Many spend so much time and effort exercising and caring for their body but often ignore their more valuable asset—their brain.
Here are the things you can do daily to benefit your brain:
Refresh your brain. The best and free way to achieve this is by taking that forty-wink break every day after lunch. Even a short 15-minute nap called “power nap” can make a considerable effect in boosting your brain’s performance. The short nap refreshes it, increases its capacity to remember, and improves its overall mood.
- Take advantage of your bedtime. Studies show that your brain is more creative when it is tired. What could be a better time for this than when you are about to retire at night? Instead of reaching for that book, why not take hold of a pen and notepad and start working
on your memoir? Or take out your sketch pad and let the Da Vinci in you take flight?
- Focus on one task at a time. You are not a multi-armed Indian deity so quit acting like one. Multi-tasking to accomplish more is a myth. None, not even a computer, is capable of doing more than one task at a time. By concentrating on one task at a time, your brain can work at its maximum capacity with more things done efficiently.
- Do physical workouts daily. A 15 to 30 minute exercise not only keeps you physically fit but results to a healthy brain. The benefits of physical exercise, especially aerobic exercise, have positive effects on brain function on multiple fronts such as the increase of heart rate that results to more oxygen pumped into the brain, and the release of hormones that help in providing a healthy environment for the growth of brain cells.
- Revive the art of writing. The mere act of putting down notes in paper makes you smarter as proven by researches. It helps your brain to retain more information than by just hearing and recording words. In fact, schedules scribbled on desk calendars or memo pads are better remembered than those typed on a computer or dictated in a recording machine.
- Nourish your brain. Since it may not be possible to include all the brain foods in your daily diet, make sure you do not skip the benefits they give by taking in a daily dose of multi-vitamins as supplement. Just as your car needs petrol to cover more miles, your brain needs nutrients to keep it working efficiently for a longer time. The British Journal of Nutrition suggests the adding of multi-vitamins with your breakfast drink to start your day with a zing!
Engage in word games to pass your time productively. Far from being time wasters, word games are proven to make you more productive. Studies have shown that word games like Scarbble and crossword puzzles benefit your brain by increasing the IQ and thinking acuity thus enabling you to accomplish more.
- Take time to relax and refresh your brain. One of the best and free ways to achieve this is by meditation. It works on many parts of the brain such as the frontal lobe which is responsible for reasoning, planning, emotions, and self-conscious awareness; parietal lobe which processes sensory information of the environment; thalamus which acts as the gatekeeper for the senses thus reducing the flow of information into the brain; and the reticular formation which is the brain’s sentry where meditation puts back its arousal signal.Meditation improves focus, reduces anxiety and stress, encourages creativity, and promotes better memory.
- Keep a positive outlook. Besides promoting a happy life, being optimistic benefits the brain. A bright mindset lessens stress and promotes clear thinking and sound reasoning.
Just as regular physical workouts promote a healthy physique, the above exercises will result to a happy and more efficient brain.