Showing posts with label train your brain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label train your brain. Show all posts
5 Tips on How to Stay Focussed

For students, losing focus on the work or goals is a common thing and this usually happens more when they perform those tasks which lie beyond their comfort zone. So, here are some tips which you should follow to train your brain in such a way that you will always be able to complete your work without losing your focus.
1. Time Management:-
"Time is everything", the one who doesn't manage his time deliberately will always lose focus on his work. Now question arise "how", suppose someone has assigned you some task and give you deadline to complete it, initially you will take that task lightly because you know you have enough time to complete it, as we all know time flies, and what happens at the last moment you end up with losing your focus and would not able to put your all attention to that task due to the fear of deadline. So time management is must! Make a TO-DO list and work accordingly.
2. Be Positive:-
Positivity plays a very vital role in keeping you stay focused. If you are doing any work, try to look for the positive sides of that work because it will motivate you to complete that work without any distractions. A positive mind is more creative, hence you will be able to work with your full potential.
3. Have Good Surrounding:-
You're surrounding or environment matters a lot, when you have people with similar goals, you all will support and motivate each other to stay focused on your achievements and also, you will learn lots of new things from each other and this will give you a boost to achieve your goals.
4. Learn how to avoid distractions:-
You may think that checking your messages on Facebook, WhatsApp relaxes you but this is not true, actually these things are distracting you from focusing on your core work, you have to manage all these things in such a way, like, first you should complete your work or task more efficiently and then you can reward yourself with virtual socializing.
5. Self-motivation:-
It is the best practice to keep oneself more productive, try to self-motivate yourself whenever you feel like you are losing your focus on your work, there are number of ways through which you can easily self-motivate yourself like:-
· Think about the achievements in your life.
· Determine what other people see as your strengths.
· Listen to music that gives you energy.
· Surround yourself with a positive environment.
https://ezinearticles.com/?5-Tips-on-How-to-Stay-Focussed&id=9839095
7 Steps to Cultivate Your Creativity

Being creative can be harder than you think! But it's a skill that you can easily learn with a bit of practice and a few simple steps.
Boost your creativity with some of the following exercises and see how many new ideas you can cultivate in no time.
1. Be a beginner. Go straight to the basics in something you have never done before. Waterski, crochet or write a poem for the first time and take all the first steps beginners do and ask all the same questions. Then turn around and wonder about your own project and assess it as if seeing it for the first time.
2. Make lists. In order to come up with the best ideas, you have to come up with a lot of ideas. So choose one aspect of your custom logo products and come up with as many variations as you can for that one part - the wilder the better. Some of your ideas will be silly, but maybe there is also your next great concept hidden in the midst.
3. Embrace the accidents. Many great discoveries came about through sheer accident. Learn from every scenario, even if it isn't what you hoped for, and be open to the possibility that the surprise is the better solution.
4. Use all your senses. To become an expert on something, you have to know everything about it from all sides. Taste, see, smell, feel and hear the sounds of your subject.
5. Creative time. Many artists and writers agree that the best time to be creative should be at the same time every day. Whether it's an hour before bed or first thing when you wake up, train your brain to be at its best at these certain times. Free write, sketch or otherwise brainstorm to spark that creativity "on demand."
6. Engage with someone different. There is no one type of creativity nor only one way to be creative. Connect with someone with whom you would normally disagree or not understand. You are bound to learn a lot about their kind of creativity and maybe something about your own as well.
7. Change the perspective. Take the question you have been working from and see how many ways you can rephrase and turn it around. Make sure your focus truly meets your audience's needs.
After exploring different techniques to being creative, consider which are the best, the ones worth pursuing. Look past the good of each to the pros and cons, to the worst case scenarios and everything in between. Put your ideas head to head and let the final best of them all win.
https://ezinearticles.com/?7-Steps-to-Cultivate-Your-Creativity&id=9591075
How to Use Meditation to Train Your Brain (By Sally Marks)
I recently trotted my two granddaughters off to the discount theater to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. It was a hot, Saturday afternoon and the place was packed. In order to sit together we were forced to take a front row seat. One thing about this vantage point is you feel like you're rubbing noses with the screen (which, if I had sneezed, I would've been.) But it was great fun.
Having grandchildren (or children) gives you the opportunity to repeat the fun stuff you enjoyed as a kid without having other people judge you for spending the afternoon playing with Play Doh or watching an animated picture.
