5 Natural Ways to Enhance Your Cognitive Abilities
Ever since the movie Limitless came out, people became enamored with the idea of finding a pill that can help make them smarter. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the majority of drugs that enhance cognitive abilities have some quite serious downsides. In fact, sometimes the side-effects aren’t even fully explored. What these people forget, on the other hand, is the fact that they could enhance their cognitive abilities in a completely natural, safe and organic manner. With that in mind and without further ado, here are the top five methods to do so.
Foods that boost brainpower
One of the best ways to boost your cognitive abilities is through a healthier diet. Namely, healthy fats like those found in avocado, fatty fish and virgin olive oil are known to help enhance one’s brainpower and memory. Coffee, in small doses, can be quite beneficial as well and the same thing goes for dark chocolate. Various types of nuts can do the trick as well. Last, but in no way least important is the consumption of blueberries. Finding a way to include some of these foods into your nutrition plan can help you develop stronger mental capacities.
Exercise
Getting regular exercise can help increase the functional activity of the part of your brain known as the temporal lobe. The reason why this particular part is so important is due to the fact that it’s in charge of storing sensory memories. Other than this, it’s well known that, in some cases, dementia and Alzheimer’s can be prevented, as well as treated with physical exercise. In other words, exercise can help you slow down the aging process of your brain.
Remove distractions
The next item on this list is a simple organizational ability that will allow you to completely focus on the task at hand. Namely, there are three major types of distractions that you’ll face on a regular basis – visual, tactile and acoustic. What you need to do is find a way to deal with all three of them. First of all, you get to remove visual distractions by keeping your work surface or your desktop neat. Tactile distraction can be reduced by having enough personal space (at least 5 square meters). Lastly, acoustic distractions can be handled with a quality noise-canceling headset like Focal Utopia.
Get enough sleep
Another thing you need to understand is the fact that the amount and quality of sleep affect your ability to focus and handle the mental task all throughout the day. There’s a common misconception that 6 hours of sleep per day should be enough, yet, for people who lead an active lifestyle (both physically and intellectually), even 8-9 hours isn’t too much. As far as the quality of sleep goes, try to create better sleeping conditions and start developing habits for better sleep.
Keep learning
In order to sharpen your mind, you need to keep acquiring new skills on a daily basis. In one of his self-help books, famous author Robin Sharma suggests that you should spend at least 20 minutes every day learning a new skill. Of course, learning anything major in this short period of time is simply a ludicrous idea, however, why not learn a new recipe or an organization hack. On the other hand, you could also split a major skill into minor parts and start systemically breaking it down.
Conclusion
Of course, the effect isn’t quite like in the movie, yet, the above-listed methods give you these results in a much safer and more reliable manner. Furthermore, the more you use them, the more you develop in this field and, seeing as how there’s no building resistance to a healthy diet, a surplus of oxygen and the tranquility of mind, these are the tools that you can use indefinitely.