Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => Off Topic => Topic started by: TylerDurden on October 12, 2012, 12:52:58 am
-
So far, intermittent fasting(I've not done it properly in recent times), rosemary and lots of exercise(which I haven't done much for some time) are said to increase number of neurons etc. in the brain. Any ideas re other techniques? What about brain-training exercises?
-
I'm already thinking what should we do with all that extra brain power...
-
I believe in mind training as a way to build development, especially of the brain. In the last few months I've been dabbling in meditation but wasn't really making any strides until the last few weeks. So I buckled down and started doing 45 minutes to 1 hour every morning from about 6-7 a.m. I think its still going to be quite awhile before I experience a big portion of the benefits. I'm doing visualization techniques where I imagine my bodys white blood cells cleaning me up, destroying harmful stuff etc. I imagine my body regenerating, and focus my attention on the problems I'm currently experiencing with my body. I find that using the symbolic nature of golden healing light is the best route to take, whether its my cells shooting lasers out to zap harmful substances, or picturing it surrounding my aches and pains.
Just like with your body, you need to train it to make it strong. Just like with your body, if you don't, not only does it not improve, but it'll just constantly get weaker. Its an everyday type of thing, and it requires dedication. Meditation is the path to a clear, strong mind. Above all it teaches discipline, and with discipline so many things are possible. I believe its the most efficient and quickest way to build and rebuild your brain.
-
Oh, I think this was what Tony Robbins and others said, basically:- "Visualise/dream about yourself being a success, fill in as many details as possible in such dreams or daydreams, and you will eventually succeed in all endeavours. I'm somewhat sceptical of such but may consider it, later. At the moment, I'm re-looking at a PC program called "thinkrightnow" which used to be partially useful to me many years ago.
-
Tyler, the experts I've read over the years say in order to increase brain power what you need to do is something new outside of your normal comfort zone.
-
What Dorothy said. Doing weird things like walking(or getting dressed) with your eyes closed around the house can increase brain power.
-
Exactly, I agree. For me personally, that's meditation. Its a massive challenge, while also being very soothing afterwards.
-
Brain exercises:
Dual-N-Back (http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net)
Cognitivefun (http://cognitivefun.net)
Lumosity (http://www.lumosity.com)
Harry Kahne's Multiple Mentality (http://www.rexresearch.com/kahne/kahne.htm)
Brain Boot Camp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVEHGwDxi8Q#)
HEG/EEG Neurofeedback:
http://brain-trainer.com/brain_training/ (http://brain-trainer.com/brain_training/)
Neurofeedback for Peak Performance - EEG Info Videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elbarHFHVRM#)
Mnemonics:
Mentat Wiki (http://www.ludism.org/mentat/HomePage)
Mnemotechnics (http://mnemotechnics.org/wiki/Main_Page)
Memory Book (http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/dp/0345410025/ref=la_B001H9Q098_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350006325&sr=1-1)
World memory champion Andi Bell's card technique. [1/2] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xl7_hdWZo#)
Andi Bell explains the `link method` memory technique [2/2] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NROegsMqNc#)
Anzan:
Learn soroban (http://webhome.idirect.com/~totton/abacus/sitemap.html)
Soroban - All in the mind (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_hvzYS3_Y#)
Juggling Enhances Connections In The Brain (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016114055.htm)
Music Improves Brain Function (http://www.livescience.com/7950-music-improves-brain-function.html)
Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110121144007.htm)
Relaxation and emotional regulation by measuring HRV(Heart rate variability) (http://www.heartmathstore.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=sciencebehind)
Keywords: Brain plasticity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_plasticity), Working memory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory), Jaeggi study (http://www.pnas.org/content/105/19/6829), Fluid intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_intelligence)
-
Exactly, I agree. For me personally, that's meditation. Its a massive challenge, while also being very soothing afterwards.