I admit it, dragons intrigue me. I'm not sure why. I'm a big fan of Harry Potter movies and mystical stories. Dragons are generally portrayed as villains, but in How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2 we see humans and dragons working together. Of course there is a lot of prejudice to overcome, but it finally happens. I apologize if this was a spoiler for any of you, but most Hollywood plots are pretty predictable and secondary to the spectacle and popcorn.
I didn't think too much about the movie and any underlying messages at first, but then I received an assignment to write an article on meditation for Beauty Link magazine (I'll post a link when the article comes out.) I'm Buddhist and I chant the words Nam Myoho Renge Kyo every morning and evening. Occasionally I meditate as well, but I have to admit my knowledge on the effects of meditation (or chanting) and the brain is minimal.
Imagine my surprise to learn that meditation and other calming techniques can increase your happy serotonin supply, decrease the nasty cortisol levels, lower your blood pressure and even assist your healing power on a cellular level. Another thing I learned is when we get a jolt of anger, frustration, annoyance etc. a message is sent to the amygdale, a walnut-sized part of our brain that is responsible for our fear response. If left unchecked, our fear-response is activated.
Our reactions may vary a little depending on our personality, but it is rarely a good scenario. We might feel the urge to fight, take flight, yell, hold our breath, climb a tree, or any number of fear-based reactions. When the danger is real this could be a good thing for self preservation. But most of the time the anger or stress is more an annoyance (rush hour traffic, an approaching deadline, a demanding boss) than a real, life-threatening event.
The good news is there is a 30-second delay from the time the response is noticed before the amygdala yells, "suppress the serotonin and release the cortisol!" It's like turning off all the water faucets and then igniting an internal fire. Fortunately during this 30 seconds you can take deep breaths and practice a mini-meditation, chant, or practice another relaxation technique to help restore order to your system.
Of course this little scenario made me think each dramatic event in our lives gives us the opportunity to be a hero. In most cases we can be kind to our system and psyche and cool our internal flames before it becomes a massive wild fire that torments our bodies and any innocent bystanders. In the rare cases where we need our fear to protect ourselves and the world, we can let it kick in, jump on our dragon (and I think Amygdala is a good name for a dragon) and we can take up the good fight.
Both scenarios have a place in our lives. But I think it's safe to say that our "call to arms" is not as necessary as our amygdala would have us believe.
During my post-movie discussion with my granddaughters I asked six-year-old Rosannah what her favorite part of the movie was. She liked the part when the kids and dragons fought the bad guys and won. Briannah, age 5, preferred the beginning of the movie when everything was calm and pleasant. My favorite part was when the heroes had to ride the only available dragons that were available - the baby dragons. Unlike the adult flying lizards who followed the directive of the alpha beast - the baby dragons didn't listen to anyone. And somehow I found that very refreshing.
We can do the same. We are the alphas of our own minds. We can fly off the handle when we are in grave danger, or we can save our energy, relax by the pool, and live to save the world another day.
https://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Use-Meditation-to-Train-Your-Brain&id=8685321
Memory Loss: Just Stress or Is It More Serious?

We are entering a time where many people feel more stress and experience that their memory is becoming impaired. Our memory can get worse if we have high stress levels, cannot sleep well and feel overwhelmed all the time. Traumatic events can also cause memory loss. When we have high levels of stress or trauma, our cortisol (our stress hormone) levels change and adrenalin levels rise to give us more energy. This can cause fogginess in the brain and we can react irrationally. After a period of prolonged stress our adrenalin levels can drop down and we feel burned out on a physical and mental level, hence feeling mentally tired and not being able to think as fast as before.
When the brain has de-stressed and we feel more in control, our memory is often rejuvenated and we experience normal recall.
However, we have more and more clients in our office who feel that their memory levels have dropped significantly, their stress levels are not decreasing and would like to train their brain up to function optimally again.
One has to differentiate between stress-related memory loss and a more serious reason why memory is declining.
Here is a summary of some well-known illnesses that cause memory problems:
Alzheimer's: There are a number of symptoms related to Alzheimer's. The most common ones are that the person can:
- Be confused about time and space
- Have problems speaking or writing
- Lose things and forgetting what they have done with the items
- Have difficulty judging things accurately any more
- Show mood and personality changes, such as feeling depressed, angry, irritated and anxious.
Those symptoms start in a mild form initially and get more severe with time. Unlike several other chronic illnesses, the incidence of Alzheimer's is on the rise; recent research suggest that it has become the third leading cause of death, after cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Vascular Dementia: People show signs of memory loss after having had a major stroke, or one or more "silent" strokes, which can happen without them realizing it.
