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

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Weird Tricks To Improve Memory

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Most people struggle with either short-term memory or long-term memory... or sometimes both. It seems that as we age, we both lose the ability to spontaneously memorize (maybe our minds "feel" overcrowded), and to recall that which we have memorized but "archived" somewhere which may appear to be inaccessible. Some simple , albeit weird braintenance tricks can absolutely enhance both your immediate and longer-term memory as well as your ability to access data filed away in your mind.

The key methods to memory enhancement are simple:

1) repetition and usage of new data;
2) focusing on pictures of pages instead of on their content (to build eidetic recall);
3) creating silly, offbeat stories involving the data in their order of appearance.

A wonderful TED session follows to provide you with some interesting insight into how some of these simple tricks can make you a memory master. Enjoy this presentation, and then see how many of these sequences you can remember after a one-minute review of each; as you improve, the time it takes to embed sequences of items in memory will decrease, and you become a faster and faster memorizer, with an ever-improving degree of accuracy!

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

http://youtu.be/9ebJlcZMx3c?list=UUsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q

1) Apple, Elephant, Snake, Building, Ball, Bicycle, Cards, Run, Alarm, Pickle.

2) 11, 48, 36, 99, 87, 15, 0, 8, 32, 90.

BRAIN TEASERS,
BRAIN BOOSTERS &
COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT!

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

http://braintenance.blogspot.com

Braintenance contains articles, resources, exercises, games and specially-designed protocols to improve the power of your brain and your mind in every significant aspect, including memory, cognition, IQ, plasticity, creativity and problem-solving ability.

Key Terms: brain, mind, cognitive enhancement, memory, brain gym exercises, IQ, plasticity, mind expansion, creativity, meditation, altered states, perception, self-hypnosis, self-growth, neuron, artificial intelligence, learning, somatic intellect, mathematics, language, dissonance, individualism, herd mentality, puns and word games, linguistics, genius, emotion, subconscious, unconscious, intuition, instinct, psychedelic, reality, learning curve, probability, collective consciousness

Thursday, December 4, 2014

TWO TYPES OF LEARNING AND ANALYSIS

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There are two different types of analysis and learning relating to our ability to see and recognize patterns and relationships. One method is extrapolative, which means finding the next item in a sequence of items. The second method is interpolative, which means finding the missing item somewhere in the middle of a sequence of items.

We are expressing ourselves interpolatively when we average items -- for example when you are told that an item will cost between $10.00 and $20.00, your mind averages the two together and you think of a "middle" or simple mean average price of $15.00. This is how most people think without realizing that they are doing it. In fact, if you were told that the price would be on the higher side, you would probably interpolate the anticipated price as $17.50 -- we do this by first finding the mean, and then by finding a second mean (or 'derivative mean') between the first mean and the maximum. Our mind dices and slices when we are asked to estimate "between" two things.

When we must find the last item in a sequence of items, we must recognize a pattern and then apply extrapolative thinking. An Example of each type follows, for a quick brain exercise:

1) We are on a 100 mile trip, and have gone three quarters of the way. How many miles do we have left? How many miles have we already traveled? In we are going to make a rest stop halfway between where we are and our final destination, how many more miles must we go before we can rest?

2) What is the next item in the series? ABD, BCE, CDF.... ___ .

Enjoy the TED Video (Goals Versus Behaviors) which follows!

Douglas E Castle for Braintenance

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Exercising The Body Improves Mental Ability

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In exercising the body, we stimulate the brain's abilities and capacities. People who are sedentary by their habits or nature are less likely to be as receptive to mental challenges than their vigorously exercising counterparts. Put simply, if you exercise your body, expansion and improvement of your cognition, creativity, neural plasticity, memory and other brain/mind functions becomes easier, and can be achieved significantly more efficiently.

While physical exercise is no substitute for brain training, the latter becomes much easier if the former is made part of the whole mind-body fitness regimen. This has to do with a combination of several factors:

1) Increased brain oxygenation;
2) Improved neurotransmitter activity and chemical balance in the brain;
3) Easier ability to focus on intellectual tasks when body is in a relaxing or relaxed state after physical labor;
4) Heightened consciousness following exercise;
5) Brainwave (entrainment status) activity post-exercise is significantly improved and better-geared toward learning.

