Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 5: Training your brain
• Part 2 of 5: Training your body to improve your thinking ability
• Part 3 of 5: Stimulating your frontal lobe
• Part 4 of 5: Broadening your critical thinking ability
• Part 5 of 5: Use foods and supplements to improve your brain functions
• Tips

Not so long ago, scientists and doctors thought that the number of neurons, cells and pathways present in our brain at birth was all there was to be, leading to a “use it or lose it” approach. Your brain consists of 4 primary lobes, complex structures in those lobes, a left and right hemisphere, complex communication networks and more than 100 billion neural cells. The good news is that in recent years the scientific research community has discovered a process called neuroplasticity. This means that the neuronal pathways of communication and neural cells in the brain can continue to grow throughout our lives. The process slows down as we get older, but it doesn't stop completely, as previously thought. Stimulation of the growth of new neural cells and pathways to improve your thinking skills and overall brain function is certainly possible.

To step

Part 1 of 5: Training your brain

1. Grow new neurons. Your brain is full of billions of cells that contain a nucleus, axons, dendrites and synapses.
   • A proven way to grow new neurons is to learn. The existing axons, dendrites and synapses need to be maintained, so don't get lazy. Continue to do the things you already do, such as sports, reading, puzzles, exercise, creativity, and making music.
   • The key to developing new neurons is to teach yourself something new, maybe even something that feels a bit uncomfortable at first.
   • Brain neuroplasticity, or the ability to make new brain cells, happens when you take control and expose your brain to something new.
2. Try something new. Learn to juggle, dance, play an instrument, or whatever is new to you.
   • Even performing familiar things in a new way can help. For example, you can learn to walk backwards through your house safely.
   • Try anything that you think will challenge your brain, but it has to be something that requires some thought.
3. Do neurobics exercises. Neurobics are exercises designed to stimulate new growth in the brain. The basis of neurobics is the use of the senses to stimulate the formation of new neurological pathways. Think of ways to challenge your brain by modifying your senses. Some basic examples:
   • Dress in the morning with your eyes closed or with a blindfold.
   • Wear headphones that suppress noise while trying to verbally communicate with a friend. Include speaking and trying to understand what your friend is saying by observing the movements of the mouth and hands.
   • If you play the piano, try playing a simple and familiar piece with your eyes closed, or with 2 fingers taped together.
   • Try playing a simple piece with all fingers, but play the bass notes with your right hand and above middle C and the high notes with your left hand and below middle C.
   • Use your non-dominance hand for routine activities. Try brushing your teeth, combing your hair, and using a computer mouse with your non-dominant hand.
   • Write with your non-dominant hand.
   • Try to memorize a few sentences, perhaps the first stanza of a well-known poem or song. Write the letters upside down, mirrored or from right to left on the page.
   • Try to perform your favorite sport with your non-dominance hand.
   • Break your routines. Put your shoes on in the opposite order and mow the grass the other way. Think of other routines and change the order in which you perform them.
   • Take an early morning walk to identify the smells around you.
   • Try to determine the ingredients in a meal based on taste and smell.
4. Improve blood flow in your brain. A recent study used only strategy-based brain training, without adding elements of physical movement, to improve blood flow in the brain. The results showed that the overall blood flow in the brain was significantly increased just by using the brain training exercises.
   • The aim of the research is to improve blood flow in the brain through purely mental exercises.
   • When blood flow to the brain slows down, it results in brain tissue atrophy. Brain atrophy means that cells deteriorate, important communication routes degenerate and the brain tissue and important structures shrink away.
