
3. Think Positively
The Pygmallion Effect teaches us that we can achieve any goals if we convince ourselves that we really can do it. And conversely, if you firmly believe that you can’t carry out a project, it will be very difficult for you to accomplish it.
That is an effect that is known as a self-limiting belief. To achieve an objective, you should convince yourself that you really can do it. That way, you’ll have confidence in your abilities and do your best to achieve it.
4. Get Enough Rest and Sleep
Our brain never rests, even when we are asleep. Our dreams are the reflection of the processes taking place in our brain. It stores everything we learn on a day-to-day basis. When we rest, this information is consolidated, and when we are awake, it gets erased.
For this reason, it is absolutely necessary to sleep seven to nine hours a day. That will provide our brain with enough time to process the accumulated data.
5. Healthy Diet
The conventional wisdom warns us that some food products can be either good or bad for our brain. Meat, eggs, and vegetables provide us with essential amino acids and proteins. Thanks to that, neurotransmitters are created (a process known as neurogenesis).
There are also vitamins that help our brain regenerate and stay in good shape.
What we eat has a tremendous impact on our psychic and cognitive development. For example, children who are breastfed have a higher IQ. Another factor to consider is a woman’s diet during pregnancy.
6. Meditation
Although meditation has been discredited on multiple occasions, it actually improves our ability to memorize things. Some brain regions are better developed than others, thus they can process information faster and more efficiently. Meditation also prevents stress, a physiological condition that prevents us from acquiring new knowledge.
7. Stay Physically Active
Exercising speeds up blood flow and increases the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain. It also improves the body-brain coordination, thus boosting our concentration and intensifying certain mental processes. It also helps create new neural connections and blood vessels.
In contrast, a sedentary lifestyle causes structural changes in our brain, resulting in multiple cognitive dysfunctions.
8. Keep Your Mind Awake
Ever since we are kids, our parents teach us to play and communicate with other people. All these stimuli serve as anchors and improve cognitive development. Solving puzzles and teaching reading are the two things that adults should teach their children.
Asking questions or explaining stories is a very interesting way to encourage cognitive development and social skills.
9. Keep Studying
Formal education in schools allows you to acquire new knowledge. However, that does not make you any smarter or better prepared for life. For this reason, education should be extended to interpersonal relationships and self-learning. Constant studying and acquiring new knowledge and skills can help you increase your IQ.
Also, children who go to ‘green’ schools (i.e. surrounded by lush vegetation) are thought to make better progress. It looks like the environment we find ourselves in also impacts our brain health.
10. Train Your Brain
Training aimed at increasing our brain capacity is only effective if it is properly done. There’s a variety of methods to help us boost our abilities. Keep in mind, though, that there are also many ineffective methods that are based on false assumptions.
Exercises meant to develop our mental agility or logical and deductive thinking are highly recommended. Playing word games, doing mental calculations or solving crosswords are some of the entertaining ways to improve our cognitive abilities.
