Improve Intelligence

Every parent, every boss, every teacher, possibly everyone wants to improve intelligence, because we operate from this paradigm that improved intelligence somehow makes us quicker, faster, richer, smarter, you fill in the blank.... If I somehow have more of 'it', then I will achieve more and achieve 'it' more easily.

But what is intelligence at the level of the brain? The psychologists will measure a number of constructs, but at the level of the neuron, intelligence is the connections between neurons, what we have learned to call neuroplasticity, and neuroplasticity can be enhanced, recovered, nurtured.

In fact, you could make a point that since it is now accepted science that we grow new neurons every day, which we call neurogenesis, that we can grow new intelligence every day,and the brain fitness folks are saying that we can work out our brain to make it a most hospitable place for neuroplasticity, and neurogenesis to happen.

So improving intelligence will certainly involve working out the brain, as Simon Evans,PH.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D. point out int their excellent e-book called Brainfit for Life. Evans and Burghardt make a compelling case for taking care of the brain and its neuroplastic and neurogenetic capacities. Taking care of the hardware makes the software more effective, so if we think of improving intelligence as a goal, then I want to suggest that a brain growing more neurons and forming new connections is a brain with more intelligence.

Evans and Burghardt site the research and make a compelling case for taking care of what they call the pillars of brain fitness, which are physical activity/exercise, nutrition, including lots of antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids, good sleep, stress management, and novel learning experiences to improve intelligence.

Sounds vaguely like messages you got from Grandmother, except for the novel learning experience part, right, because the Seniors I know now say cross word puzzles and sudoku keep their brains sharp, which is correct up to a point.

The novel learning experience that really improves neuroplasticity and neurogenesis is the kind of novel learning experience you experience when you are learning a new language or a new instrument, where there is a continually growing complexity and an appropriate amount of success and failure.

So the key to this brain fitness pillar is that it is novel, and doing crosswords or sudoku which do not increase in complexity will not be the best help for my brain.

Put another way, as a counselor, I cannot read another counseling book, and expect increased neurogenesis or neuroplasticity.

But What About My Schedule...?

Is there a solution to improved intelligence and my limited schedule for practicing a new instrument or new language?

Well, Evans and Burghadt describe some research about a computerized task called the dual n back task.

It increases what is called fluid intelligence, which is very broadly, the intelligence that allows me to pick one stimulus from many to pay attention to.

Practice with this tool will rapidly teach you about your lack of attentional skills, meaning you will learn how fast you drift away from a task.

The dual n back practice will impact the neuroplastic connections between your attention paying neurons, and the researchers have actually demonstrated in increased intelligence using a paper and pencil intelligence test, so it is possible isn't it, to demonstrate improved intelligence.

The catch? The experimenters tried a number of different practice schedules, and the schedule demonstrating the most success was the practice one time per day for nineteen days schedule, each practice lasting a half-hour, so there is a time commitment, and a need to follow through regularly for the best results.

Practice makes perfect for your neurons too, and your boss/teacher/supervisor/wife will love you newly improved intelligence.

Boosting Your Intelligence

Make Me Smarter

Everyone wants a better memory and a higher IQ, but many people just don't know where to start. You could buy a book or a program, visit your hypnotist or you could even drink "smart drinks", but none of this will supplant the effort required to build a sharper mind.

When you mention the word effort, roughly half of your audience sigh and think "oh no", but the unavoidable truth with cerebral function is - you have to work your mind and work your mind hard. Just like muscles to a body builder the dictum "use it or lose it" applies.

So you are prepared to put in the hard yards, because for whatever reason you have, you know that having a better memory and a higher IQ will enrich your life.

What Next?

What to do now? - Well there are a few things that you should do to immediately start the ball rolling, the first of which is to complete puzzles. Not just word find puzzles - things like sudoku, crosswords, brain teasers and that sort of thing. These help to exercise your brain and keep you sharp and alert.

What else?

Cerebral activities, such as reading, researching and writing, all contribute to training your mind and preventing the brain drain.

The Brain Drain

Many things can and will dumb you down, but none more so than the idiot box, yes - T.V will zombiefy your mind and prevent you from reaching your full potential. Other things to avoid include; white sugar, white flour, salt and any high glycemic carbohydrates that will cause hyperglycemia.

Hydrate

Be sure to drink plenty of water, as dehydration will adversely affect your cognitive abilities and dumb you down.

In conclusion, the solution to a better memory and a higher IQ may reside in your ability to continuously use your mind for applications which require detailed thought and intense mental focus.