   • The study was done with people of all ages who had a traumatic brain injury, 65% of whom had the brain injury at least 10 years earlier.
   • Part of the group was exposed to strategy-based brain training and the rest was exposed the same amount of time to common teaching materials about brain functioning.
   • The strategic brain training group improved more than 20% in abstract thinking, memory function improved by 30%, and overall brain blood flow showed an increase compared to the control group.
   • Many of the participants also had symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Depression symptoms improved by 60% in the strategic training group, and post-traumatic stress symptoms improved by nearly 40%.
   • Strategic brain training works in improving blood flow in the brain and can help prevent brain shrinkage.
5. Try strategic brain training. This form of brain training is common and can be found everywhere, including in your daily newspaper.
   • Strategic brain games are games where you have to think to find the solution. Make a crossword puzzle, a walkthrough, a sudoku or an actual puzzle with puzzle pieces. Puzzles that cannot be left to chance, so that you have to think about solving them, are considered strategic brain games.
   • Play with another person. Games such as chess, Go and even checkers require thinking about your steps and anticipating your opponent's steps.
6. Strengthen your brain through mental exercises. Make a list of something you do regularly, such as a grocery list or a to dolist for the day, and then memorize that list.
   • A few hours after you finish your list, or even the next day, try again to remember everything on the list.
7. Do calculations in your head. Start simple and systematically.
   • As you become more comfortable with the easier sums, you progress to more difficult math. Make it even more interesting by taking a walk while calculating sums in your head.
8. Create pictures of words in your head. Visualize a word and then think of a way to challenge yourself through that word.
   • One way is to think of other words that start and end with the same letters, or think of words that have more syllables than the first, but that rhyme.
9. Make music. The musical experience is a valuable one. Do something musical that you are not used to.
   • If you're playing like an instrument, learn to play another instrument.
   • Go sing. Even if you cannot sing well, singing with a choir or singing group will greatly broaden your brain functions on different levels.
   • You will learn to understand the organization of the music you will sing on, learn timing and rhythm, and learn organized singing. In addition, you are socially exposed to a group of new people, which offers a wonderful opportunity to further improve your brain as you learn about music.
10. Go to class. Try cooking class, car mechanics, woodworking, sewing, or crafting.
    • Taking lessons in something that you cannot yet learn, but want to learn, helps to create new routes in the brain.
    • This is done both by learning the new material and by interacting with new people in a new environment.
11. Learn a new language. This is a very good way to improve cognitive functions and thinking ability.
    • New languages ​​also help expand your vocabulary, which is associated with higher cognitive function. In addition, hearing and speaking a new language will develop new routes in your brain.
12. Learn a new sport. Try a sport that is new to you and consider one that involves at least one other player.
    • You can basically play golf alone, but it is challenging when you play with someone. This creates additional experiences for your brain to organize and respond to. Because of this, it results in the growth of new brain cells and pathways.
13. Talk to people. The more conversations you have, the more your brain has to work to compensate and process the new information.
    • If you have kids, talk to them. The more conversations you have with your child, the smarter he will be.
14. Develop friendships with diverse people. Having conversations with people who have very different opinions challenges your brain and your executive ability to determine how you respond to the same topic in different groups.
    • The more diverse your friends are, the more your brain is challenged to become creative in conversation and participate in different types of social interactions.