That's kind of funny to me Barefoot because I recently realized that most of my interests and practiced skills that I use the most are right brain oriented: meditation, languages, music etc. Because of that I decided to (believe it or not!) learn my multiplication tables that I didn't learn in grammar school math. Talk about being out of my comfort zone. :)
-
AlphaCog - those were some interesting videos. Thanks for posting.
-
Cognition is why I jumped into diets...I'm just glad that my brain did not degenerate so much that I would lose the ability to look for answers on the internet.
-
Oh, I checked mentatwiki a long while back, albeit cursorily. That's the trouble with the Internet, one's attention-span gets reduced. Thanks for the other links, I'll try them out.
Hmm, doing new things outside one's normal limits. Well, i think it's a bit late to try getting a jet-pilot's licence and the like, but I'll try the simpler ideas for now, like walking around with eyes closed etc.
-
If you spend a lot of time at the computer
- change hand with which you use the mouse
- rotate your screen upside down (this is typically possible without physically rotating the monitor)
- or mirror it, switch right with left
- any other suggestions? anything that will confuse you and require you to think while doing your everyday stuff on the computer.
-
The catch with many of these ideas is this, I suspect:- Whatever trick I use, I will only get extra neurons equipped for solving that particular trick, and that trick alone. So, if I switch hands, I might become more adept at using the mouse with my left hand(and, perhaps even, become very slightly more ambidextrous in general) - if I walk around with my eyes closed, I may enhance the other senses slightly and perhaps add extra neurons to brain-regions devoted to the function of walking around blind. Similiarly, if I do intelligence-improvement tests, then maybe I will only get better at solving intelligence-improvement tests, but nothing else.
-
I don't think it's much different from practicing any other skills with regards to that.
If you run you'll get good at running, but not at biking.. etc. What you do is what you get good at.
Once you master one thing (e.g. get skilled with both hand) you have to move to something else; the idea is to continuously stimulate the brain I guess.
-
The catch with many of these ideas is this, I suspect:- Whatever trick I use, I will only get extra neurons equipped for solving that particular trick, and that trick alone. So, if I switch hands, I might become more adept at using the mouse with my left hand(and, perhaps even, become very slightly more ambidextrous in general) - if I walk around with my eyes closed, I may enhance the other senses slightly and perhaps add extra neurons to brain-regions devoted to the function of walking around blind. Similiarly, if I do intelligence-improvement tests, then maybe I will only get better at solving intelligence-improvement tests, but nothing else.
That's exactly what working memory training tries to solve: to be able to transfer cognitive abilities to other areas of life.
Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.abstract)
Abstract:
Fluid intelligence (Gf) refers to the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge. Gf is critical for a wide variety of cognitive tasks, and it is considered one of the most important factors in learning. Moreover, Gf is closely related to professional and educational success, especially in complex and demanding environments. Although performance on tests of Gf can be improved through direct practice on the tests themselves, there is no evidence that training on any other regimen yields increased Gf in adults. Furthermore, there is a long history of research into cognitive training showing that, although performance on trained tasks can increase dramatically, transfer of this learning to other tasks remains poor. Here, we present evidence for transfer from training on a demanding working memory task to measures of Gf. This transfer results even though the trained task is entirely different from the intelligence test itself. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the extent of gain in intelligence critically depends on the amount of training: the more training, the more improvement in Gf. That is, the training effect is dosage-dependent. Thus, in contrast to many previous studies, we conclude that it is possible to improve Gf without practicing the testing tasks themselves, opening a wide range of applications.
-
This little exercise is awesome.
Clicking your amygdala forward: http://neilslade.com/chart.html (http://neilslade.com/chart.html)
-
I think you make a valid point Tyler. That's why I think it's important to challenge yourself with things that will give you satisfaction, enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment.
