A good memory and a sharp mind are not innate human talents, but skills that can be cultivated and developed by both children and adults. For this, there are sets of special exercises and methods designed to improve brain activity and synchronize the activity of the brain hemispheres.
Training the human brain and memory
Like the body, the brain needs exercise. Many tasks that used to create new neural connections gradually become habitual and reduce the brain's ability to focus and concentrate on new things. The reason for this is the violation of hemispheric interaction and the lack of their equivalent development.
A person's desire to learn new things, which forms new neural connections, helps to normalize brain activity. However, the lack of brain "feeding" slows down the learning process due to the deterioration of memory, quick reactions and the lack of ability to think creatively.
An effective way to restore and improve mental and cognitive abilities is to perform special exercises to train the brain. Daily exercise helps to improve brain function and therefore a person's cognitive abilities, which include thinking, memory, language, perception, imagination and attention.
Benefit
What are the benefits of gymnastics for the brain:
- concentration and reaction speed increase;
- memory improves;
- emotional resistance to negative factors increases;
- coordination of movements improves;
- have more energy for daily tasks;
- the hidden abilities of the brain are revealed;
- sleep quality improves.
Psychotherapists often prescribe brain gymnastics to treat neuroses, depression and emotional burnout. Exercise helps to switch from negative thoughts, distract and restore a person's productivity.
Features
You have to train your brain throughout your life, starting in infancy and continuing into adulthood. In its principle, gymnastics for improving memory and brain activity is the same for both children and adults, but it has a number of features.
For adults
Forgetfulness, poor orientation in space and a general decrease in working capacity can be observed in every person over the age of 20. Common causes include bad habits, poor sleep, and irregular work schedules that overload the brain with information overload. In order to normalize brain activity and regain intellectual sharpness, you need to reconsider your lifestyle, be physically active, have the opportunity to rest and devote 5 minutes a day to thematic exercises.
Also, adults should not forget the methods of children's brain development - fine motor exercises, poetry studies, storytelling, etc.
For children
The degree of development of interhemispheric connections determines the child's academic results, proper coordination of movements, communication with peers, quality of speech and emotional intelligence. The development of new neural nodes should begin at the age of 2-3 years, when a child's brain absorbs much more energy than an adult's.
The main and popular way to train children's brains is educational games that combine activities that improve hand-eye coordination, concentration and motor skills. In addition, the uniform development of the cerebral hemispheres is positively influenced by:
- finger gymnastics;
- breathing exercises;
- logarithmic;
- listening to music;
- dancing;
- read and retell what has been read;
- creativity: modeling, drawing, weaving, etc. ;
- self-massage;
- kinesiological exercises;
- didactic games: comparing objects, guessing the object according to the description, etc.
All this helps to improve the inter-sphere interaction, which affects the formation of healthy self-esteem and the success of the child. And the desire to learn new things for a child can become a useful habit that will help him throughout his life.
How to develop memory
Memory is closely related to other cognitive abilities that also need to be improved. Therefore, its development should be approached comprehensively, performing special exercises and changing your daily routine in other interesting ways, which we will consider later.
The best exercises
Classes must take place in a quiet environment. The duration of the training is from 5 to 20 minutes. It is also important to make the exercises more difficult by increasing the number of repetitions, adding additional gestures, movements, sounds.
For the brain
This set of neurogymnastics exercises was developed by American psychologists Paul and Gail Dennison based on educational kinesiology.
Exercise 1. "Brain Buttons"
Exercise helps to "start" the brain and get in the mood for work.
- Stand up straight, back straight.
- With one hand, the depressions between the first and second ribs on the left and right under the clavicles are massaged. The other hand is placed on the navel, which allows you to focus on the center of gravity.
Exercise 2. "Hooks"
- Take any comfortable starting position: stand, sit or lie down, cross your ankles.
- Extend your arms forward, cross your palms together and interlace your fingers.
- Turn your arms inward at chest level so that your elbows point down.
- Return to the starting position. Repeat 8-10 times.
Exercise 3. "knee-elbow"
- Starting position: standing.
- Lift and bend your left leg at the knee.
- Touch the knee of the left leg with the elbow of the right hand. Then repeat the movement with the right leg and left arm. Do 8-10 repetitions.
Exercise 4 "Elephant"
- Starting position: standing, in a relaxed position. Knees slightly bent.
- Tilt your head towards your shoulder. From this shoulder, extend your arm forward like a trunk and draw a horizontal figure eight, starting from the center of your field of vision, up and counter-clockwise. Important: the eyes follow the movements of the fingertips.