Don't throw your mind on the scrap heap - "use it or lose it"

I know that I don't want to lose it so I'm going to keep on training that old brain of mine, how about you?

How to Improve Your Intelligence

A healthy brain is not only an important factor for social success, it has also an impact in the way we enjoy life, maintain a good relationship with our family and friends and overcome every day challenges. Just like everything, this amazing tool that we use for basic and complex daily tasks needs care to perform at its maximum potential. And potential, it has...

Here are 10 tips that will help you improve the power of your brain.

1- Read and learn - I like to say that a book is an infinite universe in itself. Diving in somebody else's ideas is a great way to nourish your mind and thoughts. All books have their values. But for a novel, I suggest an author that not only knows how to tell an interesting story, but can really use words to trigger emotion, imagination and questions. Also read to learn. Learning is like renovating an old apartment. You provide your brain with new tools, new concepts, new ideas, just like a growing baby.

2- Challenge your brain - Our brain is made of a very complex network of neurons. Challenges like brain teasers, puzzles or any problems that require deep logic thoughts to be solved, put at work unused and lazy neurons, forcing them to create other connections with other neurons, creating at the end shortcuts in your brain. You will be more and more comfortable finding solutions to complex problems. You can find brain teasers in a lot of places on the internet like on my website for example.

3- Unleash your creativity - You are more creative than you think you are. You just have to force it. The best way to do that is to free yourself from your usual straight forward perceptions. For example a match can be lit. It can also be put in your nostrils. Two matches can be a X. How many matches do I need to put together to go to the moon? A skinny man, dressed in white, with a red cap? Must be a match! Pay more attention to your craziest ideas.

4- Write- Writing helps you give an external life to abstract ideas. It forces you to arrange and discipline frivolous thoughts. This will make you more comfortable in the way you categorize ideas and thoughts. It increases your logic and judgment. When I say writing, I don't mean writing books. It's just for example taking notes in a diary, writing simple paragraphs where you group and link different thoughts.

5- Sleep- Proper sleeping habits will be beneficial for your mental health. Sleep early and wake up early. Don't sleep for more than 8 hours. In the middle of the day each time you can take a 10 - 15 minutes nap.

6- Exercise - Controlled physical activities are not only good for your body but also for your brain. Your hearth at that time provides to your brain a more consistent supply of oxygen. This will relax you, dismiss negative stresses that block your concentration.

7- Practice relaxation - In the morning or before sleeping or at any time where you can find loneliness and peace, sit or lay down on the floor, close your eyes, breath calmly. Focus on anything thing that inspires you or any object that just inspires nothing. Focus. Don't let your mind wander around. At some point you can also review all the things you have seen or heard during the day. Remind yourself of strangers you have seen on the bus or in the street. This is a good way to improve your memory.

8- Eat brain food - Essential nutrients for the brain are carbohydrate (fruits, grains, and vegetables), omega-3 (salmon, sardines, trout, herring, anchovies), protein (milk, meat, cheese), Acetylcholine (egg, milk, peanuts, liver, fish, wheat germ, and vegetables like broccoli and cabbage), Dopamine (meat, fish, milk, cheese, beans, soy), Serotonin (cereals, breads, potatoes).

9- Avoid monotony - Doing the same thing again and again doesn't stimulate your brain. Broaden your perspectives. Get out. Meet friends. Travel. Avoid wasting too much time and energy in front of a television.

10- Be optimistic - I think that the greatest force in human nature is the will. Believing that you can do something or that you can reach your goal will tremendously boost your brain. Even when obstacles will be in your way, you will be constantly searching for new solutions. Don't underestimate this last point in my list. Most successful people have this in common.

Sharpen the Intelligence Through Puzzle Games

The puzzle games are very much popular these days which helps in sharpening the minds. They are interesting and amazing games. There are various riddle games and brain teasers which help in making the brain active. It produces a good sense of thrill to players. The puzzle games are therefore give thrilling spirit of gaming. There are several puzzle recreations which can be played easily.

Puzzles are of different kinds and styles. These puzzles are available in puzzle books, magazines, news papers or on internet. There are variety of puzzles to play from which one can choose from like mind, word, numeric, jigsaw, riddles and other fun puzzles. These puzzles are great, exciting and mind boggling. They are interesting, exciting, refreshing and time consuming.

Classic puzzles are among the most popular kind of puzzles for entertainment. There are no worries for losing the points. The aim is to solve brain games at fast speed so as to test timing in which the puzzle has been solved. These puzzles are now coming with great designing and graphics with amazing features and technology. Word Brain Games are suitable for players who have interest in playing word teasers. Word puzzles are good entertainment source which can be played by people of any group be it kids, adults, senior people.

