BRAINTENANCE: Train, Strain And Improve Your Brain. Expand Your Mind.

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Single Most Important Thing About You.

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It is quite an awe-inspiring legacy, viewed from a grand perspective. You have such a rich history encoded in your unique DNA. I wish that we could actually read that book together, chapter by chapter, from end (today) to beginning (the first murmurings and grunts of our species). It took such an amazing journey to bring you here. And now that you have arrived, no one other person in the world could take your place or assume the amazing work of being you. You were bred for being something unique. And you are instilled with such amazing genetic memory. Draw upon your instincts, intuition and dreams to draw this memory forth.
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Let us simply look at the math regarding Bearers Of The Torch who participated in the amazing process which brought it to you.

Bearers Of Your Torch - The Number Of Torchbearers (Genetic Predecessors And Contributors To Your Genetic Composition) Leading Up To The Miracle Of Your Birth:

Parents        2
Grandparents     4
Great Grandparents 8
Ten Generations Ago    1,024
Fifteen Generations Ago   32,768
Twenty Generations Ago       1,048,576
Twenty Five Generations Ago     33,554,432

The odds of your becoming the unique Human Being whom you've become are incalculably small! Miniscule. You are incredibly unique in the Universe. You are irreplaceable. Just look at the overwhelming odds against your becoming you!

NOTE: The above calculations were done on a terrific exponential calculator which can be found at http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/math/Exponent_Calculator.htm

Thank you for being who you are. You are a miracle, with an unfathomable legacy of generations of torchbearers before you. You are completely and thoroughly unique. You are irreplaceable. Be You. The balance of our native planet Earth depends upon you, and the choices that you alone will make and the things that you will accomplish -- even the teachings and stories you tell to others may become legendary some day. Everyone you interact with will carry a bit of your light forward to future generations.

With every second, you make the future, and you affect all of Humankind. - Douglas E. Castle

By the way, the single most important thing about you is the way you use the torch - whether you use it to burn things down, or to light the way to greatness.

Thank you, wonderful followers, for reading me, and for spreading my words and sharing my articles with your connections, comrades and colleagues through your ever-growing list of social networking platforms and forums.

Douglas E. Castle

Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
CFI Business Growth
Douglas E. Castle On LinkedIn - Join Me!

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Friday, May 3, 2013

3 Stupidest Things I've Ever Heard

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Dear Brain Trainers:

We are taught using metaphors, parables and "sayings." We call them sayings because someone once said them. That is not an assurance of their quality. It is just a statement of the obvious. To make things worse (or more worser yet still), the older they are, the more wisdom is to be assumed to be contained in them. And to further worsen things (to make the worst even more worser yet), the more that people say them, the truer they are. This is interesting, because apparently, there are degrees of truth -- I'll have to consult neighbor Bill Clinton regarding the particulars of this issue.

Here, for you pleasure, live (somewhat) from The Braintenance Blog Of Blockbusting Brilliance, we offer you the three stupidest things I've ever heard, excluding such conversational Moronyms as "Notary Republic," Redundons [trite, expressions spoken by members of the Order of Illiterati such as "I'll be here for the duration," and the like:

1) "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times." [mathematically ridiculous];

2) "If you had half a brain, you'd be dangerous!" [This could mean many things, none of which would make me dangerous, unless I had stolen an ossified hemisphere from the exhibit in the science lab and flung the thing at someone -- which would actually cause 'brain trauma' in both senses of the expression!];

3) "Hey. We all put our pants on the same way. One leg at a time." [This is intended to make the person being spoken to feel more self confident. It is stupid. What if I'm going to read an academic paper to a bunch of Celts? What if I'm wearing my little black party dress? And what about the time when I was an undergrad, and I won a five dollar bet by putting baby oil on my legs and jumping into my jeans from the upper bunk in my dorm room?]

