1. Increase your focus gradually
2. Conquer distractions
3. Exercise your body
4. Try to memorize
5. Practice mindfulness throughout the day
Weighing around 1.4 kg, and consuming 20% of the available oxygen and blood in our bodies, it is estimated that the human brain contains almost 100 billion neurons that make trillions of connections between them. If we put them in order, they would form a line that would measure more than 1,000 kilometers. Around the brain there is a whole mythology among which the attribution to Albert Eintein of the statement stands out: “ we only use 10% of our brain. And the other 90%? ” A scientific fallacy that has been taken for granted, although in reality, we use the entire brain, but not its full potential.
Science, aside from false myths, has established that our brain develops only until shortly after 40 years of age. Get training now! These six steps will help you have a brain in top shape:
Step 1. Read , exercise your brain with basic arithmetic problems, sudokus, crossword puzzles and train your memory.
Step 2. Be curious . Find answers to new questions. Strive to learn something new every day.
Step 3. Take your diet seriously . A healthy diet is the basis of a balanced and healthy life and also of a brain in top shape .
Step 4. Don't underestimate the power of serotonin . Laugh, enjoy and exercise daily. Your clear mind will thank you. In addition, physical exercise stimulates the creation of neurons.
Step 5. Out of stress . Stress literally dwarfs the brain, specifically it is the hippocampus region that contracts, especially in victims of trauma and violence. Reducing brain size makes it difficult for people to focus.
Step 6. Alternate periods of training and activity with rest . Sleeping poorly affects our brain's judgment and responsiveness.
Albert Einstein was not a genius because he was. When Einstein died, his brain was studied in depth and sectioned into 240 parts. From the result of these measurements it has been established that when comparing the size of Einstein's brain with that of a group of 15 older people and 52 people of 26 years (the age that Einstein was when he wrote his best articles), it is concluded that the connections Einstein's brains are much more dense in various areas, especially that for mathematical deductions. Other studies have found that the size of Einstein's prefrontal cortexIt was larger than usual. Does simple anatomy explain the cerebral complexity behind a genius capable of formulating the theory of relativity? Or can we think that the constant exercise of the brain through constant improvement, the study of new formulations and the curiosity to understand the limits of the universe led little Einstein to become the father of modern physics?
Let's go back in time and think about the Apple guru. In one of his interviews, Steve Jobs narrated the effects of meditation to his biographer Walter Isaacson in the following way:
“If you sit down and simply observe yourself you will see how restless your mind is. When you try to reassure her, the situation will only get worse. If after some time you succeed, the finer things will open before you. Your intuition will become sharper, your vision will be clearer and you will be aware of yourself in time, at that specific moment, here and now. Your thoughts will slow down, your consciousness will expand and you will see far beyond what you saw before. ”
Can meditation, understood as the constant exercise of the mind, be the way to genius? Is Buddhism, the aspiration of nirvana and zen, another way to train our brain to exploit its full potential?
Beyond the coefficient we have, professionals endorse the idea that the brain can be trained . "To enhance our cognitive performance -which is not the same as enhancing our intelligence- it is important to have a fit brain", adds Pinasco.
Sleeping well, exercising regularly, lowering stress levels, having a balanced diet, doing new activities, or learning to do new things and doing challenging cognitive activities are crucial for proper cognitive functioning
These are the activities proposed by the graduate Pinasco:
* To learn a new language;
* Learn and practice meditation;
* Be curious: study about topics that interest us;
* Carry out cultural activities (cinema, theater, museums, visit the city and learn about its history);
* Change habits: if I have solved sudokus for years, start doing cross words; if I always take the same way home, take a different one; if I usually play cards, exchange it for some board game;
* Start a new hobby, find something that we are passionate about.
There are more tips to put into practice, provided by Andrés Rieznik. "The best way to be smarter is to incorporate new thinking tools. The best way to be smarter is through lifelong education. With this in mind, here is a list of thinking tools that help us become smarter:
* Read. Iván Izquierdo , the most recognized Latin American scientist in memory matters, says: “When you read, you exercise your visual memory, your verbal memory, the memory of other languages that you may know, the memory of synonyms, the memory of images . You read the word 'tree' and endless images of trees flash through your head. Reading is the form that evokes the most types of memory ”.
Wonder about the evidence. One of the most important tools of thought is to ask yourself, before any statement, what is the evidence that supports it. Most of the mistakes we make when analyzing what the world is like are for not correctly detecting these fallacies. An APP must be installed in the brain that tries to detect them automatically. Nothing is true because someone in authority says it, or because it is a tradition, or because it has been revealed to someone privately.
