Yesterday is early, today there is no time, tomorrow it is late. We are always waiting for the right moment to make our dreams come true. Either there is no time or knowledge, or the circumstances are not the same. Famous people had similar problems. Everyone got out as best they could. Thus, resentment and hatred for the band Metallica drove forward the founder of the American metal band Megadeth Dave Mustaine, the French writer Victor Hugo cut his hair unsightly to eliminate the desire to go out and finish his novel on time, and composer Ludwig van Beethoven stimulated activity by dousing him with ice water. Nowadays, it is not necessary to resort to such radical methods. It is enough to analyze the latest achievements in the field of neuropsychology, slightly adjust your behavior and enjoy the result.
As we already know from the previous article, there are two opposing parts living within us. A representative of the ancient brain, let's call him Zhrulkin (he wants everything now), and the young brain - Rationalov (thinks about the future). Due to the fact that Rational consumes more energy and is less responsible for survival and procreation, Zhrulkin more often dominates us. The usefulness of Zhrulkin has been proven by millions of years of incredible human survivability. He makes sure we work less, eat more, and motivates us to have sex. There are exceptions, and a person can control Zhrulkin from childhood, but not everyone is so lucky. Therefore, most people need various tricks in order to relegate it to the background. Let's consider the most effective methods.
Use the brain's weakness for unfinished actions
Once you start, you will be unstoppable. The brain is drawn into work. After all, unfinished business irritates him terribly. This was confirmed in his research by psychologist Kennett McGraw. The subjects were given a puzzle and, when everything was almost ready, they were asked to finish. There was no rational point in continuing to put the puzzle together, but 90% of the participants stayed to complete the work.
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A similar effect occurs when reading an uninteresting book or watching a movie. There is no point in continuing, but unconsciously I want to finish reading or watching. To use the method for your own selfish purposes, it is enough to get the ball rolling, for example, by working in a group of like-minded people.
Further, the effect of an unfinished action will constantly push you to work.
Change your mental attitude
A patient of American psychiatrist Milton Erickson could not maintain her weight at 60 kg. As soon as the cherished figure was reached, the girl returned to her usual 80 kg. Erickson warned that the treatment would be painful, and the patient agreed. He made her increase her weight from 80 to 90 kg. The girl threw hysterics, cried, but gradually recovered to 90 kg.
And then, with incredible relief, I began to reduce it and quickly reached 60 kg. The secret of success is changing the psychological attitude from “lose weight - gain weight” to “gain - lose weight”. The fear of overcoming this horror again allowed me to consolidate my success and not gain any more weight. Many people are also familiar with the problem of skipping workouts: today I’ll cancel the lesson, but next time I’ll go 100%. And the next day you don’t go, making a new promise to yourself. The solution would be to change the attitude “if I don’t go today, I’ll go tomorrow” to “if I don’t go today, I won’t go tomorrow.” Promise yourself that if you miss class today, you will forget about sports for two weeks. And doing this is more difficult than postponing it until tomorrow. This way you will get rid of the standard excuse and stop feeding yourself breakfast.
1. Reduce the voltage level
Stress is the biggest killer of your mental performance. So lower the tension. Clear your mind of negative thoughts and learn to relax. Learn to see positive things around you, and get used to treating failures as an opportunity to learn important lessons for yourself on the path to achieving success.
2. Ensure good oxygen flow to your brain
The brain can survive without oxygen for about 10 minutes. And even when nothing prevents us from breathing, the brain may not have enough oxygen. Do you want to get your brain working at full speed early in the morning? Brisk walking for fifteen to twenty minutes is very beneficial. You can walk to work or to your place of study. By starting your day this way, you immediately increase blood circulation and provide your brain with a good dose of oxygen.
3. Activate your brain with special points
There are several points on our body that activate the brain. A point on the back of the hand between the thumb and index finger. Massage it. Rub your earlobes, this will help you wake up. Yawn as loudly as possible, this helps supply oxygen to your brain. Pinch the tip of your nose, this also activates the brain.
4. Train your memory
Two important trends in the functioning of the brain: first, in the absence of a clear system, the brain is able to cope with a maximum of 5-7 pieces of information at the same time. The second is that if you need to remember a series of data, the brain tends to effectively capture the information at the beginning and end, but has difficulty in the middle. Therefore, the simplest principle of memorization is division into parts. You will automatically improve your brain's ability to reproduce the information stored in it if you break it down into digestible chunks.
5. Use imagery
The language of your memory (and all other brain functions) is imagery. Another useful trait is the brain's strong tendency and ability to see them. The better you can visualize information, the easier it is to remember it. So use images! Visualization is a useful thing.
6. Set specific goals!
Most people don't get what they want in life because they don't really know what they want. Aimless life, a rather gloomy and boring existence. A goal is something that will inspire you, encourage you, and make you want to start a new day again and again. This will help you overcome difficulties and difficulties in life, as you have a beacon that calls you to move on.
7. Stop eating internet trash
The Internet makes us addicted, turning into a kind of drug. Status on facebook, interesting article, and so on in a vicious circle. Then we reap the consequences in the form of distracted attention. We constantly have to switch our attention and we cannot focus on important things. How to get rid of this? Set a set of rules for yourself: half an hour of email, half an hour of Twitter, and so on.
Don't think that doing all this is difficult or impossible. Start with small habits and move on to big changes. Lack of sleep, multitasking, and online junk make us less productive, creative, and happy. Try to use yourself to the fullest, both mentally and physically.
Make the first step as easy as possible
It's often difficult to get started because you think about how long it might take. The brain draws terrible pictures of a temporary apocalypse. Shuddering with horror, we try to push this terrible moment as far as possible. An effective anti-apocalyptic solution would be to split the problem into a number of small, harmless, and sometimes tasty ones. No need to do a thesis.