The symptoms depend on the part of the brain that's affected by the stroke.
In comparison to Alzheimer's, which starts with memory problems, vascular dementia often starts with poor judgment, not being able to plan or organize things well any more, and making poor decisions.
The symptoms of Vascular Dementia can include:
- Memory problems
- Trouble speaking and/or understanding speech
- Problems recognizing sights and sounds that used to be familiar
- Feeling confused, restless or agitated
- Changes in behavior and mood
- Problems walking and having frequent falls
It is important to understand why our memory declines and why it is necessary for your doctor to make a proper diagnosis. The good news is that science has advanced quite a lot and there are many different treatment and training options that can be used to improve your brain functioning and memory again.
A study conducted by Dr. Dale Bredesen of the UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging shows that: "A broader-based therapeutic approach, rather than a single drug that aims at a single target, may be feasible and potentially more effective for the treatment of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer's.
Cognitive decline is a major concern of the aging population and people who have high levels of stress in their lives. Alzheimer's affects approximately 30 million people globally. It is estimated that by 2050, without effective prevention and treatment, 160 million people globally would have the disease."
There are a number of different treatment options in helping you increase your memory. Your doctor will recommend medication that can help the brain to stabilize and prevent a decline in functioning if you suffer from a specific memory related illness. In addition, it is important to learn skills to increase your brain's functioning, such as memory techniques and emotional intelligence skills that change negative behaviors and thought patterns.
Counseling is necessary for people who have slipped into depression or anxiety due to their decline in functioning and negative changes in their lives. Your brain can be helped by taking supplements such as Omega 3, Gingko Bilbao, Vitamin C and Zink to increase your brain functioning. Make sure that you sleep enough as this can improve your memory greatly. In addition, guided meditation is another way to distress your brain and gain back your memory.
Finally, it is important to train your brain to function optimally again which can be achieved with neurofeedback/brain training where the areas in the brain that are not functioning optimally, are trained up again. Just like training your body at gym, you can train your brain - improving areas in the brain that are not working optimally. Luckily our brain has plasticity, which means it acts like a muscle that can be trained and changed to overcome negative functioning patterns.
So don't just think that your memory is bad due to age. We can train our brains and increase our memory, feel better and gain our confidence back when needing to recall facts, names, numbers or events. You are never too old to train your brain!
http://ezinearticles.com/?Memory-Loss:-Just-Stress-or-Is-It-More-Serious?&id=9433087
Be Your Own Favorite Teacher
The term "autodidact" refers to someone who teaches themselves a certain subject. In other words, an autodidact is someone who is self-taught. Some famous autodidacts include Ernest Hemingway, David Bowie, Russell Crowe, Leonardo da Vinci and Frank Lloyd Wright.
We are all autodidacts in the sense that we are always learning. That is to say, we should always be learning. Taking autodidacts to the next level can be something that will enrich your life far more than just the skills you'll learn. What's more, with information and resources readily available - for free in many cases - there's no time better in history than now for the autodidact.
Build your self-confidence as an autodidact
Those who teach themselves develop self-esteem and self-reliance that will positively affect nearly every aspect of their lives. By teaching yourself, you not only learn the specific skill, but you prove to yourself that you are capable of accomplishing many things beyond what you may have believed, or what others have led you to believe about yourself. You learn to trust yourself and your abilities, and you value your own intelligence.
Empower yourself with knowledge
Self-educated people do not shy away from challenges, they relish them. As you have success at autodidacts, you will train your brain to work more efficiently, and improve problem-solving skills too. You will no longer be afraid to tackle something you don't know. You will know from experience that once you set your mind to learning something, you will be able to find the information you need, and have the ability to learn. Aside from boosting your own confidence, you will gain respect from others, and be able to serve them with your knowledge. You'll be that person friends and relatives turn to when they don't know how to do something.
Practical benefits of autodidacts
Another sense of pride you will obtain is from the amount of money you will save by teaching yourself. Everyone feels smart and savvy when they find a way to save money. Just imagine the sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction you'll experience when you save hundreds, even thousands, of dollars teaching yourself something - even figuring out how to fix something yourself.
Teaching yourself to gain a specific skill, or just for the fun of it opens up countless opportunities. The sky's the limit to what you can learn and experience in your life. Never pass up the opportunity to grow!
http://ezinearticles.com/?Be-Your-Own-Favorite-Teacher&id=9458869
How to Train Your Brain to Stay Positive
As an entrepreneur, conquering challenge and failure is essential to the success of your business. You can learn to cultivate that resilience by training your brain to stay positive when times are tough.
