how to increase the brain power? you can grow your brain cells

Human brains are the most complicated machine in the world, it has limitless power nobody can describe how powerful it is. There are some ways with which we can increase brain power. People use to think that computers are the most complex and best decision-making machines.

But if you compare computers with the human brain then computers ability is just 1% of the brain, it’s not even comparable. An increase in brain power will be useful for us not only in learning new skills or memorizing things but also useful in our work areas.

In this competitive world, it is very important that your brain works effectively, whether you want to learn new skills, want to crack any exam, want to start your business whatever your goal might be, to achieve that you need a strong and powerful brain.

In this article, I am going to discuss different practical ways to increase brain power. So that in the end, you will be in a position to use these ways to improve your brain power. Let’s start…

 

Two myths about the brainpower-

Before understanding the different ways let me first tell you the important truth about the brain. There are two misconceptions everybody has about the brain –

1. We can’t increase brain power after a certain age.
2. Everybody needs 10000 hrs to master a new skill.

Most people used to think that after a certain age our brain will reduce its power and efficiency to do quality work, also it is not possible for the brain to produce new brain cells to work effectively.

Well, this is completely not the truth, we can grow our brain cells at any age only thing we need to do is to take care of some important things. We need to focus on a healthy diet, daily aerobic exercise, reading books, or learning new things, improving the quality of thoughts, etc.

By doing these things we can grow neurons production even after the age of 50 years. So remove this misconception from your brain that your brain power would not increase after the age of 30. Because before understanding different ways to increase brain power, it is important that you should remove this misconception.

Check out this wonderful ted talk by Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret in which she explained how one can grow brain cells and increase the power of the brain without any limitation of age.

Every time when you learn something your brain makes the functional, chemical and structural change so it changes completely irrespective of your age. The learning speed of a brain is varied from person to person. Even though it is stated that we need 10,000hrs of practice to master a new skill but it is not true for all.

Some take more than 10,000 hrs to master a new skill, some may take less than 10,000 hrs. it completely depends on a person’s chemical, functional and structural change of a brain. So make sure you should give time to yourself while learning something new, never get frustrated because it takes more time.

Check out this article to know more – Is 10000 hours rule really makes you the expert in any skill?

I hope now you successfully removed those two misconceptions from your mind, now you agree that anyone can increase brain power irrespective of his/her age and every person’s brain is different and it understands or learns things with the different time periods.

So now let’s move on to those different ways and understand how you can increase brainpower!

Top 5 ways to increase brain power – 

 

1. Avoid Multi-tasking – 

In today’s world, Multi-tasking is overrated people use to think that the person who does multiple things at a time is an intelligent person. But in reality, this is not the case, the person who performs multitasking unable to focus on one task at a time. Great results are possible only when we focus on one task at a time.

Human brains are not designed to do multi-tasking, it is designed to handle one task at a time with full of concentration and sharp focus. Then also you saw most of the people used to watch TV while doing work, they use social media while doing office work similarly students used to listen to music while studying.

But our senior family members have been told that while eating don’t talk with others while studying don’t discuss with others while driving never talk on phones etc. Why they always focus on this? is there any logic? yes, definitely they know that our brain loses focus when we do multitasking.

In other words, multitasking is actually switching from one task to another continuously because of this habit our brain reduced its efficiency to work at optimum level. Continuous switching distracts our senses and energy flow in one place or task because of which it becomes difficult to focus on one thing.

I think you experienced this many times that when you are working in the office and at the same time if you are scrolling the mobile phones continuously then you will find you lost your focus on that work, right! because when we do some type of task or work with full of focus at that time all our senses are focused on that task, also all our energy is concentrated at that task.

In that case, our brain helps us to produce great results, find better ideas or solutions to the problems. So it is important to avoid multitasking because multitasking increases the habit of switching and then switching disturbs your senses.

Now how you avoid this problem, just make a list of important work/tasks on the paper that you want to do throughout the day. Set a time for each task for example – for the study if you want to allocate 6hr a day during that time you should make sure not to use social media and other irreverent things.

Make a detailed plan for 6hr like which subject you are going to study, what topic you cover, how much time you want to give for each subject etc. During this 6 hr, you may feel bored but make sure you should strictly avoid the switching.

Just take a break of 2 min and do deep breathing make sure in that 2 min you should not open social media or emails because these things make it easy for your brain to switch to other things and disturb senses.

This is applicable in any area not just in the study while doing any type of work or task make sure you should fully focus on that task only and never give any opportunity to your brain for switching. With this continuous practice, you will automatically stop switching from one task to another. Your concentration ability will improve a lot.

All the world-class champions, athletes, or businessmen always try to avoid multitasking they focus on only one task at a time because of which all their senses and energy concentrated on that task only hence they produce the best results. So Stopping multitasking helps increase brain power.

 

2. Continuous Learning increases brain power-

To maintain a healthy body and build strong muscles we do daily exercises like gym, running, yoga, etc. During exercise we create intensive pressure on our body by lifting heavy weights, stretching the entire body because of which our muscles become strong and as the result our body becomes healthy.

Similarly, if we want to increase brain power or grow brain muscles we have to do brain exercise. Brain exercise means we have to challenge our brain consistently by learning new things, solving difficult puzzles, learning new languages, etc.

Continuously learning new things creates pressure on the brain that grows brain muscles and as a result, increases brainpower. The human brain acts like a muscle, if you don’t train your brain by challenging or involving it in a new activity, there will be muscle atrophy.

See when we do exercise our body creates new muscles and make us healthy but if we stop doing it then all the muscles shrink. Similarly, if we stop learning new things our brain muscles shrink and hence reduction in brainpower.

