This is how to increase your brain power

Your brain is your ultimate Weapon. It’s the only weapon that you have with you for all kinds of situation you may find yourself in. So, it’s only natural to have the desire to sharpen it and make it as powerful as possible. As our brain is the only tool that we have available 24/7 to deal with life’s challenges, empowering the brain through various activities sounds like a good idea.

Let’s say you want to improve upon the current condition of your brain. How do you approach it? To answer that question, first let’s talk a little about the brain itself.

Necessary Information about the Brain

The brain is a relatively tiny part of the body. It only weighs like 3 pounds, but it uses 20% of our total energy consumption.

Therefore, our body is very cautious about making it as efficient as possible. As a Child we are born with many different faculties of the brain, but they wither away as we become adults because, to increase efficiency our brain shuts down or limits resources to the parts of it that we don’t use as often.

Another thing we need to know about the brain is that it’s made solely with fats. And its preferred source of fuel is from ketones.

Okay, now that we have learned a little bit about the brain itself, let us discuss about how to improve its day-to-day functionalities, i.e. focus and cognition.

Foods for a Healthier Brain

Let’s first talk about the foods you need to intake to grow your brain. The old convention was that you are born with a set number of neurons and that you cannot generate any more. But this idea has been debunked and now we know that new neurons grow all the time. Your diet can influence it. The diets that support a healthy brain the most consist mostly of fats; as the brain itself is made from fats. You may want to eat salmon fish oil and nuts and fish rows. Also, a balanced diet where you get all kinds of nutrition is helpful.

The Importance of Sleep

Now let’s talk about the rituals that will boost your brain. These are habits that will enhance your brain’s performance. The first thing you want to ensure is good sleep. Make sure you have a good amount of uninterrupted sleep every day. If you couldn’t sleep one night, then don’t sleep for Two or three hours in the morning. Rather skip sleep completely for that day and get an uninterrupted longer sleep later. Because, when you interrupt your sleep midway, it’s harsh for the brain and the brain thrives when you let it complete its sleep uninterrupted.

How Exercise Boosts Brain Power

The next ritual you may want to incorporate in your daily life is to exercise. Exercise feeds your neurons, helps to grow novel synapses and makes them stronger. Working out will also make you more focused and energetic. Your ability to concentrate and your willpower will also increase. So, it’s a good idea to start your day with a workout regimen.

The Power of Meditation

The next daily ritual you may want to incorporate in your everyday life is to meditate. Meditation detaches you from your monkey brain and lets you see it as is.When you focus in the present moment, it releases unnecessary burden from your brain and lets you think more clearly and see things more clearly.

Tips and Tricks to Enhance your Brain

Okay, now there are some tips and tricks that you can use to help your brain retain all its potential faculties that usually wither away as we don’t use them. One way to do that is to use your left hand as often as you can. Another way to do that would be to learn dancing. And the best and the most holistic way to do that is to think about difficult stuff and take new challenges.

How Ketosis helps your Brain

The last thing I want to introduce is the importance of ketones. We can take our fuel from food in two ways: from glucose with the help of the insulin that our body produces, or from fats through ketosis. Our brain’s preferred mode of getting its fuel is through ketones. And that’s why it’s a good idea to introduce intermittent fasting or ketogenic diets in your life. People with intermittent fasting have reported to have higher focus and concentration and overall better mood.

So, there you go. I hope these are some helpful pointers for you to start building a healthier brain and nurture it properly.

(I must acknowledge the hard work of Dr. Rahul Jandial, What I’ve learned, Barbara Oakley, Impact Theory and Sam Harris. I wouldn’t have the slightest clue about all this if I hadn’t been following them.)

Who is Simon Sinek and Why Should You Care?

 

We humans are such complicated devices. I wish I was born with a manual for understanding myself. The best alternative I’ve found is to listen to anthropologists, psychologists and therapists. This is an exciting but time consuming endeavor.

Whatever, my recent obsession is with Simon Sinek- a British author. I’ve just finished two of his audio-books- Start with why and Leaders Eat Last.

I have always wanted to be a ruthless manager. Strict. Rational. That’s what I’ve been taught in My university’s finance program. That’s what I learned from watching Kevin O’leary and others in Shark Tank. My understanding was, business isn’t charity, to make money you have to be selfish and do whatever to keep your profit margins high.

Simon advocates a totally different approach in his book- Leaders Eat Last. He asks leaders to be benevolent and to be selfless. This type of behavior, as Simon claims, creates loyalty and makes employees work harder and better.

Simon doesn’t stop at only stating his claims. He does two other things that makes him look credible. Firstly, he kind of explains the science behind this. And, second but most importantly, he gives real life examples.

According to him, a good example is Costco, or United States Marine Corp.

He portrays the management of GE as a villain in this book. Their ruthless management, even though critically acclaimed, was no where as effective as Costco.

Something I found fascinating was his discussion about 5 brain chemicals- Dopamine, Endorphin, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Cortisol.

He portrays Dopamine and Serotonin as kind of villains and another chemical Cortisol as what we should strive to remove from our work environment. Oxytocin- the love hormone, is what he envisions as the hero that will save the day for corporations.

Simon has been very popular in YouTube. His interview in Inside Quest garnered more than 11 million views. His talk at Ted has more than million views. Give these videos a shot and see how you feel about his ideals. See you in the next post 🙂