The main aim of these games is to increase the vocabulary and word power of players. Picture Games are for those gamers who possesses creative mind indulging in architect type of skills. Playing these games is quite interesting where one have to make a specific picture or arrange things in a pattern. The players have to build larger images and blocks in form of basic shapes like rectangle, square, etc. Numeric Puzzles have great demand among the brain game lovers.

It helps in developing aptitude level of growing kids. The major segment of numeric puzzles does play Sudoku, which has become very popular in last few years. The main aim of numerical puzzles is increasing the arithmetic ability of players. Crossword Brain Games are the oldest puzzle games aimed to solve the crosswords. They are the oldest and even, today these puzzles are published in dailies and magazines. There are various difficulty levels of crossword puzzles. In fact, online crosswords can be played after selecting the difficulty level one desire to play. Now, online crosswords are available with new gaming strategies.

Puzzle games enhance the creative mind and thinking power of player. Analytical skills are increase through playing these games. Through solving puzzles, players develop decision making ability and analytical power to solve the dilemmas in real life. It is very good for growing children in developing their mind and thinking power. Logic and reasoning games help in becoming player smarter & increasing intelligent quotient level. It helps in increasing the strategic techniques and brushing up arithmetic and language skills. Hence, these puzzles are great way to improve the skills.

Retirement - manage your time if you no longer work routine

Before each day begins with the letter A to-do list to keep you focused on what is planned for later in the day to do next. It 'easy to flit from one task to another and forget to do important things.

According If you decide to do things most important to you, every day, because without the routine work that you might notice that when you retire, one is tempted to drift about doing very little especially in the first, if the adjustment is in your new life.

Third Stop to do, what not to do: Save timeLetting go of tasks irrelevant or unnecessary. Becoming aware of what you do, because that is how you always do. New evaluate and decide whether you should continue as before.

Fourth Do not waste time doing things that you do not want: Although you can begin to be more relaxed when you retire, it is important to choose positive, what will do and how you define time to waste so you do the things you promised would not at this time.

Fifth Ask for help and teach someone elseWhat do you want to do and then you can go with him instead of trying to do everything yourself. On the other hand, if you retired you may want to be involved, having to do things that do not have time to do before.

The sixth can be a more efficient and effective ways to do routine jobs more quickly and out of the way so you have time to do more than what you really want. Now you can work your boss is the way to do things quickly.

Seventh not beBored by the same for a long time. Instead, a different activity every hour or switch Sun Ideal if you move to change from one session to pass from the brain to the body.

8th Keep your brain a break by practicing your body and / or your brain for a few minutes. You have a line or two touching the toes or bend to the side and keep on hand some Sudoku or teaser.

Ninth Set a date or a time to claimto avoid jobs that runs forever, because just like working with a deadline at work, will help you complete tasks when you retire.

10th Get first place in routine tasks so you get things you need to do and have not yet found a way for someone not yet decided whether, given the task of Completely worked Drop

3D puzzles for intelligence test

The concept of 3D puzzles increased the imagination of players. The effects of three-dimensional objects project a more realistic compared to non-3D stuff. Articles such as these contribute some optical illusions specifically for the depth, width and height. These factors are three-dimensional approach in three D.

There are different presentations of 3D puzzle like board games, puzzles or games on the Internet very popular with young people and some adults. You canenter classic pieces that can be a pastime for some puzzle lovers. These guys are perfect when wall accents all over. Others are putting the puzzle pieces or be completely glued together in a complex object. These guys come in different shapes and designs with different materials such as foam or wood is used.

3D puzzles are good, the promoters of the brain, and can truly tickle the mind of another person has won together and share parts. They may alsoPatience and perseverance to develop, of Getting Things Done. Children who are exposed to this type of toy to be imaginative and skillfully. These things are great puzzles for children and adults.

The basic guidelines of sight and touch are put in a good practice with these toys. There are 3D puzzle, the pieces that have magnetic, fun and entertainment not only for children but can also be made for adults. A child playing with toys asThey will be able to develop his mental skills to solve this simple problem of implementation of the pieces together and improve the recognition of shapes and colors.

schools and homes can consider these toys as tools to develop competent motor skills of the child. It 'very interesting and a pleasure to watch your child to solve them. A child logical part of the brain is hit and woke up with these quizzes. One child IQ can be testedof some materials as good as the 3D puzzle.