How to get smarter? Let's try to sort out this question, because many people know that mental exercise allows you to develop the brain in much the same way as physical activity - muscles.
Regular exertion significantly increases the endurance of the mind: the brain gets used to stress and thinking becomes clearer and more logically correct.
However, endurance cannot be achieved in a simple way. For example, physical endurance is achieved by various aerobic exercises: jogging, swimming, cycling, etc. During exercise, the heart muscle contracts more often than at rest, the lungs are supplied with a large amount of oxygen, then enriching every cell of our body.
So tension is the foundation of physical endurance.
Speaking of endurance of the mind, it should be understood that the same principle is at work here. You need to regularly perform tasks that require extended concentration.
By the way, pay attention to 7 ways to develop your brain and 5 habits that will keep your brain young.
8 ways to get smarter
In this article, I will give 8 ways that will allow you not only to become smarter, or pump your brain, but also to significantly increase its endurance.
I will tell not only about the classical ways of developing the brain, known to many, but I will also mention the methods that were used by the Pythagoreans - disciples and followers of the great ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras.
At the same time, we must immediately say that a lot of efforts will be required from you. Whoever thinks that developing the brain is easier than achieving an athletic figure is deeply mistaken.
If you are serious, then literally after a month of regular training, you will be surprised at the progress that previously seemed to you an unattainable lot of gifted people.
Do something new once a week
At first glance, this may seem pointless, or at least frivolous. However, in reality, this is far from the case. The fact is that almost the main enemy of our brain is routine.
If you begin to gradually dilute it with something new, new neural connections will appear in your brain, which, of course, will have a positive effect on brain development.
It should be clarified that anything new can be: a visit to an art exhibition, a trip to the Philharmonic, a planned trip to a part of the city where you have never been. You can also return from work or school in the way that you have never traveled, and have dinner in the evening not at home, but somewhere in a public place.
In short, do something at least once a week that you don't normally do. The more you diversify your daily life, the more beneficial it will be for your brain, as a result of which you can become smarter.
Read books
Read a separate large material about the benefits of reading books, which contains the most important information.
In short, regular reading develops imagination, vocabulary, concentration, memory and thinking, and also greatly expands the horizons.
At the same time, it should be understood that all excuses like “I don't have enough time”, “I'm too busy” or “I don't know where to start” - in no way justify us. The habit of reading is formed in the same way as any other habit.
Therefore, if you do not fully understand the importance of reading books, read the article at the link above and immediately implement this habit in life. The results will not be long in coming.
To study a foreign language
It has long been proven that learning a foreign language improves brain function like nothing else. That is why, in many highly developed countries, elderly people quite often attend foreign language courses. And it is not the desire to master a new language of communication that drives them.
Scientists have just found that learning a foreign language has an extremely positive effect on the brain and significantly reduces the risk of dementia, that is, acquired dementia. And precisely in order not to spend the last years of life in senile marasmus, people take care of themselves, trying to master a new language.
If you are a young man, then the importance of learning English - the language of international communication - you yourself perfectly understand. So why not combine the useful with the even more useful? Especially if you want to get smarter.
By the way, the researchers noticed unusual brain behavior at the time of simultaneous interpretation. The translator, who is in the midst of his work, activates not one or several parts of the cerebral cortex, but almost the entire brain. The activity of the translator's brain is displayed on the screen as an almost solid red spot, which indicates a colossal mental stress.
All these facts indicate that learning foreign languages is not only profitable, but also incredibly useful!
Learn poetry
You've probably heard about the benefits of memorizing poetry by heart and how it helps a lot to develop memory. However, in our time, very few people (especially young people) are able to quote at least such famous classics as Pushkin or Lermontov, not to mention Derzhavin, Griboyedov and Zhukovsky, Feta and Nekrasov, Balmont and Mandelstam.
But it is reliably known that when memorizing poetry, our brain synchronizes with the way of thinking of poets, as a result of which the culture of speech develops.
Learning foreign languages is much easier, since our memory becomes trained, like the muscles of an athlete. Together with this, the general ability to memorize information increases.