Part 2 of 5: Training your body to improve your thinking ability

1. Engage in aerobics. More and more research indicates that physical exercise is the most effective way to improve thinking and overall brain function.
   • Create an exercise routine that includes one-hour sessions 3 times a week and includes basic exercises, such as running on a treadmill and riding an exercise bike.
   • Maintain your routine for at least 12 weeks to improve your brain fitness, cognitive skills, and thinking ability.
   • A recent study of sedentary people aged 57-75 supports this amount of exercise with scientific data.
   • The moving group showed rapid improvement in blood flow to different parts of the brain, significant improvement in both immediate and delayed memory functions, improved cognitive abilities, frontal lobe function, visuospatial ability, processing speed and overall improved cognition. Cardiovascular measurements taken as part of the study also showed significant improvement.
   • The authors interpret the study results as a further indication that any person, at any age, can take steps to positively influence the brain's neuroplasticity through physical exercise.
2. Integrate movement into your study habits. Vocabulary word memorization improved significantly when movement was performed before, during and immediately after exposure to the words.
   • Two different studies, one in female students and one in male, showed greatly improved memory of words studied that were studied in conjunction with movement.
   • The female students did best when they studied the words for 30 minutes while also performing exercises. The form of movement in this study was cycling on an exercise bike for 30 minutes.
   • The male students were divided into groups that performed no movement, moderate movement, and energetic movement. The improvement became evident in the students who did energetic exercises immediately before or immediately after studying the words.
3. Move to increase your BDNF value. Cognitive functions and memory are improved when a substance, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is increased.
   • Movement increases the BDNF value.
   • Your BDNF value will return to normal about 30 minutes after you stop the exercise, so use this time well. Work on a difficult project at work or to learn for an exam as soon as possible after your exercise routine.
4. Start moving now. The younger the better. Structures in your brain perform various functions and communicate through complex networks to keep your thinking skills sharp and your memory stable, to help make critical decisions, to devise strategic ways to solve a problem, to process incoming information, and order, to control your emotions and to control your reactions to countless situations.
   • When structures in your brain lose volume, or begin to shrink, brain function deteriorates along with the parts of the brain that shrink. Exercise to help prevent shrinkage.
   • The prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, structures in your brain that support memory and higher cognitive abilities, begin to shrink at 1-2% per year in people over 55 years old.
   • Research conducted in 2010 showed the first documented evidence that exercise in the younger years helps prevent brain shrinkage later in life, reducing the risk of cognitive decline.
5. Get up and move. The scientific community is still working on what the best exercises are and how long you should perform them to get the best improvement in brain function. While that question remains unanswered, a number of other things have become clear.
   • Stretching and muscle tension exercises do little or nothing to improve brain functions.
   • Whatever you do, it should be something that requires active participation.
   • Running on a treadmill and riding an exercise bike count as active participation.
   • These types of aerobic exercise not only help maintain the brain's power, but can also help regain wasted powers. Even when the aging process, medical conditions and brain injuries work against you, exercise is the proven way to fight back.
   • So, get up and move. Walk on a treadmill or a marked, safe route, ride an exercise bike or a regular bike if it's safe to do so, and maybe even participate in competitive sports like tennis.
   • Competitive and active sports, such as tennis, can be even more beneficial because other parts of the brain are stimulated. The additional stimulations include socialization, problem solving, visuospatial response, anticipation and reaction rates.
6. Improve your cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility allows us to think more than 1 thing at a time, to quickly switch your activity and thoughts from one topic to another, and to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
   • Active and sustained movement, especially running, is associated with significant improvement in cognitive flexibility.

Part 3 of 5: Stimulating your frontal lobe

1. Think of your frontal lobe as the central command post. Your frontal lobe is the largest of the 4 lobes and is the area responsible for higher cognitive functions.
   • The frontal lobe is the center of your executive functions and also integrates communication with the rest of your brain to carry out your decisions regarding executive functions.
   • The executive capacity is needed to organize the information that enters your brain and to regulate how you will respond.
   • Examples include time management, attention processes, multitasking and switching attention, being detailed when needed, controlling what you say and do, and making decisions based on previous experiences.
2. Play. Both physical play in motion and gentle play with child, friend or family member heal to strengthen the frontal cortex and the processes involved in executive ability.
   • Physical play to sharpen your performance as you anticipate and respond to constantly changing situations.
3. Use your imagination. Playing with the imagination helps to strengthen executive capacity as your brain works to amplify your response to the unfamiliar conditions and situations you create in your head.
   • Think of positive scenarios and develop them into stories or chapters of stories.
   • Find shapes in the clouds, imagine a conversation between ducks and fish, paint a picture of your favorite song in your head or do something else that stimulates your imagination.
   • Using your imagination stimulates your brain to create substances that are rewarding and engaging. Firing neurons along underused axons, dendrites, and synapses are key to creating new ones.
4. Avoid negative influences. While it is important to handle difficult situations, you should try to prevent the negativity from affecting how you think and feel.
   • Some people and situations can be very dramatic. Maintain a positive and problem-solving attitude when you are in negative circumstances.
5. Give a hug. Forms of physical contact, such as giving and receiving hugs and other physical expressions of support and friendship, have a calming effect on the brain.
   • Positive social interaction is healthy and can help develop new pathways in your brain when you are in an unfamiliar, but positive, environment. Social interaction is important for the development of new routes.
   • Your brain is constantly learning and using executive powers when you interact with other people, formulate responses to situations, and consider the other person's possible responses and how to respond to them.
6. Listen to music. Music has been proven to make changes, both positive and negative, in the frontal lobe of your brain.
   • Exposure to music has been proven to help improve your IQ and strengthen your ability to learn. Reading skills and literacy are improved, spatial and temporal reasoning is strengthened and mathematical skills are improved.
   • Some styles of music have been linked to negative consequences, including unhealthy lifestyle choices, criminal activity, and even suicidal behavior.
   • Other styles of music are associated with early development of visuospatial skills, improved math skills, improved ability to learn a foreign language and an overall healthy lifestyle.
7. View the results of a study on rock music. The study used 3 groups of mice exposed to different styles of music.
   • The group exposed to rock music, including discordant rhythms, behaved disorganized, confused and lost. That group forgot the previously found route to eating in a maze.
   • Two other groups, one exposed only to classical music and one to no music at all, were able to remember the route to the food in the maze, and even get there faster.
   • On further investigation, the scientists found shrinkage in the frontal lobe and damage to the hippocampus in the group exposed to rock music with discordant rhythm.
   • Although several studies suggest that rock music, or possibly the bineutral rhythms in rock music, has a negative impact. Other research supports music of your choice, including rock music, as a good way to stimulate your brain and develop additional neurological pathways.