"People tend to have a cognitive bias toward their failures, and toward negativity," says Matthew Della Porta, a positive psychologist and organizational consultant. Our brains are more likely to seek out negative information and store it more quickly to memory.
Of course, that bias is not always bad. Acknowledging problems and facing failures can lead us to better solutions. But too often, we go overboard, and beat ourselves up for our failures or let ourselves dwell in the negative.
By consciously increasing our focus on the positive, we start to even the balance. We find a happy medium where we can address failures and challenges without letting them get us down, leaving us more motivated, productive, and likely to succeed.
Try these three tips to help you train your brain to stay positive
1. Express gratitude.
Negative events loom large unless you consciously balance them out. "When you're faced with challenges, it's important to take stock of what's going well," Della Porta says. Thinking about the good in your life can help balance that bias, giving your brain the extra time it needs to register and remember a positive event.
To help your brain store positive events, reflect on what you're grateful for and why at least once a week. Write down your blessings, such as the opportunity to pursue a career you love or a family that supports you. If you prefer a daily habit, then keep a nightly log of good things that happened that day. "Just keep it very short," Della Porta says. "If you try to hammer [gratitude] home, then it becomes mundane." Day One, a journaling app for Apple devices ($4.99), or OhLife, a free email-based journal, can to help you do this.
2. Repeat positive affirmations.
As any politician or advertiser knows, the more often you hear a message, the more likely you are to believe it. The same goes for messages about who you are and what you are capable of doing. By repeating positive affirmations with conviction several times each morning, you are training your brain to believe them. "Over time, you'll start to internalize them," Della Porta says. Repeat your affirmations silently if you feel self-conscious.
Choose two to three affirmations that represent your values and goals, such as 'I can handle whatever comes my way,' 'There is plenty of time,' or 'I'm getting better every day.' The repetition will influence the way you interpret negative events, making you more resilient. "Especially if you're predisposed to negative thinking, this can be extremely effective," Della Porta says.
3. Challenge negative thoughts.
Each time a negative thought arises, we choose how to respond. If left to our own devices, we tend to dwell. Our brains home in on negative events so they seem much bigger and more significant than they are. To combat that, start by imagining the thought as separate from yourself, as something you can observe and deconstruct. "Get in the habit of distancing yourself instead of dwelling," Della Porta says.
Next, challenge negative thoughts that are unfairly self-deprecating. For example, if your startup doesn't get the traction you hoped, you might think, "I'm a failure." That's untrue and unproductive. Instead, practice interpreting the same event differently. You might say, I worked really hard but I didn't account for a quirk of the market, so I'm disappointed, but now I'm going to try again with new information. That interpretation is gentler, truer, and more proactive. "At first, [this strategy will] be hard and you'll think it doesn't work," Della Porta says. "But over time, it'll become automatic and negative thoughts will be less likely to come up. No one does this naturally; you have to learn and practice."
10 Scientifically Proven Ways To Stay Happy All The Time

How do you stay happy all the time? Is it possible and is there any proof that these ways can work? In this post I want to show you 10 ways that are scientifically proven. If this does not convince you, then I do not know what will!
1. Exercise more
Lots of studies on this one. Exercising releases the good mood endorphins so that you are always in a better mood after a workout or simply a walk to the supermarket. I have never met a person in a bad mood after a workout! But where is the scientific evidence?
The University of Toronto did a great job on this and analyzed no less than 25 research studies. The conclusion was that physical activity can and does help to keep depression at bay.
The best study I know is where three groups of depressed people are put on a regime of anti-depressants, exercise or a combination of the two. No surprise to know that all three groups were happier, but did it last? Six months later, the group who had been treated with exercise only, had a very low relapse rate of 9%. The other two groups had relapsed and how! Their rates were ranging from 38% to 31%, so about a third of them were now depressed again.
2. Positive thinking affects your performance
“Happiness is the precursor to success.” – Shawn Achor
Sounds like pie in the sky? Well, according to Shawn Achor, if he knows everything about what factors are impinging on your happiness such as stressors, hassles, successes, economic circumstances, relationships and so on, then he can only predict 10% of your long term happiness. The remaining 90% is how you process the world around you. If happiness is on the other side of success, it is unlikely you will get there as you continually strive to get better grades, higher salaries and so on.
Positive thinking raises energy levels, creativity and productivity by as much as 30%. The secret is to use positive thinking now, rather than when you are rich and famous. Watch the video below for a very entertaining outline of this.
