We all want to become smarter and better people in our daily life. While it is true that there are some people born with exceptional ability to grasp things easily and faster, most of us often need to toil harder, and for much longer in order to become smart.
However, the great thing about intelligence is that it is not a fixed trait. It is changeable and flexible. Thus, you can actually become smarter and below, are ways to do just that.
Try to read daily
Reading is one way of improving one’s intelligence simply because books, unlike any other medium, allow for complex topics to be looked at in great detail without any compromise.
Thus, when you read, first, you train your brain to focus on complex tasks for much longer. This focus, then, improves your reflection on what you are reading. This reflection is what helps build your intelligence because you then begin to use the information you are gaining from the books, reflecting on them, and coming up with your own conclusions.
On that note, read on as many topics as you can. Read medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, comic books and more.
Review learned information
Of what use is reading if you don’t review what you have read? While it could be true that people can read thousands of books in a year and still have time to reflect, don’t feel bad if you often like to take some time after finishing a book to review what you have just read, or indeed, review as you read.
Reviewing helps you retain information. It allows you to analyze what you have just read, to understand why the writer wrote what they wrote in that way, and even reflect on how you could have done yourself.
Reviewing helps improve your opinions and helps you converse better with others.
Exercise regularly
Staying physically active will not automatically make you solve quadratic equations. However, it does improve your brain functioning.
A 2018 study confirmed that doing light exercise promotes activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory. Another 2014 study found that exercise increased the volume of the hippocampus, thus boosting your memory and further, improving your ability to remember.
Learn a new skill
Learning a new skill is another way of improving your intelligence as it stimulates neurons in the brain. This stimulation leads to the formation of new neural pathways, which allows for electrical impulses to travel faster across them. This combination helps you learn new things faster as it results in an increase in your brain volume and thus, a larger cognitive reserve.
Furthermore, learning a new skill keeps your brain sharper for much longer and helps starve off the damaging effects of ageing.
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