Part 4 of 5: Broadening your critical thinking ability

1. Accept the challenge. Improving your critical thinking skills is a commitment to yourself. It is a process that takes time.
   • Critical thinking is a method of analysis, evaluation and decision making. Most people take thinking for granted and do not pay attention to the need to evaluate thinking habits and develop new positive ways to critically evaluate and respond to everyday circumstances.
   • Realize that it takes time to evaluate, change, and develop critical thinking skills, as well as practice, to reach the desired level. Just as a professional athlete or musician always continues to sharpen his talents and skills, you can sharpen your thinking ability.
   • Improving critical thinking requires approaching information and making decisions without prejudice, generalizations, common fallacies or predetermined beliefs, deception and rigidity and narrow-mindedness in thinking.
   • Doing concrete things helps to reveal your thinking processes and helps you make changes that improve your critical thinking skills. Each step can be helpful, but actively and systematically practicing change over a long period of time improves your thinking ability.
2. Make use of wasted time. Avoid zapping through channels, getting frustrated in a traffic jam, worrying unproductively, and jumping from one activity or distraction to another without enjoying it.
   • Use that valuable time to ask questions yourself that can improve your approach the next day. Ask questions to help you evaluate what you did well or not so well that day. Consider your strengths and weaknesses from the day so far.
   • If possible, record your answers so that you can further develop your thoughts in those areas.
3. Solve a problem every day. Set aside problems that you cannot control and focus on the tools and steps needed to solve problems that are within your control.
   • Avoid becoming overwhelmed or emotional and work on the problem in an orderly, logical, and attentive way.
   • Consider factors such as short-term solutions versus long-term solutions and the pros and cons of the solutions you are considering and develop a workable strategy to solve the problem.
4. Focus your thoughts on one intellectual standard each week. Accepted intellectual standards include clarity of mind, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, logical factors, and significance.
   • For example, during the week of focusing on clarity, consider how clearly you conveyed something during a meeting or in a conversation with your partner or a friend. Think about the ways you could have improved clarity.
   • Also consider how clearly others conveyed information to you or to a group.
   • Clarity in writing is just as important. Evaluate your own written communications, those of others and published literature.
5. Keep a diary. Follow a pattern in your journal and record each several times a week.
   • Write about situations you were involved in, how you responded, your analysis of the clear and unclear things in the situation, and an assessment of what you learned about yourself in this process.
6. Transform your character. Each month, focus on one intellectual trait, including persistence, autonomy, empathy, courage, modesty, and any other traits you admire in others and lack in yourself.
   • Think about each trait and develop a strategy for improving that trait in yourself. Consider recording your progress in your journal.
   • Maintain your concentration on the chosen trait throughout the month. Continuously evaluate your performance and note your improvements, setbacks and what you need to work on.
7. Confront yourself with your own self-centered thinking. Self bias is a natural way of thinking.
   • Ask yourself questions to help determine situations where you may have put too much emphasis on your own opinion. Include questions that help evaluate any actions taken based on irritation from insignificant or small things, doing and saying irrational things to get things the way you want them, and situations where you have imposed your own wishes or opinions on others.
   • Once you recognize your self-centered responses, take steps to adjust your thinking process to modify that behavior.
8. Adjust the way you see things. Practice seeing the good in difficult or negative situations.
   • Every situation has the potential to be positive or negative. Seeing the positive in a situation makes you feel more rewarded, less frustrated, and generally happier. Take the opportunity to turn mistakes into possibilities and dead ends into new principles.
9. Recognize your emotional reactions. Evaluate situations or thoughts that make you feel angry, sad, frustrated, or upset.
   • Take the opportunity to discover what is causing the negative emotion and find a way to transform it into a positive response.
10. Rate groups that affect your life. Groups often tend to suggest certain beliefs and behaviors that are “better” than others.
    • Analyze the groups in your own life that influence your decisions and actions. Consider any pressure put on you by the group and evaluate that pressure as positive or negative. Consider how you can change your own response to negative pressure without harming the relationship with the group or the group dynamics.
11. Think how you think. Practice your thinking skills and develop your critical thinking skills.
    • Develop and use strategies that use your personal experiences to further influence and develop your critical thinking skills.

