10 Tips for Boosting Your Brain Power
Achieving success, whether financially, in your career, relationships or any other area in your life, is usually a goal at the top of most people’s list. Being successful does not always come easily and requires a lot of effort and dedication. Making the time to devote all your energy and attention on specific tasks you are working on, can be both stressful and elusive.
Maintaining the right attitude, having a healthy body and mind goes a long way to achieving these goals. You don’t have to be a genius to reap success, focusing your brain correctly can help you attain a superior level of progress. Below is a list of brain empowering assignments to help strengthen your mind and boost your performance.
1. Eat Brain-healthy Food – The brain requires fuel to function and be alert. Healthy fats are among food items that supply the brain with energy. This includes Omega 3, salmon, almond butter, avocados and healthy oils such as coconut and olive oils. Although the trend today is low fat diets in order to lose weight, reducing your healthy fats can also slow down the functioning of your brain.
2. Focus on the “here and now” – Life is hectic and allows for very little down time. We barely finish one task before moving onto the next thing. It is important to take time to focus on the project you are tackling at one specific time. Don’t let your mind wander and think about other things you should be tackling. Multitasking often leads to incomplete tasks performed in a shabby manner. It also lends itself to rushing through life without taking time to notice and enjoy events and building up memories of your life. Focus on the here and now. Put all your effort into completing one task and getting satisfaction from that before moving onto the next item. It will help focus your mind and imprint memories on your life.
3. Reset Your Inner Clock – Often we work late into the night, albeit at an unproductive rate, and then have trouble starting the day at an appropriate time. Try and reset your inner clock to make an earlier start in the morning when you are the most productive and can make the most of the morning freshness and beauty. As the day moves on, we tire easily and our productivity falls. It is better to train yourself to wake up earlier and retire earlier to help focus your mind and be alert during your working hours.
4. Practice some form of Meditation – Participating in a Yoga class can do wonders for your body and at the same time help relax and focus your mind. It gives you a sense of awareness and can improve your concentration, clarity and productivity. The same applies to meditation. Meditation has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress and improve your memory. The advantage of meditation is you do not need to attend a class in order to do it, you just have to learn the techniques and make the time and effort to practice.
5. Take on a Positive Attitude – In our hectic lives, there is so much that can pull us down and cause depression. It is important to maintain a positive attitude, always. Surround yourself with people who are upbeat and positive and can influence you in this way. Shake off the negativity and try and see things from the perspective of the ‘cup being half full as opposed to half empty’. Having a positive attitude can give you the power to accomplish so much more in life and give you the necessary inspiration and push to achieve great things.
6. Take on a New Hobby or Career – A bored brain is an unchallenged brain. Keep yourself young, motivated and challenged by trying a new hobby or career. Doing crossword puzzles and sudoku can keep you busy for hours, but is not as mentally challenging as learning something totally new and interesting to you. Prevent early aging by keeping yourself stimulated and alert. Push yourself to try new things, whether it be on the educational side or physical side – don’t doubt your ability to boost your brain and learn new skills.
7. The Power of Music – Music is a powerful tool to help improve your mood by increasing the production of dopamine in the brain – the feel good chemical. It also has been shown to improve productivity in the workplace. Classical music can be very calming and help relieve stress and anxiety, improve your sleep patterns and give you an overall feel-good composure.
8. Write down your Thoughts – Stress and anxiety can wreak havoc in your life, leading to sleepless nights and hours of wasted time expended on worrying thoughts. Staying awake at night mulling over various issues in your head can cause you to become more tired and over-anxious, without providing any solutions in sight. Jot down your thoughts on paper. Look at the problems and then try and figure out reasonable solutions. By writing your thoughts out, it can relieve your mind of having to dwell on the issues and give you some respite before sorting out the problems. Sometimes, getting adequate sleep and then seeing a problem in writing can bring on the solution and reduce your stress levels considerably.
9. Practice Makes Perfect – Learning a new skill or career may not be easy, but with plenty of practice you can learn to master your new skill or make your new talent shine. Don’t give up. Put your mind to the task and know, that with plenty of repetition and practice, you can become proficient in what you have taken on.
10. Learn to Speed Read – The internet, books and magazines abound, there is so much information to read and learn from, but there seems to be so little time. Learning to speed read is a useful skill in order to cover as much material as possible in a limited time. This can enhance your productivity and help you gather information and gain as much knowledge as possible, quickly.