If you haven’t said this before you probably have heard someone say it: “Oh, my memory is not good”. Well, guess what? That is something you can absolutely work on. A good memory and even unlocking your brain capacity to learn more and faster, is available. And it isn’t a magic trick or a shortcut, this is a process and steps that you can take if you really wish to perform better, remember more and learn faster. This article is specifically for you, languages’ student who usually says “I can’t remember the grammar”, or “I have no time to study”, or even “if only learning was faster than years around books”. It can be, if you work on everything else to help your brain be at its best. Again, it’s a process that, like anything in life, takes a little dedication.
So, we summarized the 10 steps to improve your memory and unlock your brain power to learn more and faster, by Jim Kwik the renowned expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning. So, let's take a look at the keys to unlock your superpower:
1 – Good brain food
Ever heard the expression “You are what you eat?”. That’s particularly true to your brain, that grey matter needs healthy food to strive and improve its performance. So we need foods that are rich in antioxidants, good fats, vitamins and minerals, like avocados, blueberries, broccoli, eggs, salmon, walnuts and dark chocolate. Water is also an extremely important addition once your brain and body are about 75% water and there are studies proving that well-hydrated people score better on brainpower tests.
2. Have positive thoughts, and use your imagination
Albert Einstein has said "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge" and your brain needs to get rid of negative thoughts in order to believe what it can do. A negative person believes the negativity in their life, and the brain can’t really tell the difference of what is real or imagined, and if you already say you can’t do something then your judgement is done. If you feed your brain thoughts of incapacity and you go down the road of “I can’t do it”, “I have a terrible memory” or “I’m not good at that”, your brain will feel that is the truth. Our words matter, our self-talk has a great impact on our brain capacity and our overall performance. So, make sure you end negative self-talk and you feed your brain with more positiveness. And it’s not about fighting against the negative it’s just rewiring that self-talk to be more positive. Beware of what you tell yourself as if you were talking to your developing child. Our brain is a huge computer and our self-talk is the program that runs it.
3. Exercise
Your brain is a muscle and like any muscle in your body if you don’t work it, it will eventually atrophy. So, there are exercises you can do to improve your brain like fixing your posture, stop hunching over and stand tall. Hunching sends a message to your body and the people around you. So, make sure you fix your posture along the day, keep your spine long, chin up and chest opened and facing the world of knowledge you want to come your way 😊
4. Nutrients
So many of us feel tired nowadays, have completely crazy fast food diets because there really is no time for anything else, but what’s important to know is that perhaps your body is tired for the lack of nutrients, maybe your brain isn’t functioning at the level you wish it were because your not feeding it what you need. And you do not have to cook healthy meals everyday and spend an immense amount of time in the kitchen, hire someone to do that or even go to the best restaurants, that is all great, but most importantly is to find a good nutritionist and test your blood, know what your body needs to work better, what supplements can you take, what vitamins are missing. If you’re low on B vitamins, DHA and other supplements, you will face cognitive issues, so make sure you’re getting that checked!
5. Positive peer group
Who you spend time with, is certainly who you become! Your peers do have an impact on you. The same mirror neurons that help you be more empathic when you want, or feel whatever is happening on TV, are also the same neurons that are automatically working when you are spending time with your group of friends, we tend to imitate their habits, behaviors and even thought patterns, even unconsciously. We are the average of the five people we spend more time with. So, if you surround yourself with continue negativity, you will become a negative, limited, person. We have biological networks, neurological networks but we also need to analyze our social networks and pay attention to where they are leading you.
6. Clean environment
We are not people to work amidst chaos, we are not wired that way and it’s easy to see that when you suddenly have clarity of thought just by cleaning your desk or clearing your desktop. Therefore your mind will be sharper if you work on an environment that is decluttered but also clean, clean air, clean water, because those kind of pollutants also affect your cognition.
7. Sleep
Sleep is extremely important for our brain because it’s where we consolidate short to long-term memory, where you clean up your plaque that could lead to brain aging challenges (like dementia and the likes), and also because that’s when you dream, and many ideas, works of art, inventions and literature came to this world in dream states. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her in a dream, Paul McCartney’s song Yesterday came to him in a dream and even the periodic table came to a chemist in his dreams. These are iconic symbols of their fields so, what are you dreaming of at night? If you’re learning all day long, your brain doesn’t simply shut down at night, it is still very active and it may well come up with keys, solutions and brilliant ideas in the form of dreams.
8. Brain protection, prevention from injuries
Yes, concussions and brain injuries are to be avoided, in case you are an athlete, but the most important protection you can give your brain is to prevent those electromagnetic fields coming from your smart devices. It is not yet understood the effects they have on our brain but that electricity is definitely not helping your cognition, especially if you sleep with your phone on your nightstand or under your pillow. That is something to avoid, protect your brain, like a motorcycle rider uses a helmet!
9. New learnings
Developing new connections, learning new things helps neurogenesis, which is the ability the brain has of creating new cells until the day you die. Neuroplasticity is creating new connections. And if these two are active and running every day, your brain is highly functional. And to improve these two you need novelty and nutrition. Keep your brain stimulated with new learnings, research things that you are interested in and feed your brain with good nutrition to build those brain muscles.
10. Stress management
This is a difficult one because it’s invisible and you can’t really see the amount of stress you’re under until you’re on vacation, or getting a massage. Just like the fish doesn’t see water because it’s jus there all the time, it is extremely important for you to have a daily escape, whether it’s yoga, meditation, relaxation, breathing exercises, you name it, just make sure you have that time to give your brain some rest from all the daily stress. If you keep it under control, you’ll be able to manage situations better.
Our brains are our superpower, make sure you are using all of these tips to create good habits because first you create good habits, then your habits create you. The you, you wish to be!
Commentaires