Perform the exercise slowly 3-5 times with the left hand pressed against the left ear and the same number of times with the right hand pressed against the right.
Exercise 5. "Mirror Drawing"
- Take markers or a pen in both hands.
- Draw numbers, letters, etc. , mirror-symmetrically on a piece of paper with both hands at the same time.
Additional exercises to maximize brain engagement:
- "Fist palm". Extend both hands in front of you. Squeeze the fingers of the left hand into a fist, straighten the right hand. Then change the position of the fingers successively, gradually speeding up the movements.
- "The winner". The fingers of one hand show a "V" gesture, the other - "OK". Switch hands, gradually increasing the speed.
- "Horns and Legs". One hand shows the horns, the other shows the legs (thumb, index and middle fingers). Switch hands, gradually increasing the speed.
- On the one hand, sequentially connect the thumb with all the other fingers, starting with the index finger. Do the same with the other hand, but start with the little finger. Do the exercise with both hands at the same time.
- "Puzzles". On the one hand, bend all the fingers, except for the index and middle fingers, on the other hand, except for the ring and little fingers. Connect them like puzzles. Change hands, gradually speeding up the movements.
For memory
Simple and effective exercises to improve memory:
- Route map.Draw a map of your route to work. Try to remember everything down to the smallest detail: names of streets, metro stations, bus stops, shops you met along the way.
- Alphabet.Quickly think of words for each letter of the alphabet.
- Magician.For this exercise you will need a deck of playing cards. Shuffle it and remember the order of the first 3-5 cards from the deck. Shuffle the deck and find these cards.
- Duplicate copy.Find any image online or pick up a banknote. Study the picture for a minute and draw what you see on a piece of paper from memory. Then compare the drawing with the original to identify missing details.
- Remember a school poem or learn your favorite songs. Also great for memory training.
- Before you go to sleep, remember the people and things that surrounded you. If you attended the lecture, try to reproduce all the material in your head.
- Take something. Look at it in detail for a minute. Then turn away from the topic and try to describe it by writing a detailed review.
Other methods
In addition to special exercises, there are other useful ways to activate the brain and improve memory:
- Constantly learning new things.Minimal brain load and lack of new information lead to deterioration of memory and other cognitive abilities. Also, diverting your attention to something outside of your work helps build resilience to stress. The best options are learning foreign languages, online courses, handicrafts, etc.
- Play mind games, solve crosswords, puzzles. This will help keep your mind clear and broaden your horizons.
- Get out of your comfort zone.For example, take a different route to work, take up a hobby you were afraid of, actively meet and interact with people in real life.
- Do it at onceboth hemispheres of the brain. Brush your teeth, eat, open the door, hold the handle with your non-dominant hand.
- Read, write by hand.Reading develops memory, activates imagination and creative thinking. And handwriting is a great way to develop motor skills.
It is also important to be able to rest. Avoid sleep deprivation and learn to meditate. The brain needs relaxation and rest.
Products for memory and brain development
To keep your brain active, it's important to watch your diet. A healthy daily diet should include protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. You can also include the following products in your menu that support brain activity:
- Fatty fish.A source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that affect the active saturation of brain cells with oxygen and nutrients.
- Bitter chocolate.Chocolate with 70% cocoa slows down age-related mental decline and protects against cognitive impairment.
- Eggs. Egg yolks contain choline, which the body uses to create the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is responsible for memory and mood.
- Whole grain bread and cereals.Cereals improve metabolism, fill you with energy and improve blood circulation in the brain because they contain vitamin B6.
- Tomatoes.A source of melatonin that prevents the aging of brain cells and improves the condition of blood vessels.
It is also important for active brain activity to maintain fluid balance by drinking enough drinking water every day.
Prevention
For a clear mind, good memory and active brain functioning, it is important:
- Get rid of bad habits.Smoking, alcohol and the use of psychotropic substances disturb the blood flow in the brain, causing oxygen starvation and the death of neurons.
- to walkDaily walks saturate the brain with oxygen and help develop concentration and memory.
- Exercise.Physical activity improves blood circulation, helps improve memory, coordination of movements, improves health.
- Give it to the brainuniform loadand don't forget about rest.
- Practice good sleep hygiene.Sleep at least 7-8 hours. Sleep is necessary for the brain to rest, strengthen the necessary and destroy unnecessary nerve connections.
The most important thing is to train every day. Only regular exercise will give the desired result.