I have made lists of things that I didn't complete in my lifetime. Lots of little things and some very big things. Doing things like memorizing music instead of being a good sight reader opened up my enjoyment of my music. The multiplication tables on the other hand is something that uses a different part of my brain but is also an incomplete that will give me a sense of satisfaction to master. When I think of things that might improve my mental functioning and keep me sharp, I think about extrapolating from things that I have already entertained or have an interest in, but that will make some new neural pathways. I would not want to close my eyes to get dressed or be able to read my computer upside down, but I would like to learn how to speed read so use some software that makes the words go faster and faster in front of me - giving me a new skill while hopefully expanding my brain's ability in some fashion. I already enjoy languages so one day I might want to plug up my ears to get the sense of what it would be like for a deaf person if I were to learn sign language and want to "speak" with the deaf. I'm not doing that at present, but it's the kind of activity that would expand upon my present interests and make them more complex in new ways.
I think desire and interest are important factors otherwise you might just create unuseful limited abilities. That might help to prevent you from getting alzheimers or the like, but might not necessarily add much to your overall self-improvement - which if I'm not mistaken is what you are looking for. You want to get better general use from your brain as do I. I believe the way to do that is by challenging your brain in new ways that that make sense to you.
Whatever you choose to do, I would suggest it be something that works for you personally to improve your life.
-
crossword puzzles
tai chi, qi qong
any type of identification and memorization, from book to real world, for me plant works well, learning new ones, counting how many i see a day.......perhaps something you see often you can just remember to always identify, race of human, color of shirt or whatever for the day, remember to notice and count how many
-
Doing crossword puzzles would make me good at crossword puzzles but I don't like crossword puzzles. Why get good at something I have no desire to be good at? Martial arts however is a great skill that I thoroughly have enjoyed, so that would make a great deal of sense for me personally.
Something like identifying plants is also a great skill that I enjoy doing Jessica! However, counting how many people of a certain race I see means nothing to me and is not a skill that I would find valuable at all - so why would I ever want to do that?
If you perfect a meaningless skill, even if it keeps that particular neural pathway open, why bother?
-
http://giqtest.com/ (http://giqtest.com/)
how much did you get for this IQ test?
known to be the most accurate online test
-
If you're wanting to really get your whole brain optimal, everything everyone else said, but most of all something like animal/human tracking is your ticket.
When you hear from people who have gone to study at wilderness awareness schools or who have taught themselves though books or have been lucky enough to have their own mentor, the thing they comment most on I've noticed, is how this school of study/way of being/living meditation rewires their brains in a way that connected everything together and teaches them how to think, instead of the way most of us are taught in school which is what to think. And really it does more than just join all parts of of your brain together, it makes you a complete unit, your senses and your cognitive functions become one highly unified system instead that is really a level beyond what most people will experience in our modern world. This has several causes.
One is that tracking is built in to your genes, your ancestors have been expert trackers for thousands if not millions of years. That gets coded in to you over time. When you begin to track (in a native, close to the earth way, NOT western left-brained-only tracking, I cannot emphasize this enough!!!), you awaken something very old inside of you, something very deep and profound. Just as you would expect given the way DNA works as a light/data storage and communication system.
Two is that when you are out practicing these age old awareness techniques you stop thinking and you start feeling, as Jon Young says, "Lose your mind, and come to your senses" This literally means to quit the constant chatter that goes on in your mind, the ever present monologue you have going that thinks it's ~50,000 +- thoughts per day, and be in your body, in the present. This is what traditional meditation practices aim to do, but the reason this is such a good way to accomplish this, is because it gives you a hook to hang this on, you have a purpose in the forest, whether it is to hunt and find food, or avoid large predators like bear or wolves, or know when other people are around.
And three and most importantly for the purposes of this thread, when you are tracking, you are using all your resources together in a way western schooling teaches you not to. Think about when you go to class, typically, a normal day might look like this... 1st period, math, 2nd period, chemistry, 3rd period history, then lunch/break time, 4th period Gym, 5th period, Economics or what have you. The point is, everything is compartmentalized, and guess what, you compartmentalize in the way you store and retrieve it. That is why math is so fucking abstract, same with science and literature and..... But everything is connected in the real world, you could express the whole world in numbers, or the whole world in art, or the whole world in words, or in scientific classification, or a mosaic of all of the above. Imagine if you were taught about life in some sort of deeply connected way. Well this is what tracking does, it forces you to use every last resource you have to the fullest extent without putting borders between things.