Belinsky said: "Poetry is the highest kind of art", and Gogol wrote that "Beauty is the source of poetry".
It is not surprising that almost all great people loved poetry and quoted a lot from memory. Probably, there is some mystery here that everyone who has a penchant for creativity and everything elegant loves poetry.
Keep in mind that you don't need to learn all of Eugene Onegin to develop your brain. It is enough to choose a small fragment that you like the most. Let it be a small quatrain, the meaning and rhythm of which is close and understandable to you.
One way or another, but by joining poetry, you will do a great service to your emotional intelligence and will certainly become smarter.
Pythagoras method
Pythagoras is an outstanding ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, the founder of the Pythagorean school. Herodotus called him "the greatest Hellenic sage." The life story of Pythagoras is difficult to separate from the legends that represent him as a perfect sage and a great scientist, dedicated to all the secrets of the Greeks and barbarians.
There are many legends about what methods of brain development Pythagoras used. Of course, it is not possible to confirm their authenticity, but this is not so important.
If you want to develop a phenomenal memory and pump your brain, try for at least a week to do the exercise known as the Pythagorean Method.
It is as follows.
Every evening (or morning) replay the events of the day in your mind, beginning with waking up. Remember what time you woke up, how you brushed your teeth, what thought came to you when you had breakfast, how you were driving to work or school. It is important to scroll through the memories in full detail, trying to feel the same emotions and feelings that accompanied the events of the day.
Moreover, you should evaluate your own actions committed during this day by asking yourself the following questions:
- What have I done today?
- What did you not do, but wanted?
- What actions deserve condemnation?
- How should you rejoice?
Once you have mastered the one-day technique of a kind of consciousness exam, begin to gradually immerse yourself in the past, remembering what happened yesterday and the day before yesterday.
If you have the character to do this every day, you are guaranteed success - any computer will envy your memory. By training in this way, in a few months you will learn to keep your attention constantly on (by the way, this technique is used when training intelligence officers).
By training your memory for a long time, you will learn to quickly recover events from different periods of your life and will be able to memorize large blocks of information.
Perhaps this will seem fantastic to you, but after all, in ancient times, people remembered by heart a huge number of legends and legends, and no one considered it a miracle.
Speaking of memory, it should be said that such a thing as "memory overload" simply does not exist, so do not worry that memorizing poetry or remembering the events of the day will load your memory with unnecessary information, and then you will not be able to remember what you need.
Natalya Bekhtereva, Soviet and Russian neurophysiologist and eminent brain researcher, claimed that a person does not forget anything in principle.
Everything we have ever seen and experienced is stored in the depths of the brain and can be extracted from there. This is partly what happens to drowned people who were brought back to life.
Many of them tell that before their consciousness faded, their whole life passed in front of their inner gaze to the smallest detail.
Ankylosing spondylitis explains this by the fact that in search of salvation, the brain, as it were, “scrolls” through life, looking for similar situations in it that would suggest a way out of mortal danger. And since all this happens in a matter of seconds, another important conclusion is made: in critical situations, the brain can accelerate internal time, setting the biological clock to a frantic pace.
But why, if a person's brain remembers everything, we cannot always extract from memory even what is extremely necessary? This is still a mystery.
One way or another, but the Pythagorean Method will undoubtedly allow you to significantly improve brain function, which will inevitably help you become smarter.
Exercises with numbers
Pestalozzi, one of the greatest educators of the past, said: "Counting and computing are the basics of order in the head." Anyone who has even an indirect relationship to the exact sciences can confirm this.
Mental calculations are an old proven way of building mental stamina. Plato, one of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, well understood the importance of developing computational abilities.
He wrote:
"Those who are naturally strong in calculations will show natural sharpness in all other scientific pursuits, and those who do it worse can develop their arithmetic abilities through exercise and practice, and thus become smarter and smarter."
Now I will give a few exercises that will require you to work intensively on your computing "muscles." These exercises can be done silently or aloud, quickly or slowly, while at home or walking down the street. They are also ideal for traveling on public transport.
