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

Showing posts with label brain training. Show all posts

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

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

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Best Exercise To Increase Optimism - Automatically, Rapidly, Re-Program Your Brainwave Activity

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CLICK ON THE PIC FOR HIGHER REZ

Best Exercise To Increase Optimism - You Will Easily, Automatically, Rapidly, Re-Program Your Brainwave Activity.

Friends and followers of The Braintenance Blog are familiar with the various notions of the subconscious, the ubermind, de-personalization, meditation, neuroplasticity, entrainment, cross-hemispheric intelligence, the electromagnetic and chemical properties of the brain and thought, intersynaptic neurotransmitters and their effects, pheromones, nature, nurture, changing synaptic chemistry, nootropic protocols and a host of other technical details and interesting theories relating to brain, mind, learning and feeling.

What I want to do today, and during the course of these next several weeks, is to pass on to you the gift of increased optimism, based upon a three-step approach developed at McGill University.

What you will need to do is:

Take the optimism test

This will give you an indication of how you compare to other people in your general level of optimism or pessimism. Then, if you want to continue you can:

Test your cognitive bias

This task measures bias in attention and it is important to follow the instructions and keep your eyes focused on the centre of the screen as best you can. This test is much shorter than the one we gave Michael and less well controlled, but should give you a reasonable indication of whether you have a tendency to orient towards the positive or towards the negative.

Remember to take a note of your optimism and cognitive bias test results so that you can compare with your scores at the end of your positivity training.

Finally, you can undergo attentional re-training or a CBM* that is designed to enhance a positive bias in attention – we can call this “positivity training”. The task we used was developed by Dr Mark Baldwin at McGill University in Canada (http://www.mcgill.ca/social-intelligence/) and Dr Stephane Dandeneau (http://www.mcgill.ca/social-intelligence/people/alumni). They kindly gave us access to their attentional training game as well as permission to give you the opportunity to try it for yourself here.

Attentional Training Game

[Please Note: The Attentional Training Game will not work on devices without Adobe Flash. Users with mobile devices may wish to install the MindHabits Psych Me Up! app as an alternative.]

The idea is to do this task at least 3 times a week over a 6 to 8 week period. You also need to do mindfulness meditation for around 10 minutes per day, 3 days a week, over the same period.

At the end of the 7 to 8 week period, you can take the optimism test again as well as take the attention bias test to see whether there has been any change. The mere fact of change, at least anecdotally indicates (with all other things being held equal) that this simple exercise set has changed the electromagnetic 'firing patterns' in your mind.The cause and effect possibilities notwithstanding, it would seem that by changing the manner in which your mind processes or analyzes things (i.e., the "mechanics of mind"), you can change the emotional aspect of your mind... i.e., your feelings about yourself and about life.

Try this, please. You'll truly enjoy it. At worst, you'll feel a slight improvement, but in the more common scenario, you'll feel significantly better. And optimism is a match that tends to ignite the magic of any positive self-fulfilling prophesy.

As the success coaches who are always touting the Laws Of Attraction and Affinity, "If you are optimistic, better things will just naturally come to you." To a large extent, I believe them -- and that belief, in and of itself, more favorably inclines my mind toward optimism.

NOTE: Cyclically and recursively, this expectation of better results and subsequent obtaining of better results, serves to exponentialize the ultimate beneficial effect.

_______________
*More About CBM:

Another newer technique is called cognitive bias modification, or CBM (see link here: http://www.economist.com/node/18276234). The idea of CBM is to directly tackle negative cognitive biases by means of a simple computerized programme. By presenting two images side by side very rapidly, for instance, and asking people to respond to small targets that appear in either location, we can subtly re-train the brain to shift attention away from nasty images and towards more pleasant images. A growing body of research shows that shifting negative biases is surprisingly easy and has effects on how well people cope in a stressful situation. This is still a very new technique, however, and we still need to learn a lot more about how CBM effects the pathways in the brain and whether the benefits can last for the long term.

Thank you all for reading me, for experimenting and exploring along with me, and for sharing my articles with your contacts, connections and colleagues (alliteration!) through your social media sharing tools.

Think!

Douglas E. Castle

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Raise Your Intelligence, Lower Your Stress - Braintenance!

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You'd like to be more intelligent, more successful, more respected and admired. You'd also like to eliminate stress, feel absolutely comfortable and be endlessly creative. In order to dso this, you must master your mind. You must train your brain. This only takes moments a day. Simply go to http://braintenance.blogspot.com/, scroll around, and use our brain gym.

Having said this, I must ask you a question: What expression is as ridiculous as "It takes one to know one."?

The answer (or at least the most popularly selected answer amongst a group of 4 people polled while I waited for my daughter at a train station) was, "The more that things change, the more they remain the same."

The first expression is childish and follows no particular line of logic. The second, however is inherently conflictory and genuinely [if analyzed] meaningless. It cancels itself out.

My personal favorite stupid, irreversible, oxymoronic expression is this classic:
"LESS IS MORE." No syllogism there. No one says it in reverse. Maybe it applies to antimatter, or to the laws of a different universe in another dimension. But have you ever heard some one say "MORE IS LESS?" Oxymoron fans, this is better than your garden-variety oxymoron -- this is truly false irony. The British have an expression that typifies this type of falsity in polite speech: They frequently say "nowthen..." at the beginning of a declaration or casual sentence fragment.