* Build relationships of care, love and respect. Studies show that the people who best resist the natural cognitive decline that comes with the passing of the years have two things in common: intense intellectual life on a daily basis, and a social life surrounded by affection, love and care.
Don't believe anything you read above, be skeptical. I got into the habit of taking a critical look at the statements you read. Educate yourself permanently. Be wary of claims like the ones made above. Investigate on your own and do not believe anything that your reason does not accept. And remember: the world is as it is, and not as we want it to be.
"To accept it is to be able to see the world more intelligently," concludes Rieznik, an expert in this area of intelligence and training.
Individuals differ from each other in our ability to think abstractly, to solve problems, to adapt to the social environment, to learn from experience, to overcome obstacles, etc.," adds Ms. Clara Pinasco, INECO neuropsychologist. And he adds that the different concepts of "intelligence" have been developed as attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. "Beyond the fact that great contributions have been made recently to the field of the study of intelligence, there is no universal consensus on what is considered to be 'intelligent'," he says.
But humanity's obsession with measuring does not rest and, although it is accepted that there is no single way of being intelligent, we still insist on comparing and putting it in numbers or degrees.
“Since the idea of measuring intelligence with a number, the IQ , was proposed , there has been a great debate, even among scientists, about the limits and scope of this measurement. In fact, dozens of ways to measure intelligence have been proposed, explains Andrés Rieznik , who is a doctor of physics and a researcher at CONICET and the Torcuato Di Tella University and also the author of the book Mental Athletics (South American).
December is synonymous with Christmas and also with the first exams of the year. Passing the first trimester is the guarantee of completing the course without too much trouble and surely with success. So it is a good time to review the keys to train the brain and achieve what every student seeks: pass.
The brain is the only organ that doesn't wear out, so why not train it every day? If we teach children to train them from a young age, school failure is reduced and many other problems related to attention, motivation or even social relationships. How to do it? Let's see it.
Maintaining attention, the key to learning
Succeeding on exams is all about good study time planning, memory training, and enjoyment. But to fulfill these conditions, you must first have a brain prepared to facilitate them.
The keys to learning have to do with keeping your focus steady and memorizing later. However, the attention span is limited and decreasing. So studying for small blocks of time and then taking a break is very effective, although the difficult thing sometimes is having the willpower to sit down to study instead of doing other more fun things. The reason has to do with the fact that the brain is interested in what changes. Thus, moving, reading aloud or playing games that involve emotions will be good strategies to maintain attention, although sometimes they are not easy if they are children who prepare the exams alone or if the subject is not attractive to them.
It is also advisable to leave some time to play during exam time: the brain needs to enter gamma waves to be able to relate concepts, integrate and get creative and we can only access these types of waves if we have previously activated others, alpha waves, which have to do with states of relaxation and tranquility. If we take this need into account, and we lose a little time, for example playing, then we will gain it when it comes to studying.
Food, sleep and sport: give your brain the energy it needs
However, test success can be started by training before reaching the study table. First, with a quality sleep. While we sleep the brain is cleaned. Therefore, sleep is essential to have a good school performance and not to mention in assessment tests. In addition, during sleep we learn, because everything we have incorporated in the day is organized and placed in our memory. Sleeping a minimum of six hours the night before is very important to do well on an exam.
Diet also plays a fundamental role in the study. Thinking clearly, memorizing, remembering or connecting ideas are not easy tasks for our brain, which requires consuming a lot of energy to carry them out. If from time to time you feel the compulsive need to eat something sweet, it is that your brain needs glucose to function properly, so finding sources that sweeten us and are healthy is vital: for example, fructose, brown sugar, fruits dried, cereals. In addition, there are vitamins and minerals that are directly involved in concentration, memory, intellectual performance and mood. If we lack them, we are making it more difficult for the preparation of the exams.
But our brain also feeds on oxygen, and the best way to obtain it is through sports. Research shows that people who exercise learn faster, remember better, think more clearly, recover before a stroke, and are less likely to experience depression and other age-related cognitive dysfunctions. So at least half an hour of movement a day will feel great to our brain.
All this, of course, is best achieved if we have our will muscle in shape, because it is also trained, and the best way to have a strong will is to start with education from an early age. It is a gift for future adults, because training at will also stimulates the ability to find strategies to achieve what we really want and to better manage frustration.
Other recommendations have to do with working times: limit them by blocks (depending on age they can be extended but never more than 90 minutes) and make scheduled breaks. Teach relaxation techniques to our children and adolescents. Through breathing they can bring more oxygen to their brain and think more clearly. And it is also essential to teach them to disidentify with the task: I am not just what I do, let's never forget it! And very good luck!