So, continue the ascending and descending sequences:
Up in 2 steps
2, 4, 6, 8, …, 96, 98, 100
Down in 2 steps
100, 98, 96, 94, …, 6, 4, 2
Up in 3 steps
3, 6, 9, 12, …, 93, 96, 99
Down in 3 steps
99, 96, 93, 90, …, 9, 6, 3
Up in 4 steps
4, 8, 12, 16, …, 92, 96, 100
Down in 4 steps
100, 96, 92, 88, …, 12, 8, 4
If your brain doesn’t boil at this point, try continuing with the double ascending and descending sequences:
Up in steps of 2 and 3
2-3, 4-6, 6-9, 8-12, …, 62-93, 64-96, 66-99
Down in 2 and 3 steps
66-99, 64-96, 62-93, 60-90, …, 6-9, 4-6, 2-3
Up in steps of 3 and 2
3-2, 6-4, 9-6, 12-8, …, 93-62, 96-64, 99-66
Down in 3 and 2 steps
99-66, 96-64, 93-62, 90-60, ……, 9-6, 6-4, 3-2
Up in steps of 3 and 4
3-4, 6-8, 9-12, 12-16, …, 69-92, 72-96, 75-100
Down in steps of 3 and 4
75-100, 72-96, 69-92, 66-88, …, 9-12, 6-8, 3-4
Once you have mastered the previous exercises, move on to the triple descending sequences:
Down in steps of 2, 4, 3
100-100-99, 98-96-96, 96-92-93, 94-88-90,…, 52-4-27
Down in 5, 2, 3 steps
100-100-100, 95-98-97, 90-96-94, 85-94-91, …, 5-62-43
Some researchers believe that these exercises with numbers (as well as their many variants) were actively used in the Pythagorean school.
One way or another, but you will be surprised at what effect this method will bring you after a month of daily training.
You will not only become smarter in the broadest sense, but you will be able to concentrate attention on abstract things for a long time and at the same time keep a large amount of information in your head.
Logic tasks and puzzles
Logic tasks and all kinds of puzzles are one of the best ways to pump your brain and become smarter. After all, it is with their help that you can do regular gymnastics of the mind, plunging into a realistic plot of the problem.
There is not much to add here, just remember the rule: the more often you wiggle your gyrus, the better your brain works. And logical tasks are perhaps the best tool for this.
Fortunately, you can get them anywhere: buy a book or download the corresponding application to your phone. By the way, here are some examples of rather difficult logic problems that we published earlier:
- Kant's problem
- Weighing coins
- Einstein's riddle
- Tolstoy's problem
Turn off the brain for 10 minutes
The last but extremely important way of developing the brain is the ability to turn it off. For complete control over your mind, learn not only to keep it active for a long time, but also to turn it off in time. And do it deliberately.
Surely you have noticed for yourself during the day moments when you freeze for a while, looking at one point, and do not think about anything.
From the outside it seems as if you are plunged into deep thought, while in fact your consciousness is in a state of complete rest. Thus, the brain puts itself in order, harmonizing overly stressed parts.
Learning to deliberately turn off your brain for 5-10 minutes a day will significantly improve brain function and help you become smarter.
However, learning this seemingly simple trick is not so easy. Sit upright, provide yourself with silence and complete rest. Further, with an effort of will, try to relax internally and not think anything.
Over time, you will learn to quickly shut off, thus rebooting your consciousness.
Let's sum up
If you want to get smarter, speed up your brain, significantly increase your mental stamina, and just start thinking better, you should follow these rules:
- Do something new once a week
- Read books
- To study a foreign language
- Learn poetry
- Use the "Pythagorean Method"
- Exercise with numbers
- Solve logic problems and puzzles
- Turn off the brain for 5-10 minutes
Well, now it's up to you. If you want to become smarter - do the proposed exercises regularly, and the result will not be long in coming.
At the end, I recommend paying attention to the Basics of Logic, which discusses the basics of logical thinking, which every person involved in self-development should know.