Developing your memory tips? “Approaches to brain health include a well-balanced diet low in fat, low in cholesterol, and high in antioxidants,” says Robert Bender, MD, section chief of the Geriatric and Memory Center at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to good nutrition, regular exercise can promote vascular health to help protect brain tissue. Avoiding ruts and boredom is also critical. “The brain wants to learn new things,” says Dr. Bender, noting that some researchers believe that people are more vulnerable to dementia when they pay less attention to the things around them. “When the brain is passive, it has a tendency to atrophy,” he adds, so sedentary and relatively passive activities, such as sitting in front of a TV for hours a day, can be detrimental to brain health over time.
Spend some time to examine which kinds of foods bring you up and which foods bring down. Creating a diet plan can make you feel good, and gives you a sense of self-development. This will boost your sense of success. Get as much sleep as you need, around seven or eight hours, every night. While sleeping well does not guarantee good health, it does help you to maintain many vital functions. Perhaps most importantly, sleep helps you recover from the wear and tear of daily life. Major healing functions in the body such as tissue repair, muscle and mental growth occur almost exclusively during sleep.
Practice throwing a ball in the air and catching it. If you’re good at it, take up juggling. People who master these kinds of sensory-guided movement activities can hone their brains’ visual, tactile, and hand-eye coordination responses, with widespread positive impact on the brain. This type of activity has been shown in MRI studies to thicken parts of the brain’s cortex.
When was the last time you looked at your smartphone? Was it within the last 30 seconds? The last minute? On average, Americans open their phones 58 times a day and spend three and a half hours online. Worldwide, millions rely on the little computers in their palms to do everything from look up directions to recall important information like birthdays, deadlines, and to-do lists. For leaders, this kind of attrition quickly adds up: When you forget small details about your customers and teams, you send the message that you aren’t interested in them as people or invested in your relationships. This is especially true during times of crisis when people are looking to you for comfort and support. Remembering their individual circumstances will help you adjust your communications and expectations around each person’s situation. In a state of emergency, technology will only get you so far. See even more details on Neuroscientia.
Speed of Information Processing refers to how quickly a learner can process incoming information. Some scientists consider speed of information processing a central aspect of IQ. Many children with attention problems often are unable to keep up with the lesson plan presented by the teacher. Cognitive Flexibility is the ability to change what you are thinking about, how you are thinking about it and even what you think about it – in other words, the ability to change your mind. Cognitive flexibility is required in multiple ways throughout the school day.