3. Trash your negative thoughts
Some people are overwhelmed by their negative thoughts and they have real problems in getting rid of them. A University of Madrid study found that by actually writing these thoughts down on a piece of paper and then destroying them was effective. They recommended that you either tear them up, throw them in the trash or burn them! The fact of discarding them physically does help in reducing their toxic effects. Psychologists suggest doing this on a regular basis.
4. Treasure your experiences more than your possessions
Thomas Gilovich, a psychologist at Cornell University has done quite a lot of research as to why it is better to treasure memorable and pleasant experiences rather than the material things we buy. There are many reasons for this as outlined in his study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Comparing possessions and looking at better objects after purchase can be demoralising and ruin the initial pleasure we got when purchasing and taking possession of that new car, TV or computer.
But treasuring experiences is not nearly as destructive. They belong to us, they are special and they provide longer lasting happiness. We should always aim to visit a new place or just go trekking. Local authorities should be able to provide the facilities in towns and cities so that people may experience more enjoyable and pleasurable activities, rather than building more shopping malls.
5. Write down why you are grateful
Feeling and thinking about the things you are grateful for as you wake up is a great way to build more happiness.
Research on our brain shows that we always tend to focus on the negative things of life like those worries, tragedies, failures, and discontent. Negativity is the default position.
“We’ve got this negativity bias that’s a kind of bug in the stone-age brain in the 21st century,” – Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist.
This is why we need to focus on the good and more especially, we need to hone in on what we should be grateful for. There are various ways you can do this. Here are some ideas:
- When you wake up, remind yourself mentally of three things that you can be grateful for.
- Some people prefer to write down three things and keep the list to remind themselves every now and again.
- Use Twitter or Facebook if you feel inclined. Useful to remind your followers that this does actually work.
- Express gratitude by phoning your significant other or by treating a colleague to coffee for their help with a project or task.
- Try giving back by helping a person or by volunteering for a few hours a week.
But is there any scientific proof that this actually works? Check out this link to see just some of the numerous studies on gratitude.
6. Practise mindfulness
What does mindfulness mean? It just means that you concentrate and pay full attention to the present moment and accept it in a non-judgmental way. This is now becoming a popular trend in psychology and medicine. When done regularly it can boost mood, reduce stress levels, and lead to a better quality of life.
Focus on the present moment means that you can savor touch, smell and other physical sensations but also happy feelings. Concentrate on the joy they are giving you. It is really effective in forgetting about the past and not fretting about future, fearful scenarios.
But can this really make us happier and what is the scientific evidence? Watch the video where Harvard researcher Matt Killingsworth explains that we are happier when we are mindful of the moment and the least happy when the mind is wandering all over the place. He has come to this conclusion after studying 15,000 people!
7. Don’t forget your beauty sleep
When you do not get enough sleep, your negativity takes over big time. This was the conclusion researchers came to after several experiments. One of these is particularly interesting. The researchers homed in on the hippocampus which is the part of the brain which processes our positive thoughts. When we are sleep deprived, this function starts to creak and negative thoughts muscle in much more than before.
To illustrate this, researchers asked sleep deprived students to remember a list of words. They were getting a high score on all the negative words (81%) but when it came to the positive ones or neutral ones, they were only getting about 31% of these right. Dr.Robert Stickgold has conducted similar experiments on sleep and memory. Now you know why people are always in a bad mood when they do not get enough sleep.
8. Dedicate a little time to helping others
People buy bigger houses, cars and phones but it does not seem to increase their overall happiness in the long term, although it might cause a brief spike in happiness. That is short lived. Researchers have found that when we dedicate a little time or money to helping others, this has a significant effect on our own happiness.
9. Focus on the life you want to live
“The heart goes where the head takes it, and neither cares much about the whereabouts of the feet.”- Dr. Daniel Gilbert.
We often talk about winning the lottery and where we would go and above all what we would buy. We might even talk about giving to charity. But we never or rarely talk about what our state of mind would be and how much happier and carefree we would be. This is why focusing on priorities to get the life you want to live is so important.
10. Focus on your strengths
Are you curious, open-minded or brave? How are you using these strengths to improve your life and that of others? These are key questions but people who exploit their strengths rather than dwelling on their weaknesses are generally much happier.
Being able to realize our full potential through exploiting our strengths is one of the best ways of finding happiness and helping to make the world a better place.
Are you happy or discontented? Have you tried the suggestions we have listed above and have they made any difference to your life? Let us know in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)