If I want to know when a wolf passed by, I need to know things like how the weather was, windy, rainy, sunny, cloudy? I need to pay attention to it's personal "finger-print", the pattern of cracks and details the wolf's paw makes so I can identify this wolf if I run across these tracks in another place in order to form a profile of this wolf's behaviour. I need to know the layout of the terrain, or if you are in new terrain, you need to be able to make educated guesses of the layout so you can figure out what the wolf is up to, is she headed to water? Stalking prey? Wounded (dangerous)? Trotting in a baseline gate? And when you get really good at tracking you'll be able to recognize in each track which way the animal was looking, whether it's stomach was full or empty and a hundred other things about it. This practice of using your brain in a fluid and highly diverse way, combining logical/linear left brain thought with sensory and creative right brain perception in a unified whole to accurately and quickly uptake and process the world around you.
Most people won't truly grasp the impact and profundity of the above words, but tracking and awareness (wide angle (owl) vision, foxwalking, bird/alarm language) was one of the greatest changes I have ever experienced, it changed my life in a way similar to RVAF eating, it was like I was blind before, and only afterward really seeing color.
Recommended Reading:
Anything by Tom Brown Jr.
Jon Young
Tamarack Song
Ingwe
-
I would be careful to not want to "develop" my brain too much without expanding my heart too.. IMHO that is what happends in today's world. Too sad.
For brain optimizing I would look to get the nutrients a brain needs to function, in. Here we are again.. seafoods... seaweeds.. oysters.. brains.
I would follow the seasons, the light and darkness as it occurs in nature. This does wonders for our brains. To ignore these things and "exercise" our brains to be smarter make no sense to me... look.. it is all tied together.
Now.. I like Thoth's tracking advice a lot. But there you will have most of the components I listed above..
-
dorothy, crosswords have helped me to have a larger and more accurate vocabulary and to be able to better pull words from my memory. its been helpful in conversation. i dont believe that doing a particular exercise means that you only become better at that specific task. i believe it helps to open pathways in the brain and that its important to exercise all types of ways and using all senses to fully expand the body and brains potential. this is where i very much agree with what inger and ryan/thoth is saying about developing the heart. in some cultures and especially older eastern tradition, the brain or where one thinks of their self as originating from is actually more towards where the heart is located...so it is necessary that we develop a sensitivity to all of the varied types of awareness's we are capable of as to create an expanded way in which we interact with the world
-
I didn't think that Tyler was precluding working on things to open the heart. I thought he was just asking about the brain and not the heart in this particular thread. Doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate the heart. I know I do. I have spent most of my life developing the activities that people are talking about that are centered in the chest and the space between the eyes - but those are mostly right brain activities. I think that things like tracking and meditation are wonderful - but they are personally my comfort zones. Taking courses in them would be old hat, same pathways, enjoyable, but wouldn't have the effect that Toth gets from it. The point I'm trying to make is that I think it is personal! For me crossword puzzles would be like torture - yet I love language and developing my vocabulary. It wouldn't matter to me if it worked for that because I hate crossword puzzles. It can open up the world of words for Jessica and just make me frustrated and depressed. What's good for one person is not necessarily what is good for another.
That's why I say that's it's about expanding your own particular world in ways that are slightly uncomfortable, a little different, but still enjoyable, interesting, life enhancing for your own unique self.
I don't mean to judge whatever does that for another person in any way! If you're always in your head, I say find a way to your heart, if you are always in your heart, find a way to your head - or some other body part. ;)
-
The heart is actually kind of another brain, but processes things by feeling/emotion instead of thoughts...
Spirit Science 15 - Power of the Heart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlr6OgOxJc#ws)
-
I didn't think that Tyler was precluding working on things to open the heart. I thought he was just asking about the brain and not the heart in this particular thread. Doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate the heart.