There may be numerous other factors involved, but it still makes a great deal of sense to workout regularly if you want to maintain, strain and strengthen your brain. Exercise is positively correlated with reduction in the likelihood of occurrence of senile dementia, and with slowing down the progression of Alzheimer's.

The best time to work on building your mind is after you have engaged your body in vigorous physical exercise for a period of 30 to 60 minutes. You'll retain more of what you study and develop more associative and metaphorical/creative ability. Your mission? Exercise and experiment! ... and enjoy the informative poignant video which is embedded below.

Douglas E. Castle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxkBqFbbAP0

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Pattern Recognition Versus Memorization: Braintenance

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Two essential components of intelligence are the ability to recognize (and extrapolate) patterns, and the ability to simply memorize strings of randomized data. Each requires the use of different parts of the brain. Alternating between one and the other creates an increase in both abilities plus increases neuronal plasticity and problem-solving ability.

For each of the following strings of data, do the following:

1) Recite all of the data points from memory after looking at the data for no longer than two minutes;
2) Recite all of the data points backwards from memory after looking at the data for another minute;
3) If you recognize a pattern, find the next data point.

NOTE: Do not look back to previous strings in working on this exercise!
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STRING A: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 ...

STRING B: 1, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 5, 7 ...

STRING C: 3, 7, 5, 8, 3, 9, 6, 11, 2 ...

STRING D: Apple, Bicycle, Carnival, Donut, Energy, Footprint ...

STRING E: Carbon, Log, Melon, River, Wheel, Toe ...

STRING F: Apple, Log, Carnival, River, Donut, Wheel, Energy ...

STRING G: Apple, 2, Bicycle, 4, Carnival, 6, Donut ...

Now that you've done this exercise, relax for a minute or so, and enjoy the embedded video below:

http://youtu.be/esPRsT-lmw8

Douglas E. Castle

Friday, November 21, 2014

Better Vocabulary = More Powerful Intellect

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We tend to think in pictures, but we describe those images in words. The better our vocabularies, the better our ability to express what we are picturing, and the more persuasive that we can be. But were you aware that by increasing your vocabulary, you also increase you mind's ability to visualize, conceptualize and think coherently?

That is correct. The better and more extensive your vocabulary, the more creative your imagination and the sharper your intellect!

My suggestion for taking command of a newly-learned vocabulary word is entailed in the following simple steps:

1) Learn the word (at least one new one per day), and use it in several sentences uttered to yourself

, even if this feels a bit unnatural, or forced at first;

2) Close your eyes, and write the word ten times on the blackboard of your mind;

3) Use the word at least three times the next day in conversations with others.

For today, you might just look up the true meanings of the often confused and abused terms "notoriety," "noteworthy," "stealth," "lucrative" and "opulent."

Remember, more vocabulary, better mental pictures, better neural plasticity, less propensity toward dementia and, of course, higher Scrabble scores.

Douglas E. Castle for BRAINTENANCE

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Knowledge Can Make You Rich

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Knowledge Can Make You Rich

But Only If You Are Intelligent Enough To Apply It;

And Even Then, Only If You Are Motivated To Use Your Intelligence.

But you must first understand and acknowledge what knowledge actually is. According to Wikipedia:

“Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning. Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic.[1] In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology; the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as "justified true belief", though "well-justified true belief" is more complete as it accounts for the Gettier problems. However, several definitions of knowledge and theories to explain it exist.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, communication, and reasoning; while knowledge is also said to be related to the capacity of acknowledgment in human beings.[2]”

Intelligence (as this term is used in describing intellectual processes and processing, and as it is distinctly differentiated from “knowledge”), while its precise definition is the subject of much spirited debate, has to do with the ability to utilize knowledge to solve a problem or achieve an objective. If your intelligence is not utilized, it may well be the most costly mistake of your life. If it [intelligence] is applied to an increasing body of acquired knowledge, you can truly become as rich or as successful as you please.

Motivation is the drive to use this ability called “intelligence” in order to solve a problem, or in order to achieve an objective.

