Train your brain

Hundred percent brain power

Have you ever failed a test and found yourself thinking, next time you’ll kick in more brain power. Do you think that if you knew how to train your brain, you could then tap into your full potential. We assume this is a secret as to why some people excel in their work. That they have somehow learned how to unlock their brain, but is it really the case.

I’m sure you’ve heard the myth that states we only use 10% of our brains. However, this is not completely the case. In fact, over the course of a day, people will use nearly 100% of their brain! Most of our brain is active almost all of the time.

Even though our brains make up only 3 to 5% of the bodies mass, it uses up to 20% of our bodies resources. In terms of oxygen and glucose, our mind demands a lot. When we learn a new skill or crunch for that big test, we feel drained. This is because it takes more of our energy to use our brain that way.

Train your brain for mental strength

Do both sides of our brain work at the same time? Most of us have a dominant hand, one that is better coordinated. Claims have been made that while the right side of our brain tends to be more creative and spontaneous, the left is more logical. Yet there is no research to suggest either side is more dominant. Each side of the brain simply has different functions that work together.

You can however, train your brain to strengthen the connection between the two. Working on your mental strength improves memory, focus, sleeping better, stress management and regulating your mood. These are just a few reasons why mental strength is so important.

Our brain is a muscle, the more we work it out, the stronger it will get. This also means we need to feed it properly. Read books, try new skills, and eat a healthy diet. If our brain takes 20% of our energy, we can’t expect it to run on coffee and sweets all day. It needs a sufficient supply of healthy energy to work efficiently.

Exercises to train your brain

You know now, that within the course of a day, we use almost all of our brain. However, this doesn’t mean we are necessarily using our brain in the strongest way. How can we activate both sides of our brain exercising it’s full potential?

The Stroop test is a cognitive test on flexibility and speed. Rather than choosing the color that the word spells, choose the color in the letters are written in. Sounds easy? Try it.

Use your less dominant hand. Ever tried to brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, how about writing a sentence? You will most likely feel like a preschooler learning coordination. By doing such activities you are activating the brains other hemisphere, which leads to more creativeness and overall thinking differently.

Test: put your hands in front of you, palms together. Pull your hands apart and make a fist. First raise your right thumb and then your left pinky, now your left thumb and then your right pinky. Can you do it?

Eye-hand coordination can also train your brain to be in sync. Juggling, playing catch, drawing a picture. They can all strengthen your eye hand coordination. Video games are also good for this, so if your child enjoys gamI g, relax a bit knowing they are strengthening those skills.

Now that you have a few ideas on how to expand your mental strength, choose one and start today.

The more you train your brain, the stronger it gets and the easier it is to retain knowledge in other areas, opening future possibilities of what you will accomplish.