Plan to make a title page, table of contents, or introduction. It is best that the first step takes no more than 20 seconds. Thanks to the butterfly effect, a small action can lead to incredible results.
Habit 1. Spend the morning so that your brain invigorates
We assign a daily routine
It is impossible to maintain a youthful brain if life is extremely monotonous. However, there is something that is better not to change at all. This is the daily routine.
You need to wake up every morning at about the same time, then spend some time in the sun. Try to do the most important things at the moment of greatest brain activity, and in the evening go to bed as early as possible. If you constantly adhere to approximately this schedule, your brain will work more stable. And this is very important for everyone.
You probably know about jet lag. This is a condition when the brain’s operating mode ceases to coincide with the daily routine. You need to act, but you can’t, because your brain is used to sleeping at this time, and vice versa - you want to go to bed, but you can’t fall asleep.
This is roughly how the brain feels when the daily routine is disrupted. The only way to fix this is to create a starting point in your daily life.
Neglect of daily routine is a direct road to dementia, and this is not an exaggeration.
Making the brain work
If you wake up at a certain time and stand in the sun for a little while, then the brain will somehow also switch into working mode (the human and animal body checks its internal clock with the intensity of sunlight). However, it cannot be said that from that moment the brain fully woke up.
You've probably heard that it begins to work actively only two hours after waking up, and if you are going to take an exam, you need to get up at least two hours before entering the classroom. But if these two hours differ little in activity from sleep, then this will not give the desired results.
Just like the body, the brain needs to warm up. A morning warm-up that includes a load on the primary functions of the brain is a great way to wake up the areas responsible for thinking.
If you wake up every morning shortly before leaving the house, take the subway or train without walking even ten minutes, and spend the entire working day at the computer, then try to wake up early and do a couple of things from this list:
- walking or other light physical activity;
- cleaning the room;
- cooking;
- plant care;
- simple dialogue with someone (greeting, exchanging a couple of remarks);
- reading aloud (if possible, at least 10 minutes).
Chatting or reading aloud
Lately there has been a lot of talk that reading aloud is very useful. This is true, because this process involves not only the eyes and speech apparatus, but also working with information (perception - processing - reproduction). When we read a text silently, some passages may remain unclear, but to read aloud, we need to delve into the content. This is precisely the information processing stage. Pronouncing the text is the stage of its reproduction.
Morning training has a good effect on the speed of visual perception of information, and on hearing, and on the ability to express one’s thoughts without hesitation, including in writing. To give an example from sports, it is similar to simple team exercises.
Constantly reading aloud will be especially useful for those who communicate little with people. When you read the text, it’s better not to just say it, but imagine it as if you were doing it to someone else.
Summary:
- Compliance with the regime is important for stable brain function.
- To do this, you need to create a starting point: always get up at the same time.
- Warm-up is also important for the brain. You need to move and talk.
Develop neural connections
The brain doesn't like to do anything new. From his point of view, this can be unsafe and very energy-consuming. A new activity differs from a habitual one in the smaller number of neural connections in the brain. And in order to develop new connections, you need to constantly practice.
The practice of visualization copes well with this task: the brain does not care whether you are actually doing the work or just imagining yourself working on a new task.
In both cases, new neuropathways will be built. Australian psychologist Alan Richardson was able to prove the effectiveness of visualization by conducting research on basketball players.
Only by visualizing their training with throwing the ball into the basket, the players were able to improve their results. During the same time, the progress of the players who trained in the gym was not much better. If you do not have the willpower to begin the daily necessary actions, mentally imagine that you are doing this, and most importantly, with pleasure. Only the necessary neural connections will be developed in at least 45 days, but with each repetition it will be easier and easier for you to act.
Stop eating internet trash
You've probably wondered how the Internet affects our brain? Doesn't the Network make us addicted, turning into a kind of drug? Status on Facebook, email, Twitter, interesting article, and so on in a vicious circle. Maria Konnikova says that the main problem of Internet users is distracted attention. We constantly have to switch from one activity to another, and this prevents us from focusing on important things.
How to get rid of this? Set a set of rules for yourself: half an hour of email, half an hour of Twitter, and so on. You can do this yourself, but if you know that willpower may not be enough, use auxiliary means.
Train your willpower
Success in life depends on willpower. Research by Professor Casey of Psychobiology from Cornwall University clearly proves this. Casey offered the children marshmallows, but with a condition: if they wait 15 minutes, they can get another sweet. Some children could not cope with the temptation and ate the marshmallows right away. After 40 years, the professor decided to find out the fate of the children and saw that those who passed the test and did not eat marshmallows turned out to be more efficient, moderate in their diet and less susceptible to the influence of bad habits. But there is good news for the weak-willed: willpower can be trained.
You can follow the path of physicist Nikola Tesla, who deliberately refused desserts in favor of those around him, thus developing willpower. Or start meditating. After all, meditation suppresses the ancient impulsive brain, reducing stress, anxiety and fear. Meditation activates the frontal lobes, which are responsible for willpower, improving attention, memory, concentration and creativity. Five to ten minutes of meditation a day is enough to develop self-control.
Cultivate mindfulness and inaction
15 minutes of inactivity will best help you collect your thoughts. You just need to close your eyes and relax, concentrate on your breathing. This is the best way to gain strength quickly. While watching a feed on social networks or a video, our brain does not relax, but also continues to work. Try to rest for 10-15 minutes after an hour of work. Also, in order to complete work faster, develop attentiveness. This is a universal skill that will help you in almost any task. Take a free attentiveness test and test yourself to see how developed your attentiveness is and whether you need to improve it.