Enough. Now sit back, relax and enjoy a gentle bit of philosophy, with Flickspire's wonderful video, titled, "Life Is Like Coffee": Simply click on the link below:

= LINK BELOW

Even if you disagree with the philosophy, or the simile (the cousin of a metaphor, but using "like" or "as" in its description and delivery), the acoustic guitar music is wonderful. Seriously, the music is so relaxing, and the sound quality crystal clear. Someday, when I find myself (how 'bout that one? Eh?), I would like to try my hand (there's another - is it metonymy or synecdoche? {sp?}) at producing a philosophical video. I'd give it a snappy title like "Crossing The Callosum"

Thank you, as always, for reading me, digging me, grokking me, and feeling me - and for sharing my articles (my wallet is missing! So's my pen!) with your contacts, comrades and colleagues across your social media platforms.

Douglas E. Castle

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Are You Partially "Brain Blind"?

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$Are you partially "Brain Blind?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Hmmmm... Don't worry. Almost all of us are, at one time or another -- in fact most times, and especially when we are under stress or pressure. - Douglas E. Castle - The Braintenance Blog - http://Braintenance.blogspot.com - CFI - http://www.Go To CFI.com - /|\$

By the way, the two fellows mentioned in the last post were 15 and 18 years old, respectively.

Are you partially "Brain Blind?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards down from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Painfully difficult to recite the names of seven random items mentioned to you...even if reiterated three times in a row?

You're not alone.

We are, each of us [even those who faithfully read The Braintenance Blog] handicapped to some extent when it comes to doing things with our minds which we would think to be easy.

This is really a function of how we learn, how we focus and how we associate things, scientists believe.

We all too often rely on singsong rote memorization than on imaginary pictures of things: for example, if you could picture the alphabet, or the numbers from 1 to 100, you could easily recall that picture and just read it from the vision in your mind.

We have difficulty focusing on two or more stimuli to the same sense. If two people speak to us at once, or if a person is speaking to us and a song we enjoy is playing somewhat loudly in the background, we have a difficult time focusing in on one stimulus at a time. In the situation with two people talking simultaneously, rather than listening to noise, focus strictly and unwaveringly on one person's conversation -- upon recall, you'll be surprised to find that not only do you recall the conversation of the person upon whose conversation you had focused upon, but you'll also remember a great deal of what the other person was saying.

This latter phenomenon may be due to a splitting of our mind into an active, frontal, conscious listening device in short-term memory (which is later moved to long-term memory) and into the powerful recorder of the subconscious, being summoned by the conscious mind to replay the secondary conversation.

In remembering the names of a series of people, the key is to simply listen and not to focus on how you look, or what you are going to say in response. Don't rehearse your own personal introduction when you should be focused on listening to the three names. In fact, if you identify each of the three names with a silly short story about tat person and an article of his or her clothing, or some eccentricity, it gives you the context to recall each of the names with some relevance (although you don't want to say that to a fellow named Lance Boyle, John Reade, or Suzanne Bumpers).

Lastly, in order to become a memory master and to recite, in order, a series of unrelated terms which are recited to you, look about you (if possible), and associate each word with something either unmistakably memorable or something just going on at the time, and cobble the associations into an ordered, sequential story. You'll find that you can remember objects placed in key positions in a story much more easily than by any other method. Incidentally, without using this technique, most individuals can usually not remember and recite more than five unrelated objects.

None of us is truly "Brain Blind." We simply need to learn how to utilize our minds more efficiently.

Do you see my point? By the way, without looking,how old were the two boys mentioned at the very beginning of this article?

Thank you for reading me and for spreading the word to your colleagues and friends across your ever-growing social media networks.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

Sponsored by:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC

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SLIGHTLY MORE EXCITING INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOUNDER OF BRAINTENANCE (WHO SEEMS QUITE COCKY).

About the Author, Facilitator and Producer…

DOUGLAS CASTLE

Douglas Castle is a seasoned and highly-acclaimed advisor, director, executive officer, trustee and consultant to emerging entrepreneurial enterprises, growing companies, and cause-based humanitarian and educational organizations worldwide. His travels and assignments have encompassed a highly-diverse spectrum of industries, situations and highly sensitive negotiations. Mr.Castle is a noted speaker, commentator and a prolific author on a great many topics. ####

For further information regarding Mr. Castle’s professional background and achievements, as well as a brief list of some of his blogs, simply click on ABOUT DOUGLAS CASTLE .

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