Keep your mind sharp is the message today.
“Have an open mind – allow different ideas into your way of thinking.” – Peter Diamandis.
Certainly, we are all familiar with the fact that to remain in good physical health, it is important to exercise and eat our five (or ten) a day when it comes to fruit and vegetables. Even if the science behind the exact number remains debatable, no one can deny that eating properly is one requirement for maintaining good health. People tend to have a really good awareness of that regardless of whether they actually take the advice and act upon it or not.
What about the mind? Are there some dos and don’ts you should abide by so as to keep your mind sharp and healthy? The answer that many scientists would give to that is a positive one. I thought I’d share here today a number of ways that science tends to suggest are good ways to keep your mind sharp.
Keeping your Mind Active:
The first way to keep your mind sharp, is for it to be active – as if you are exercising it. There are many ways to decrease the rate at which the brain degenerates as one ages by keeping it active; reading, studying, solving puzzles, taking part in games of all kinds, being creative, the list goes on. Lots of these are covered in the upcoming points.
Quality Sleep:
Sleep helps keep your mind sharp. Getting enough sleep is probably one of the most important, (though for many, most challenging) things you can do to ensure we have a clear, sharp and focused mind the next day. It can be hard to lie in bed, filled with adrenaline from an exciting day and simply switch off. However, adequate sleep fuels your mind and body to rationally deal with stress. Develop a good sleep regimen and establish a routine that is effective.
An old saying goes like this “Mens sana in corpore sano”, meaning that a healthy body is likely to bring about a healthy mind. Another way to put it is: take care of your body and your mind will function properly. Sleep is vital to your body and mind. Here are some useful articles to help you with that:
a) Using Self-Hypnosis To Get To Sleep Better.
b) Use Hypnosis To Quiet The Mind And Drift To Sleep.
c) Get Back To Sleep With Mindfulness, Self-hypnosis and Dissociation.
d) Using Self-Hypnosis To Truly Delve Into The Darkness, and Embrace It.
Regular Exercise:
Keep your mind sharp with regular exercise. There is more and more scientific evidence that shows regular aerobic exercise advances mental functioning in a variety of ways (read John Ratey’s book “Spark” if you really want to go deeper into this).
Just some of the benefits are outlined here: Ways Physical Exercise Boosts Mental Health.
Exercise helps to relieve tension. Relieving tension alone can improve your thought patterns. The less tension that you have the sharper your mind will become. You will begin to develop a better attitude as time goes on.
Recent research reveals that even small amounts of physical activity trigger dozens of beneficial changes in the body. David Linden, a Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School, suggested that doing aerobic exercise daily for 30 minutes is the best thing you could do for your mind.
Read More:
Keep your mind sharp by reading. Cultivate the habit of reading. Read far and wide! Do not only read things that interest you but also include books that can supercharge your thinking, challenge you in a variety of ways and get you thinking more and in different ways.
To go into this in more depth, read this excellent article: The Importance of Reading More: Why You Need To Read More.
Gratitude:
Keep your mind sharp by expressing gratitude regularly – I find evidence for so many applications of gratitude on a regular basis, it is verging on being indispensable to me.
Each day, so some journaling and write about the positive thoughts in your head. What was great about your day? What are you excited for tomorrow? What are you most proud of? Doing this trains your head to focus in and think about the positive instead of always focusing in on the negative thoughts. Your brain is a muscle that we can train to behave in a certain way; it just takes time and discipline. Be thankful and express gratitude for what you have in your life, but do focus on everything that made each day great and it’ll contribute massively to a sharp mind.
Meditation and self-hypnosis:
Meditation and self-hypnosis are other amazing ways to keep your mind sharp so that you can really control what is going on inside your head and reinvigorate your mind. When you start to meditate, and you start to let go of unwanted thoughts, practice pulling those thoughts back and controlling them. Learning this control over your own mind is really useful; so that when you’re approached with a difficult situation, you can control and own your thoughts instead of just reacting and letting the situation control you. Not only that, but quiet time for meditation and time to really ground down and relax is so important, especially with how busy our lives are. Start with a minute or two. Close your eyes. Lay on the ground if you can. Just give it a go.
Likewise, self-hypnosis is a skill that advances mental functioning in many ways – my own ongoing research bears this out greatly. Do consider owning a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book.
Journalling:
This one act can greatly decrease your stress levels and clear your mind. Take time to journal when you are stressed and note what caused the stress, how it made you feel and what you did to feel better. What you track, you can improve. You may begin to see a pattern of times of the day or particular circumstances that cause stress. Use these indicators to begin eliminating these stressors from your life.
Explore ways of using thought forms and other self-monitoring tools or track down a therapist who can advise you on how to employ these effectively in your life, you’ll be pleased you did.
Keep your mind sharp by journaling.
Study and/or Learn:
As stated earlier on, keeping your mind active will keep your mind sharp. Learning new things, studying, engaging your mind in learning a new skill of any kind is incredibly beneficial in this regard. You’re never too old to do this, but this is definitely something you should start as young as you can. You’d be surprised how much learning a new skill will open up many new paths in your mind and help you become even better at whatever you are already an expert at. You’ll also open yourself up to loads of new connections and intellectual social circles by engaging yourself in a new hobby, form of art, or trade. All of which will contribute to a sharp mind too.
Your ‘Mind Diet’:
The various thoughts, ideas and experiences that you come across daily all shape the way your mind is. It means that to a certain degree, you can control what you consume for your mind just as you can do for your body.
What you choose to feed your mind can be referred to as your ‘mind diet’. Your mind can be more or less interesting and more or less healthy depending on your ‘mind diet’. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my mind diet good? Can I call it a ‘balanced diet’ containing various kinds of subjects and ideas? Or am I more inclined to a single kind of input?
- What, in particular, is the balance between ‘healthy’ and ‘junk’ mind food?
- How is this affecting me individually? You could ask your family and friends to give you a frank assessment.
- What should, and can I do to improve the balance?
Top Tip!
If constructing an ‘ideal’ mind diet is a struggle for you, you could imagine and consider someone you admire, then consider the kinds of ideas, experiences and thoughts that may have formed their mind. Ponder on what that would result in for you.
Your life will be more fulfilling and enjoyable as well as stimulating if you keep your mind sharp. Make a conscious effort towards ensuring a good mental health as a result of employing ways to keep your mind sharp. Stay smart and spend your mental energy on the right things.
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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:
1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life? Need to learn to keep your mind sharp?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.
Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book. Self-hypnosis can help you to keep your mind sharp too, in a number of ways.