So the single most effective tool that helps you become mentally strong, as well as increase brain power, is continuous learning. What we can do in the continuous learning see below list – 

1. Reading different books – It helps you build a strong thought process and gives you new perspectives.
2. Learning new skills – Right now there are so many e-learning platforms are there which provides good quality courses in all the domain. Select your domain and start learning new skills in your field.
3. Learn a new language – this is one of the biggest challenges to your brain that will help you improve brainpower.
4. Learn new musical instruments or any new things which challenge your brain.
5. Learn new vocabulary and repeat new words daily.

 

3. Daily exercise increases brain power –

Daily exercise is the most important thing which increases the power of our brain. It increases the blood flow in our mind. It’s not necessary that you should join the gym and do a heavy workout, just a basic 20 min of walking can increase your brainpower.

Aerobic exercise 2 times a week can reduce the danger of diseases like dementia. Cardio exercise helps improve blood circulation in our brain which increases our memory. focus and concentration. All types of exercises have a greater impact on our brains.

Human brain evolved under a constant motion that means the constant motion of the body increases the working ability of our brain like creativity, solution finding, decision making, etc. That means exercise is the number one thing that improves brain functioning without any cost.

As per one of the survey, researchers studied 2 different types of population groups led by 2 different lifestyles. The first group is people of an active lifestyle and the second group is people of a passive lifestyle.

After the survey researchers got shocked they found that people of the active lifestyle group are good at doing their work effectively, they are good at learning new skills, on the other hand, second group people lack these skills because of passive lifestyle.

They proved that exercise has a great impact on our learning ability as well as efficiency in daily work. Exercise has two main benefits it increases the oxygen flow into the brain and reduces brain-bound free radicals. Then increase in oxygen increases the mental sharpness or brainpower. So remember –

“We become stupid if we don’t exercise”

List of the best exercise – 

1. Aerobic exercise.
2. Cardio exercise.
3. Gym and meditation.
4. Yoga and pranayam with deep breathing.
5. Running or walking (at least 30 min).
6. Dancing with listening to music.
7. Any exercise that increases heart rate.

 

Check out – What type of exercise is best for the brain?

 

4. Healthy diet boost brainpower –

A healthy diet is one of the most crucial things to increase brain power. Eating the right foods not only makes your body healthy but also increases the efficiency of the brain. You need to have a fixed time for breakfast, launch, and dinner with the intake of healthy food.

Make sure you should stay away from foods like high sugar and salt content foods, red meat, fried foods, and processed foods, etc. These types of food damage your brainpower. On special occasions, you can eat it with no problem but never get into the habit of eating these types of food daily.

Types of food you should include in your daily diet to increase brain power –

1. Fatty fish improves brain memory.
2. Drink coffee, this boosts up the brain alertness and mood.
3. Blueberries help to improve memory.
4. Turmeric helps to grow new brain cells and reduce the chance of depression.
5. Broccoli reduces brain damage with an increase in age.
6. Pumpkin seeds improve brain functioning.
7. Nuts are the best brain-boosting ingredients.
8. Oranges are the best sources of vitamin C.
9. Eggs are best for regulating brain functioning and mood.
10. Fruits and green vegetables.

Well, I am not an expert dietician but over the years I learn a lot about the brain. So a few things I have shared here which I know beneficial for you. For more details about a healthy diet please check this- Best brain foods.

I know it’s difficult to maintain a healthy diet because of our working style. Sometimes it is impossible to maintain healthy eating for more than months when we are busy with project work or any other important tasks.

In that case, you should at least keep yourself away from unhealthy food and try to eat one fruit daily along with 1 glass of milk and a proper amount of water.

These things are easily available anywhere so make sure to add these to your diet even when you are too busy. The proper amount of water, 1 glass of milk, and daily 1 fruit are also the best things one can follow to increase brain power when other things are not easily available.

Healthy diet = Healthy body = Healthy brain

 

5. Other ways to increase brain power –

We discussed all the 4 important ways which you need to follow to increase brain power. Still, there are some other ways we can implement in our daily life to improve brain functioning. See those other ways below –

• What you teach others will stay in your brain for a long time, teaching to others is also the best way to increase brain power and long-term memory.
• The practice of writing important things boost your brainpower, if you are a student then write important things during the study, if you are learning a new skill then make a note in your own language because what you write directly goes into your subconscious mind.
• Maintain healthy relationships with your friends and family can also improve your brain functioning. When relationships are good you don’t have any emotional stress which makes your brain work effectively. 
• Explore in nature, we feel fresh and happy when we spend more time exploring nature and in sunlight. This is the natural way to make our brains more effective and change our mood.
• Listen to inspiring. soft and calm music can also help improve brain power, focus, and concentration.
• Get a good night’s sleep, Sleep of a least 7hr a day helps to improve brain focus and make our body healthy.
• Play different brain games which can help you increase your concentration.
• Practice meditation and mindfulness, this makes your brain relax and stable.
• Follow the well-organized daily routine, give enough time to exercise, eating, spending time with family, for entertainment, sleep, and for traveling or visiting new places. The practice of a disciplined daily routine motivates our brain to do effective work with full of focus.
• Practice daily affirmations and continuously work on reducing negative thoughts from your mind. keep the focus on what type of thoughts are coming into your mind, then write down the types of thought which increase anxiety or stress in your mind on a piece of paper.
• This habit helps you remove unwanted thoughts from your mind and make it free from toxic thoughts. More positive thoughts in your mind higher is the brainpower.

 

Conclusion – 

It’s not 1-day work to increase brain power, it takes time and effort. You have to practice and follow the above-mentioned things for almost 6 to 12 months then you will see good results. After getting results also you have to maintain these practices throughout your life to get massive results.

There are so many things out there which can be helpful to boost up brainpower. But in this article, I covered the most important and easiest ways to increase brain power. Just you need to work consistently on these ways to get the best results.

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