Your brain is one of your most powerful assets. Yet, too few people make any effort to utilize it at its full extent. But, is it even possible?
Can you train your brain? Can you get smarter or be intellectually stronger, like training your body?
The fact that we can learn shows that it is definitely possible to train your brain and make it better. But, gaining new information is just one ‘exercise.’
For best results, use a whole-body plan to build up your mental muscle.
The human brain is very adaptable. Forging new connections, developing fresh mental skills, and disciplining your thoughts can be very rewarding. Treat this as a fun challenge and you will soon find yourself seeking new ways to develop your mental sharpness further.
It’s like exercise. The more you do it, the easier it gets. And it even can be enjoyable.
How do you get started training your brain? Start from several directions, but keep your goal firmly in mind.
The objective of training your brain is to achieve quicker, more acute perceptions and decision making abilities. If you train your mind generally to work on several levels, solve puzzles faster, and make better, more insightful choices, you will succeed better at the things you do, both at work and in most life circumstances.
Here are some brain-training exercises to get you started.
Train Your Brain Tip #1: Get regular Exercise
The mind-body connection works both ways.
Increased blood flow from exercise nourishes and oxygenates the brain, making it “run” better. This improves your memory, lets you put information together faster, and helps you learn. Plus, regular physical exercise is connected to preventing Alzheimer’s disease in later life.
Train Your Brain Tip #2: Get Enough Sleep
Sleep for the proper amount of time every day. Try to get a minimum of six hours sleep. Try not to habitually sleep more than 8 hours per day. Not getting enough sleep and being tired lowers your alertness and reasoning skills. But excessive sleep also disrupts your brain chemistry.
Train Your Brain Tip #3: Expand Your Mind
Cultivate interests and explore the world. Mental stimulation helps you think more clearly. Increasing your knowledge base gives you more perspective and wisdom overall.
Let one interest lead to another. The more you understand the world you live in, the more effective your decisions. This is a major strategy on how to train your brain.
Train Your Brain Tip #4: Stay Positive
Work at maintaining a positive outlook. Depressed, anxious, or generally negative and sour minds tend to be defeated before they even start.
Lack of mental energy and a ‘who cares’ attitude, born of cynicism and despair, causes people to make bad choices.
Work on having a zest for life. See difficulties as challenges to be solved rather than brick walls to stop you dead in your tracks. This seemingly insignificant change can energize your mind and unlock your hidden thinking potential.
Train Your Brain Tip #5: Learn a Language
Learning a new language is tough mental work. But, it’s worth it. It helps you think in brand new ways. Learning a new language literally makes you build your thoughts differently. And that gives you a broader viewpoint and could even lead to more empathy.
Just as with exercise, the harder you use your mind, the more it will develop. You don’t need to acquire instant fluency. The most important thing is to stay with the project and keep learning.
Train Your Brain Tip #6: Try a Completely New Hobby
Learning a completely new skill, unrelated to anything else you have ever done, forces you to think different. Try anything from art to playing a musical instrument to woodcarving to scientific rock climbing. All of it can hone your mind in new, unexpected ways.
You can train your brain to get stronger cognitive powers, keener and better decision making, and improved memory. But more than that, doing so can enrich your life all on its own.
If you are looking to train your brain, the means to do so are everywhere.
You’ve already started by reading this. Don’t lose your momentum! Take the initiative and make a brain-training change today.