That's why I say that's it's about expanding your own particular world in ways that are slightly uncomfortable, a little different, but still enjoyable, interesting, life enhancing for your own unique self.
I don't mean to judge whatever does that for another person in any way! If you're always in your head, I say find a way to your heart, if you are always in your heart, find a way to your head - or some other body part. ;)
this is why i was giving tyler suggestions about expanding the mind through traditional methods such as crossword puzzles, as well as association games that one can make up with things one sees daily, as well as things that might be slightly uncomfortable but expansive such as tai chi. for someone considering developing the brain in ways it hasnt been developed or explored before perhaps it would be best to seek out methods that have not been previously considered
For me crossword puzzles would be like torture - yet I love language and developing my vocabulary. It wouldn't matter to me if it worked for that because I hate crossword puzzles. It can open up the world of words for Jessica and just make me frustrated and depressed.
What's good for one person is not necessarily what is good for another.
exactly dorothy, in your post i feel like #1 you take my general suggestion, that were more but not necessarily directed at tyler personally and in the same not make then not valid by answering for him and yourself, and then #2 in the last sentence i quoted the invalidate your whole post by negating your critiques of my suggestions
the whole point of my reply to your first comment of my suggestions of crosswords was to say that crosswords, in particular, arent the only way of improving communicative methods, but to illustrate that what you had said "crosswords only make one good at crosswords" is perhaps an over generalization
-
I think there have been some miscommunications/misunderstandings Jessica.... and I'm not sure that I'm understanding you very well at this point either... but I'd like to say that I didn't mean to invalidate anything you were suggesting - just expanding upon it.
Again - my main point is to add something that you (general you - including Tyler) really want to learn how to do or to know more about or that you enjoy! If you want to learn how to do crossword puzzles (which most obviously will also improve your vocabulary) - then do crossword puzzles AND there are other ways to increase vocabulary. If you want to increase your vocabulary then choose a way that you enjoy or improves you in some way. For me, that would be reading and not crossword puzzles - but even though reading in itself might increase vocabulary brain capacity it is also still an old habit in many ways, so I've looked for other ways to make the reading itself more challenging. The suggestion of turning the page upside down might be enjoyable to someone else, but I don't want to learn how to read upside down and it would be annoying so I've started to learn to speed read instead which I think of for myself as valuable and enjoyable addition to my skills.
I'm NOT judging your suggestions - far from it! They are wonderful suggestions. I'm adding that the most important element is whether of not it is something that would be enjoyable or enhancing to the individual (in this case Tyler). If it is something that is enjoyable then he will want to continue it and build upon it, not only keeping those neurons firing but adding more value over time. If the neural pathways stop being used they will begin to deteriorate. When you are enjoying what you are learning and it is pertinent you will want to keep on building on that learning.
That is why I am suggesting to pick an activity that is something that will add value for him. If tyler already knows say Bagua, then tai chi might expand what he already is comfortable with, but might not be as challenging as learning for instance a competitive sport. I know for me personally, learning another martial art would not be nearly as brain challenging as learning my silly multiplication tables. It's all so very individual.
When speaking about myself or your suggestions, it was in no way meant to indicate what Tyler should or should not do - I was just trying to use the suggestions given as examples to more fully expand upon my suggestion regarding making the chosen brain enhancing activity not only something which takes "you" (him) out of comfort zones, but that is interesting, valuable.... individually.
I'm questioning doing something, anything, just because it's "supposed" to make you smarter. Everyone's interpretation of what is uncomfortable, expanding and valuable is going to be different. All the suggestions have been wonderful! I love hearing what has worked for the different people here. It's all great food for thought. :D I'm just suggesting generally to make sure whatever is chosen takes him out of his usual parameters (I make no assumptions as to what they are!) and is either enjoyable or enhancing to him individually so that he will want to continue and build upon whatever new skill he creates for himself.