To put the whole picture together in the form of a rudimentary equation:

KNOWLEDGE + INTELLIGENCE + MOTIVATION = SUCCESS

Take a quick break from following the U.S. Mid-Term Elections (this post is dated November 2^nd 2014) and please have a look at these free to subscribe e-newspapers, edited by Douglas E. Castle. We've scraped the web for the best news and commentary from the most reliable and authoritative sources available (wire services, newspapers, magazines, scholarly works, blogs and social media), and compiled it for you to either skim rapidly or to read in detail at your leisure. Be the smartest, best-informed person in any room or in attendance at any meeting [then again, don't act overly cocky or you're liable to incur the wrath of your colleagues, business associates and friends – Remember: nobody likes a smart***]. Average is typical. Intelligent and informed are exceptional. Which would you prefer to be? Do you resent rhetorical questions? Anyway, the underlined words and titles are hyperlinked for your clicking pleasure:

=> A new issue of Braintenance Express is out!

Strengthen your memory and increase your intelligence [cognition], creativity, imagination, vocabulary and computational skills. Train, strain, maintain and strengthen your brain with Braintenance news, games, puzzles and fascinating facts.

=> A new issue of Crowdfunding 360 is out!

Read the most current news, commentary, analysis, trend reports and other interesting and useful information about crowdfunding trends, deals, platforms and people. You'll also pick up useful tools, tips and tricks to make your crowdfunding campaign more successful.

=> A new issue of Douglas E. Castle Business Advisory is out!

Need I say more? While this looks like brazen, shameless self-promotion [and I'm not saying that it isn't], the information in this e-newspaper relates to various crucial aspects of entrepreneurial projects as well as small- to medium-sized businesses. The information varies from day to day, but it covers the fields of finance, management, marketing, accounting, regulation, best practices, technology and trends, in both the B2B and B2C environments. But then I've already said too much...

=> A new issue of The Undercurrent =>|<= is out!

Great news, commentary and trend reports about industrial intelligence, executive protection, data security, workplace safety and a host of other intriguing things happening behind the scenes in business.

=> A new issue of World Disruption And Commentary is out!

This is possibly the country's best compilation of news, commentary and trends [possibly a slight exaggeration] about industry, product and technological disruption and disruptors, covering new births as well as extinctions, both at present [in real-time] and as projected. Disruption and displacement will be the death knell for some products, companies, industries and investments, but will present profitable arbitrage opportunities for those who are in the know and act on these insights.

Douglas E. Castle

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Dreams And Dreaming: Fascinating Facts - Braintenance

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We tend to dream in metaphors about things in our lives which are unsettled and frustrating. This is quite the opposite of what we tend to say about dreams, which tends to be positive in the sense of "you're in my dreams," "I can dream about it if I can't have it," or "I was just daydreaming."

In fact, the dreams we tend to remember as adults are very often the ones which are closest to nightmares. The more plagued we are with the stressful components of our lives and either our point of view or our actual environment (the two are never quite the same), the more we dream, and the greater the percentage of our dreams which are perceived as nightmares.

In curious contrast, when our conscious minds are at rest after struggling at a perplexing problem for some time, our subconscious, operating through metaphor and unbridled free association, continues to work on these problems in our dreaming states and occasionally solves them. Much of our "Breakthrough Thinking" occurs while we are asleep. At times, these breakthroughs are so powerful that we are awakened as if by some mystical revelation. In this way dreaming is similar to some forms of meditation.

Many of our species' greatest thinkers, artists, scientists, inventors and other creative individuals have done their most creative work inspired by revelations born of either dreaming or meditation. Various drugs, some legal and some of them illegal, can enhance the parameters within which we dream; they seem to enliven our imagination with synesthesia and other 'special effects'. But it is important to note that any of these effects or changes is still, in the end, a product of our own mind's initiation.

It is worthwhile to note that our brains (or our minds) are never fully at rest -- they are always vigorously at work.

- Douglas E. Castle

Tags, Labels, Keywords, Categories And Search Terms For This Article:

Dream, Psychology, Braintenance, mind, Douglas E. Castle, creativity, breakthrough, subconscious

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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Intuition Versus Emotion: Major Differences

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There are major differences between Intuition and Emotion, but even the most intelligent of us tend to confuse the two, especially under stressful circumstances. So what IS the difference, and why is knowing that difference so important to the quality of our lives? Click: http://bit.ly/DECIDE8

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