This piece talks on how to improve your memory blazingly fast and how to learn much faster.
INTRODUCTION
How do we learn? How do we increase our ability to learn? How can we make our brain function at a top level?
“Memory is probably our most wonderful faculty, at the same time it’s the most unpredictable and incomprehensible” … Jane Austen.
If we deliberately try to forget something, our mind continuously bedevils us with flashes of what we are trying to forget. Memory is only a part of the functioning of our brain. While we may never completely understand the complicated workings of our brain, science has discovered things we can do to maximize brain function, improve memory, and learn faster and more efficiently.
Chapter 1 – The Inner Workings of Your Brilliant Brain
Neurons
Your brain function depends on the health of the trillions of nerve cells in your brain known as neurons. They can die off, but they can also be regenerated. Aging can produce the degeneration of neurons; in fact, if you’re not creating neurons every day, you’re losing them. Malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies, lack of sufficient exercise, and stress take a significant toll on memory and cognitive function. And, of course, unhealthy habits such as alcohol and drug abuse have been shown to significantly impair brain performance.
Bad news, Good news
By the age of 75, you must have lost 10% of your neurons. If you have been engaged in any of the above-mentioned activities it’ll be higher than 10%. It’ll become increasingly difficult to process information, that is you may experience a cognitive decline of the brain. This doesn’t apply to aging only. The saying “Use it or lose it” applies to the brain at any age. If you don’t continue to challenge and stimulate your brain, you’ll find that your cognitive functioning is deteriorating rapidly. However, the good news is that there are things that one can do to prevent the loss of those neurons. There are equally things to do to ensure the growth and regeneration of these neurons that’ll increase the overall functioning of your brain.
Chapter 2 – Brilliant Nutrition Means Brilliant Brain
As the advance of knowledge gives us more things to learn, we realize that there are equally more things we consume that chip away our brain function. Diets that contain saturated fats, trans fats, gluten, and sugar don’t only make us overweight and sluggish but also affect our cognition for the worse.
It’s a No-Brainer, so to Speak
Every living thing, brain included requires nutrients to survive, and function properly. Omega-3 fatty acids, flavanols, and certain vitamins expand blood vessels enabling more blood to flow to the brain and supply it with oxygen.
Magical Omega-3 fatty acids
About 60% of the brain is made up of fats. Omega-3 has been proven to reduce the risk of memory loss. Some components of Omega-3 ( DHA ), can’t be produced by the body. DHA can be gotten from liver, canola oil, soybean oil, and DHA-fortified milk, bread, yogurt, and margarine. Vegetables such as mint, kale, watercress, and spinach provide ALA another form of Omega-3.
Failing to provide the brain with Omega-3 causes it’s cells to absorb Omega-6 and cholesterol. These inflame the brain and impedes neurological transmission between cells.
Other brain-friendly foods
- Anti-oxidants: citrus fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy products.
- Flavanol:- a type of anti-oxidant that reverses memory loss due to aging: green tea, dark chocolate(improves blood flow to the brain which improves cognitive performance).
Get your vitamins
Vitamin B and D are essential for the brain. The brain has special pathways and receptors for Vitamin D, making it possible for your body to acquire this directly from the sun. Vitamin B12 preserves brain function and can be gotten from meat, egg, and milk.
Good nutrients, good brain!
Chapter 3 – Take a Brilliant Approach To Physical Fitness
Exercise – It’s non-negotiable
Exercise forces the circulatory to carry more blood to the brain cells. As such, they multiply and interconnect and form stronger protection from wear and tear.
Neurons release neurotrophic factors( some kind of proteins ), which is a trigger for health-promoting chemicals that enhance learning and several cognitive abilities.
In addition, it reduces the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases as there is a good flow of blood to the brain and the heart.
Yoga
Yoga has been around for thousands of years. It involves exercising, meditation and breathing. Meditation improves memory function greatly. People who meditate have a larger number of cells in areas of focus and memory.
Chapter 4 – Sleeping Your Way To Brilliance
Get adequate sleep!!! Humans require 6 – 8 hours of sleep to prepare the body for the next challenge. The best time to get sleep is between 2 – 6AM.
There should be complete darkness in your sleeping environment. The brain should be accustomed to the sleeping time. It should be fixed, be it 10PM – 4 AM of 2AM – 6AM. Practise this time till the brain is ready to shut down and startup when it’s time.
Chapter 5 – The Proactive Approach To Maximum Brain Brilliance
Continue to challenge your mind
Get involved in new learning opportunities every day, especially after school. Get involved in activities that require the mental capacity.
Take a hobby or Learn a new skill
Every time you learn something new, you’re building new pathways in your brain, to optimize your creative and visualization skills, your memory, and your ability to reason. And this network becomes stronger with each new mental task that you master.
Become a storyteller extraordinaire
The best way to remember something is to turn it into a story you can tell others. These also help you build you verbal skills too.
Read voraciously and diversify your reading material
Reading improves language, writing skills, imagination and concentration skills. However, we’ll be missing if we concentrate on reading only one subject. We have to read and find ourselves reading material with different style, syntax and format.
Be a Player
Get yourself involved in puzzles, jigsaw, and other brain games. Try out games at lumosity.com . The NeuroRacer game is said to have improved brain cognition in elders.
Change your Environment
The punishment prison actually offers is that the prisoner’s environment remains the same day in day out. Engage in activities with friends, go to a concert, a museum, and socialize. The brain functions better when it’s forced to process new information. Rearranging furniture in your house also has some significant effect on the brain.
Your Brain and Good Music
Listening to Mozart has proven to help students perform better in tests. Music has the power to energize us as we do chores.
Chapter 6 – To Be Brilliant You Must Be Aggressive
Everyone processes information at a different rate. There are measures that can be taken to get to the end of the process, no matter how long it takes. After relentless efforts, speed processing will be unavoidable.
Steps to Improving Learning Speed and Memory
Practice makes perfect: Learning something new is accomplished by repetition. The more you repeat a new skill, the more you create neuro-pathways in the brain that can bring up information needed. Keep up the practice!!!
Divide and conquer: Break large tasks into small bites and process these bites. Use the repetitive technique at each step and be ready to add new information when you’re done with a bite.
Have a bag of study tricks: Use mnemonics, rhythms to remember concepts. Learning never has to be tedious, rest if you feel tired. Introduce short breaks in your time. Go out grab snacks, walk or socialize. You’ll be refreshed and ready to restart work when you return.
Conclusion
The brain is a marvelous and mysterious organ. There are certain things we may never understand; why some people choose to do terrible things. The brain does many things in a day, and it’s but normal that things get jumbled up.
One thing we have to understand is that we can improve the functioning of the brain. By following the steps outlined in this summary, our brain will thank us for its brilliance one day.
Brain brilliance is up to us. Follow these steps, be a fast learner with super memory.