Want to think like a genius? Use these brain boosters to increase your brain power. Faster learning, better memory, sharper thinking, out-of-the-box problem solving, more efficiency and productivity and enhanced creativity…get into the habit of thinking like the great thinkers.
Increasing your brain power is easier than you think. Don’t make working your brain a chore!
The ideas below are fun, they keep life interesting, and best of all: they don’t take any extra time (OK, you may have to give up some TV, but you’ll love the results)…
101 Ways To Increase Brain Power
- Meditate: the #1 brain exercise! Stress clouds your thinking, so relieve stress with meditation. It’s easy! Put on your headphones, press PLAY on your Omharmonics meditation music download, and let the technology put you in a meditative state.
- Work on being ambidextrous. Brush your hair, write, use the mouse and eat/drink with the “wrong” hand.
- When something is broken, find creative repair solutions using common objects. Make do with what you have; make repairs with odd items and ingenuity.
- Learn to convincingly argue every side of an argument.
- Write with the wrong hand. Write backward with both.
- Read upside down (the text, not you).
- Hydrate. Water enhances the brain’s electrochemical activity – dehydration slows it!
- Change your perspective. Turn the pictures in your home upside down for a while.
- Doodle and draw visual solutions to problems instead of using numbers or text.
- Mentally estimate the passage of time.
- Listen to classical music.
- Power nap. This is perhaps the easiest way to increase brain power.
- Try different learning styles, like audios book or attending seminars.
- Stop procrastinating!
- Exercise daily.
- Eat exceptionally well. Give your brain energy and nutrients, not fillers and chemicals from junk/processed food.
- Solve math problems without a calculator.
- Remember phone numbers.
- Mix up your routine.
- Play chess – especially a prolonged email version.
- Solve optical illusions.
- Play brain games like crosswords or Sudoku.
- Watch TED talks or A-fest talks.
- Be curious about everything, like a child.
- Think positively. What can go right?
- Create “top 100 lists” of things to be grateful for, learn, places to visit, etc.
- Keep a journal.
- Write down ideas as soon as you have them and return to them often.
- Simplify, declutter and organize your living and work space.
- Take a class in something you’ve never explored.
- Take several 10-minute brisk walk-breaks throughout the day.
- Learn to spell backward.
- Change the furniture placement and art/accessories in your home.
- Learn to play a musical instrument (and read music).
- ‘Be.’ Observe the world without judgment, classification, or even thought.
- Share something you’ve just learned or don’t know well. The process of explaining something helps clarify it.
- Problem-solve from a different perspective. How would different people approach this problem: the rich, poor, crazy, geniuses, achievers and slackers…?
- Take up a new hobby.
- Find connections between seemingly unrelated items, topics or people.
- Creatively visualize your ideal life.
- Take a slow day: do everything at half the speed and twice the awareness.
- Learn memory techniques.
- Surround yourself with intelligent, positive people.
- Learn and use a new word every day.
- Travel abroad.
- Stop multitasking. Do one thing at a time, exceptionally well.
- Be in nature.
- Collect quotes from great thinkers.
- Learn to lucid dream.
- Remember and record your dreams.
- Say your problems out loud, as if you were explaining them to a stranger.
- Play.
- Use a reverse clock.
- Learn yoga, tai chi or the martial arts.
- Become hyper-aware of your environment. Identify and locate the sources of sounds; subtle changes in temperature; different smells, etc.
- Get enough sleep (Can’t sleep because of stress? Meditate!)
- Eat less.
- Laugh!
- Learn to manage emotions by focusing on the feeling instead of the thought that generated it.
- Describe an experience in as much detail as you can remember. Take 2-3 days to do this, each time probing deeper for more information.
- Practice ‘theme observation’: pick a theme and try to spot it as many times as possible in one day.
- Learn a foreign language.
- Brainstorm.
- Visit a museum.
- Read at least one thought-provoking book a month.
- Get to the root of your problems. What were you thinking, that caused you to do or say something that had an unpleasant consequence?
- Memorize names.
- Take an improvisation class.
- Dance.
- Seek out the random; select a random word, and explore it on the Internet.
- Imagine absurd, ‘impossible’ and ridiculously crazy solutions to everyday problems.
- Help someone learn your language.
- Learn origami.
- Take different routes to work, to the store, etc.
- Learn to eat with chopsticks.
- Learn to juggle (a fun way to both increase brain power and impress your friends).
- Question everything. Ask, “why?” – especially if something doesn’t ring true to you.
- Find your learning style and apply it to something you’re struggling with.
- Try new (ethnic) foods with an open, eager attitude.
- Become aware of your thoughts during meditation.
- Give 110% – always deliver more than expected.
- Summarize something you’ve just read.
- Come up with one possible solution to one problem every day. Don’t worry if it’s ridiculous, unworkable or ‘impossible’ – write it down.
- Place inspirational items in your workspace – quotes, pictures, objects, etc.
- Breathe deeply.
- Sit up straight!
- Use ‘down time’: listen to books on tape while you commute, play memory games as you mow the lawn, etc.
- Be mindful. Notice thoughts that are subtly bothering you (the little nagging voice) and clear up that mental clutter. Do what you need to do and get it out of your head!
- Make a to-do list so you don’t have to have one in your head.
- Develop and follow your intuition.
- Avoid foods that cause allergies: sugar, wheat, corn, soy, nuts, dairy. Eliminate these for a while and watch the mental fog clear up!
- Learn to speed-read.
- Practice walking meditation. The rhythmic nature of walking lends itself to contemplation. Begin by focusing on the physical act and sensation of walking, and then allow your thoughts to focus on one topic only.
- Model what successful people do and say.
- Create a new habit. It takes 30-45 days of consistent repetition for a thought or an action to become a habit.
- Set goals.
- Eat breakfast!
- Use peak energy times for complex mental work. Follow your own rhythms whether you’re a morning person or night owl.
- Have sex. Yes, really! This is perhaps the funnest way to increase brain power!
- Use caffeine, in moderation.
- Make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to mess up – mistakes are powerful teachers!
Culled from MindValley Blog