Part 5 of 5: Use foods and supplements to improve your brain functions

1. Eat healthy. A recent article evaluated the diet of 550 seniors. The researchers only looked for evidence for a connection between diet and brain function.
   • However, the researchers found more than what they were looking for. The study found that a healthy diet improves executive functioning in the frontal lobe.
   • The results also strongly suggested that a healthy diet can protect the brain from aging processes that lead to dementia and Alzheimer's.
   • The study participants who had the best scores were also more interested in physical activities and avoiding habits such as smoking.
2. Keep an eye on your cholesterol. Although cholesterol levels have not been proven to be linked to brain function, people with lower cholesterol have a stable blood flow, which means that oxygen in the blood can be effectively transported to the brain for optimal functioning.
   • Talk to your doctor about your cholesterol level. There may be ways to address values ​​that are not within the norm. Doctor-recommended interventions can include prescription medications as well as alternative options.
   • Some participants showed results of as much as a 66% reduction in the likelihood of developing poor executive function based solely on healthy amounts of saturated fat intake, contributing to lower cholesterol.
3. Avoid medical conditions that cause cognitive decline. In addition to its value for brain function, studies concluded that adhering to a healthy diet can help prevent conditions that lead to slower thinking, cognitive decline, and reduced executive ability.
   • Some medical conditions that are known to contribute to an overall decline in brain function are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, vascular disease and obesity.
4. Know the facts about supplements. According to information provided by the National Institute of Health's Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, many products claim benefits that do not exist.
   • Scientific evaluations of supplements that indicate benefits for brain function, prevention of memory loss, improvement of memory, treatment of dementia or delaying Alzheimer's indicate that this claim is unfounded.
   • To date, there is no evidence to support the notion that dietary or herbal supplements prevent deterioration or aid improvement in memory. This includes products such as ginkgo, omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, vitamins B and E, Asian ginseng, grape seed extract and turmeric.
   • While there is no evidence to support the effectiveness of these products, scientists are continuing to investigate some of the substances to determine if there is a potential benefit.
   • Research on mindfulness techniques and music therapy is ongoing, and the first results in these areas are very promising.
5. Go to the doctor as soon as you notice symptoms. Don't delay a visit to the doctor while trying other options.
   • While some options may be beneficial for your condition, your doctor can provide you with a wealth of information that can guide treatment in a direction with proven results.
   • Many complementary treatments using homeopathy and some vitamin supplements can seriously interact with prescription medications.
   • Talk to your doctor before trying any product to treat symptoms of cognitive impairment or memory loss.

Tips

• If you think you lack skills associated with the right hemisphere, find ways to train the right hemisphere.