Boost Your Brain Power

Good news. Your brain is not unchangeable. You can play with it, even grow new cells, create new circuits, remap attitudes. Suddenly, the new- ageish motto that you can be whatever you want to be, holds new scientifically meanings.

Your brain and it's interaction with environment creates your every day reality. I am not going into metaphysical arguments as to what consciousness is, I am not inviting to any soul searching or mental gymnastics. It's just that the neuroscience showed me that the fascination never ends when it comes about the brain and studying it doesn't take the magic out of life, but opens new horizons for it.

So, your brain can be changed for the better. Every experience, thought habits and behaviors have a specific map in your brain. Science used to believe that what you've got is what you have, that's it, the possibility to change anything about it is gone when you hit 20 years of age.

However, last decades showed scientists that brain has a wonderful quality - plasticity, that it can still be molded by different actions. So you are not stuck with your old self - you can literally change yourself by acquiring different habits .

Step 1:
Exercise . Yes, might sound overrated, but is not. I bet you know that exercise is good for your body. But physical exercise is incredible good for your brain also. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, speeding up the delivery of oxygen and nutrients necessary for neuronal activity.

Research showed that exercise increases the levels of a miracle substance called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which promotes growth, survival and communication of neurons. The benefits of exercise are brilliantly exposed by the psychiatrist John J. Ratey in his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

He explains how exercise improves memory, attention, slows the aging process and even reverse the dementia and Alzheimer in patients. After I read that book I felt so guilty if I wouldn't exercise for a day.

Exercise is basically the supreme vitamin, research showing that it is as effective, for example, as Prozac and other antidepressant are.

In the schools that introduced an hour of cardio in the morning before classes, students had a 30% increase in test results and overall performance. Pretty convincing. Even 20 minutes of walking can trick your mind into being more active. Get up from that couch (after you finish my article) and start moving. Help yourself to become a better version of you.

Step 2:
Diet . Well yes, you can't escape it. You need to become aware of what your diet is. Studies carried on rats showed that high diet in saturated fat made them underperform on tests on learning and memory while humans who entertain this unhealthy habits seem to be at a higher risk of developing dementia.

It is significant also to have a calorie restricted diet, that means - don't eat as much as you can, but 25% or more less than you feel full - will add few healthy years to your life.

What are the recommended food for your brain? Fruits and vegetables high on antioxidants- will keep your memory in shape and reduce brain damage provoked by strokes.

Other goodies for your mind: walnuts, spinach, blueberries, omega-3 fatty acids products.Now that's food for thought. However, do not frustrates your senses of your favorite foods. As much as we need food for the body, many times our eating fulfills some emotional needs as well.

It is a kind of drug for the brain if we think that chocolate and cheese can mimic some of the effects of being in love. Stay balanced, indulge your senses from time to time and prioritize your goals for life - that will help you decide what's the best approach to fulfill them.

Step 3:Music. I bet you had this epiphany at a point in your life: music can change your mood almost in a heart bit. You put some of your favorite soul tracks and suddenly you find yourself engulfed in romantic and touchy feelings.

Jogging is still recommended though to be accompanied by some faster rhythmic sounds. Classic music has been found to increase creativity and promote abstract thinking. Although the Mozart effect has been somehow discredited by repeated research, music still holds magic vibration - can treat insomnia and anxiety , help premature babies gain weight, lower your blood pressure and calm patients with dementia.

There are some suggesting that even music training can change the map of your brain - students had spatial skills improved compared to those with no musical training. Even singing a song in your head can do the job.

Now maybe you're still reluctant to try that karaoke machine but listening to different kind of music will do a good job for your brain. Be aware of noises-like music (still considered music by some) - it will only activate your amygdala, the hub of your emotional memory and the center for fear and excitement. Maybe it's time to fulfill your life long fantasy of taking piano lessons or buy a saxophone or violin - they might become your best friends, beside the ipod.

Step4.Video games. They've been subjects of much dispute over the years, some parents worrying that the kid's fascination with video games might impair their social abilities. Research showed that surgeons who played video games for a few hours made less errors in the operating room by one third, compared to those that didn't engaged in this activities.

Why? Because video gaming improves hand-eye coordination, depth perception, pattern recognition and mental dexterity, better attention span. Even the US army had been convinced by the benefits of videogaming, creating special video games to improve specific skills.

So go on, your' allowed: indulge once in a while in a video game with no guilt attached - it's the doctor's recommendation. You can even buy some shares in a video-game company- it is unlikely that the need for play in humans will ever diminish, especially when the benefits are so addictive.

Step5:
Stimulants. The good and legal ones: caffeine - might be the universal one found in every house. By boosting arousal and alertness will activate your central nervous system - when it is taken in a healthy dose. Excess might have a reversed affect, giving you anxiety and insomnia.

2 cups of coffee will improve your short term memory and reaction time. The are countless benefits resulting of consuming caffeine, the key word being moderation.

Amphetamines, cocaine and their evil sister products impact the brain by increasing the secretion of dopamine and serotonin - the feel good chemicals in your brain. They basically abuse the normal mechanism of releasing this substances and therefore they will make them reduce their function in normal state and eventually can even shut them down- that's why these substances are addictive and the dose need to be increased to get the initial effect. Not recommended, happiness and pleasure can be achieved in other healthy ways.

Step6.
Meditation. Like the sport, it seems to be the ultimate vitamin and cure: will improve all areas of your mental activity and body functioning- soothes anxiety , reduces high blood pressure, insomnia, diabetes, depression , reduces pain and stress.

Meditation has been found to be as effective as cognitive therapy and anti-depressive medication are.They monitored buddhist monks who had a long practice of meditation . The map of their brain was obviously changed for the better.

The firing of the neurons which is usually more chaotic was synchronized in the brains of the meditators. Neurons made more connections in the cerebral cortex, improving overall functioning, memory and calming the amygdala, the center that manages the feelings of fear and anxiety.

Better focus and attention had been a direct outcome of meditation habits. Meditation has the power of creating a mental space to deal with events and ideas, to breathe in another world where concepts and realities have a more essential shape.

Step 7.Thinking patterns. Your brain was mapped to function by the habits, action and thoughts that you entertained along your life. Although the brain you already have by the given of genetics and environment will direct your thinking in a certain way, you can reverse this mechanism by changing the way you think.

We make many thinking errors and research has showed that we shouldn't believe everything we think. We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously, as reality is a process of reflection both objective and subjective.

By changing thinking patterns you can train your mind to get rid of old negative habits and create new circuits in the brain. Change is possible - you just need to build the needed mental mussels. Just like you go to the gym to improve your body looks, the same can be done for your mind by training yourself to entertain positive healthy thoughts.