Doesbt: Focus

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Your Brain: A Perpetual Motion Machine - Braintenance - Douglas E. Castle

On March 09, 2015 By // No comments:

Your brain is a perpetual motion machine which is operating continuously on various "settings" in order to address certain functions crucial to our physiological and psychological existence. As long as you are alive, your brain is a muscle being applied, tested and, hopefully, strengthened. Despite this, we are constantly told by others to "give our brains a rest," or something similar. Although this is a well-intended suggestion for those of us who have been categorized as either workaholics or obsessives, it is advice that cannot be followed literally.

Having said this, an over-reactive, challenged brain needs rest, even though it cannot cease its operations. Too much cerebration leads to frustration, fatigue and an excess secretion of cortisol, each and all of which are inherently unhealthy. This begs the question: "What can we do to 'give our brains a rest' even though we cannot cease ongoing mental processes?

There is a solution. The key is to re-focus your brain on a different task (i.e., rotational tasking) in order to give the parts of it which were being strained a break while other parts are exercised in a healthy manner. Here are the two keys to re-focusing and resting your mind when it is either running in circles, being "uncooperative" or causing you psychological and physiological stress:

1) Stop what you're doing and engage in a passive activity, such as watching a movie, listening to music, working out or doing something else which is a "rote" exercise; or,

2) Take a brief nap and allow your mind to sort things out subconsciously.

Remember: A tired brain is an uninspired brain. If you have a multitude of things to do, don't get "hung up" on any one item on your list. When you get stuck, skip to the next item on the list and, after you've gotten a sufficient break from the task that you were originally performing, go back to it with renewed vigor and refreshed creativity.

Also: Don't multitask! Use rotational tasking. Multitasking is like texting while you're driving [i.e., you can't do either properly], whereas rotational tasking is like shifting gears or changing lanes consciously.

Always consciously attend to your Braintenance.

Thank you for reading me.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

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BRAIN TEASERS, BRAIN BOOSTERS & COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT!

BRAINTENANCE: Train, Strain And Improve Your Brain. Expand Your Mind.

http://braintenance.blogspot.com

Braintenance contains articles, resources, exercises, games and specially-designed protocols to improve the power of your brain and your mind in every significant aspect, including memory, cognition, IQ, plasticity, creativity and problem-solving ability.

Key Terms: brain, mind, cognitive enhancement, memory, brain gym exercises, IQ, plasticity, mind expansion, creativity, meditation, altered states, perception, self-hypnosis, self-growth, neuron, artificial intelligence, learning, somatic intellect, mathematics, language, dissonance, individualism, herd mentality, puns and word games, linguistics, genius, emotion, subconscious, unconscious, intuition, instinct, psychedelic, reality, learning curve, probability, collective consciousness

Are You Partially "Brain Blind"?

On April 24, 2013 By // No comments:

$Are you partially "Brain Blind?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Hmmmm... Don't worry. Almost all of us are, at one time or another -- in fact most times, and especially when we are under stress or pressure. - Douglas E. Castle - The Braintenance Blog - http://Braintenance.blogspot.com - CFI - http://www.Go To CFI.com - /|\$

By the way, the two fellows mentioned in the last post were 15 and 18 years old, respectively.

Are you partially "Brain Blind?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards down from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Painfully difficult to recite the names of seven random items mentioned to you...even if reiterated three times in a row?

You're not alone.

We are, each of us [even those who faithfully read The Braintenance Blog] handicapped to some extent when it comes to doing things with our minds which we would think to be easy.

This is really a function of how we learn, how we focus and how we associate things, scientists believe.

We all too often rely on singsong rote memorization than on imaginary pictures of things: for example, if you could picture the alphabet, or the numbers from 1 to 100, you could easily recall that picture and just read it from the vision in your mind.

We have difficulty focusing on two or more stimuli to the same sense. If two people speak to us at once, or if a person is speaking to us and a song we enjoy is playing somewhat loudly in the background, we have a difficult time focusing in on one stimulus at a time. In the situation with two people talking simultaneously, rather than listening to noise, focus strictly and unwaveringly on one person's conversation -- upon recall, you'll be surprised to find that not only do you recall the conversation of the person upon whose conversation you had focused upon, but you'll also remember a great deal of what the other person was saying.

This latter phenomenon may be due to a splitting of our mind into an active, frontal, conscious listening device in short-term memory (which is later moved to long-term memory) and into the powerful recorder of the subconscious, being summoned by the conscious mind to replay the secondary conversation.

In remembering the names of a series of people, the key is to simply listen and not to focus on how you look, or what you are going to say in response. Don't rehearse your own personal introduction when you should be focused on listening to the three names. In fact, if you identify each of the three names with a silly short story about tat person and an article of his or her clothing, or some eccentricity, it gives you the context to recall each of the names with some relevance (although you don't want to say that to a fellow named Lance Boyle, John Reade, or Suzanne Bumpers).

Lastly, in order to become a memory master and to recite, in order, a series of unrelated terms which are recited to you, look about you (if possible), and associate each word with something either unmistakably memorable or something just going on at the time, and cobble the associations into an ordered, sequential story. You'll find that you can remember objects placed in key positions in a story much more easily than by any other method. Incidentally, without using this technique, most individuals can usually not remember and recite more than five unrelated objects.

None of us is truly "Brain Blind." We simply need to learn how to utilize our minds more efficiently.

Do you see my point? By the way, without looking,how old were the two boys mentioned at the very beginning of this article?

Thank you for reading me and for spreading the word to your colleagues and friends across your ever-growing social media networks.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

Sponsored by:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC

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Your Creative Orientation: Negative? Positive?

On November 15, 2011 By // No comments:

Creativity is one of the greatest attributes of the Human mind that leads to almost all significant adaptations and advancements. Every product, service, or system is given the first seeds of its existence, its first chance at life, by the creative energy of thought. Metaphorically, the very energy of brain is converted, through a process, into a tangible, physical result -- truly an Einsteinian conversion of energy to matter.

Being innovative is not quite enough. Your Creative Orientation is a major factor in what the outcome of your thoughts will be. By way of example, if your creative process is started based upon a negative premise ("We have a problem which must be solved.") instead of upon a positive premise ("I have a vision for a goal which I long to achieve.") your creative capacity, imaginative scope, and ultimate results are likely to be negatively impacted and limited.

You see, the idea-generation process is immediately constrained by an obsessive focus on problem-solving. This tends to lead to narrower, more introspective, less "outside of the box" parametrized type of thought organization. The very premise which directs your energy is that you "must work to solve a problem." This is inhibiting.

If you commence the creative process with a vision or a dream -- it represents (subconsciously) a creative opportunity with much broader parametric bounds, and a great deal more free-flowing and associative thought.

The secret to building and sustaining a positive creative orientation is to "fool the mind" into seeing problem-solving obligations as as constructive, forward-thinking challenges. If you are successfully able to condition you thought process to viewing any problems as invitations to innovate, you will free your mind to do its highest and best energy work -- because your mind sees this as a means of challenging, creative expression, and not as "work" or a "task' .

Again, a part of Braintenance has to do with be aware of what and how you are thinking, and to change the process as necessary.

-- Douglas E Castle

Your Brain: A Perpetual Motion Machine - Braintenance - Douglas E. Castle

Are You Partially "Brain Blind"?

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Your Creative Orientation: Negative? Positive?

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