The way that I tell time, there cannot be a nowthen. It is either now, or it was then.

Forget jumbo shrimp, authentic replica, miltary intelligence, helpful civil servant, and all of the rest of the traditional exemplars of oxymoronics in common speech. The ones I've cited above warrant serious exploration. The persons using them also warrant serious evaluation.

How about the pre-emptive disclaimer of all prior things mentioned to you. Someone will say, "To tell you the truth..." Was he always lying before? A better version of the same abomination is "I'll be honest with you..."

Words are fun to play with (unless you happen to be a member of the editorial staff of The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter published by TNNWC). But when you've finished playing with them, please put them back where they belong.

Faithfully,

Douglas E Castle
Chairman of TNNWC Group, LLC,
Corporate Negotiator, and
Author of Braintenance

p.s. After you've read the fine print beneath this post, please see a listing of other related sites and articles which might also be of interest.
---------------
NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Braintenance: Bad Puns For The Overly-Educated and Pathologically Idle at 05.20.2010

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BRAINTENANCE: BAD PUNS FOR THE OVERLY-EDUCATED AND PATHOLOGICALLY IDLE at 05.20.2010

BRAINTENANCE? WHAT? http://Braintenance.blogspot.com

Dear Fellow Brain-Strainers (...brings to mind Hannibal Lecter, doesn't it?):

Following is a collection of horribly highbrow puns for the over-educated and pathologically idle among us. I thank Ronald Banner and Dr. Daniel Benor for these stomach-strainers. You may break the seal with your pencil and begin now...

1. King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan.

Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it."

"But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!"

Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."

2. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss league records were destroyed in a fire, ...and so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.

3. A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."

4. A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with-- transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.

5. Back in the 1800's the Tate's Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products, and since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California. This, of course, is the origin of the expression -- "He who has a Tate's is lost!"

6. A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on."

7. An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."

8. A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

9. There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant. The first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This just goes to prove that... the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides. (Some of you may need help with this one).

10. A skeptical anthropologist was cataloging South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal Brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the Brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, you don't need enemas."

Forwarded by

Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM
DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
For more web items of humor, beauty and wonderment
See: Monthly E-Zines and frequent Newsletters of the IJHC and the WHR sites
http://wholistichealingresearch.com/CurrentIssue.html

####

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. Next Time -- Sociopathic Spoonerisms!
p.p.s. Bonus picture of me, hard at work (after the credits). Paste me into your scrapbook!

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

BRAINTENANCE: Screed?....Indeed!

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Dear Friends:

I dislike writing in the Arial font. I prefer Times Roman, Bookman Old Style or Goudy Old Style. When I've used Copper Plate (admittedly, an archaic font), smart-alecky friends have remarked that my documents looked like "funeral announcements." Sometimes I think that my friends are the ones who openly criticize me, and my enemies are the ones who continue to smile despite the fact that my fly is open, there is toilet paper trailing from my shoe, or I have a piece of spinach the size of a cellular telephone lodged between my teeth. Anyway, enough about me.

How about you? Here are some items for your cerebration (never be too lazy to use a dictionary to confirm your guesses at word definitions through "use in context"):

1. 87.5% of Americans (the English-speaking ones) do not know what the word "screed" means. They're flummoxed. http://twitlik.com/screed
Posted to Twitter at 07:39 PM on 07/01/2009.

2. If I work on a quality control line at the Zenobia Nut Company, and I routinely eliminate 10% of the nuts which pass me by because they (presumably) don't meet my exacting nut standards, 90% of the nuts will be left over. If a certain practical joker at the company knows that I routinely cull 10% of any given batch of nuts simply because of my unmedicated Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and he keeps re-cycling the remaining nuts by me for my inspection/ selection process time after time, how many passes (including the first) will it take for me to have eliminated 30% of the original batch of nuts? Remember: on the second pass, the total batch is only 90% of the size of the original batch.

3. Where in blazes are your Haikus? Create a few and place them in the "Comments" section at the bottom of this post. If you don't know what a Haiku is, simply refer to the last post at http://braintenance.blogspot.com/2009/06/braintenance-do-you-haiku.html. These Japanese-inspired poem forms are a wonderful mental exercise. C'mon. My life's ambition (the other one) is to publish a volume of Haiku producted by my fellow Braintenance enthusiasts. As you may recall, my sample Haiku (comprised of 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third) was:

I have walked these streets
In my hours of loneliness
Hearing your last words

Now...get to work!

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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*Contact the author at douglas.castle@yahoo.com .

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

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Exercising The Body Improves Mental Ability

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Best Exercise To Increase Optimism - Automatically, Rapidly, Re-Program Your Brainwave Activity

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Raise Your Intelligence, Lower Your Stress - Braintenance!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Braintenance: Bad Puns For The Overly-Educated and Pathologically Idle at 05.20.2010

Thursday, July 2, 2009

BRAINTENANCE: Screed?....Indeed!

Blog Archive

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Exercising The Body Improves Mental Ability

Related articles

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Best Exercise To Increase Optimism - Automatically, Rapidly, Re-Program Your Brainwave Activity

Related articles

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Raise Your Intelligence, Lower Your Stress - Braintenance!

Related articles

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Braintenance: Bad Puns For The Overly-Educated and Pathologically Idle at 05.20.2010

Thursday, July 2, 2009

BRAINTENANCE: Screed?....Indeed!

Blog Archive