How to increase your intelligence?

Lal Fonseka

There is no age barrier for increasing your intelligence. The amazing fact about the brain is that no matter how qualified or how old you are, you can always increase your intelligence. In the first instance, you should be able to define the word "intelligence."According to a lot of researchers and scholars, Intelligence is defined as the capacity for learning, reasoning, and understanding. It can also be defined as the aptitude one has in grasping truths, facts, and meanings. Or, it can be summed up as the entire faculty of understanding.

You might have across certain people who are just naturally more intelligent than others; however, there are certain things anyone can do to increase their intelligence.

I would like quote a small portion below from one of my previous articles published in the same column written on the subject of "studying smarter" for your memory refreshment.

"Whatever said or done, it is an acceptable fact that studying smarter, not harder will bring more and more benefits to students. It is possible, but that all depends upon you.

However, you may find students studying harder every day breaking long hours' of sleep after the long hard day's study in their class rooms either in the schools or tuition classes.

This is totally unacceptable position. How long you could continue to study in this manner without being falling sick? Do you find yourself studying another 14 - hour day and having nothing left to give, yet not satisfied with what you have accomplished? You've been so busy doing "what has to be done" that you don't even have the time or energy to think about what you really want to do. If you cannot study any harder, then you need to think about studying smarter. Your health and happiness depends on it.

Studying smarter means focusing on the results that you want to get at the first attempt. By studying smarter, you choose where to deploy your time and energy for greater impact. You will accomplish more and have a greater sense of satisfaction with your life plus have more time to enjoy it all.

The first step to studying smarter is to take time to determine what you truly want. It takes time to make time. If you do not do it now, your life will continue on the way it is now.

Consider that you are a student. Your entire life is depended on the achievement that you accomplish in your competitive examinations. Studying smarter means an investment in yourself and your life. You already know that there's always enough to do to fill time. "

As a student, do you really want to be smarter?

Here are 10 things you can do to become smarter.

1) Experience new things

According to Eminent Professor Wickramasinghe of the University of Wayamba, One's experience is one of three things that you cannot re-create as long as the world exits. In other words, whatever the experiences you have accumulated in your life time will restrict to yourself till your death. No one will be able to find alternatives for your experiences. The Other two things are the Breast milk and the sunlight. Of course, as long as the world survives, no one will be able to make alternatives for breast milk and sunlight. History is experience. Every moment, every day you will learn something through experiences. Day to day, you are accumulating experiences. New experiences will help to stimulate the brain and challenge it to do something new. This leads to an increase in intelligence. This can be something as simple as learning a new form of dance, or finding a different route to get someplace you want to go.

2) Read more and more

Reading maketh a man. There is no argument in this aspect. One has to accept the fact that reading is good for the brain, and reading something that presents a challenge for you and makes you think can help to boost intelligence. You may encounter words you have never heard or ideas that you have never thought of before. Reading supplies a person with the information needed to deal with some difficulty. Good books are storehouses of human knowledge and wisdom. Anyone who has the key can enter these store houses and help himself. What is the key? Simply it is the ability to read. He who can read can store his mind with the great thoughts of the great thinkers of the world.

I have come across certain people who are not fond of reading books. One of the famous positive thinkers in Sri Lanka once told me that for a man who came to meet him to obtain an advice for certain problems he has been encountered with, a book written by this scholar had been given requesting him to read it carefully and come back after a couple of weeks. Quite surprisingly he has come back only after a couple of months. The reason he quoted had been the time barrier. What this scholar told me was that we have time to write books, he did not have time to read them.

What a pity situation was that? The man who never opens a book has a comparatively empty mind. He, no doubt, learns something from his own experience and from others; but to what mankind has learnt and thought and done his mind is a blank. But he who reads widely and judiciously has a full mind. "Reading maketh a full man".

We may remember something in a general way; but, unless we have made a note of the details, we may be at a loss in speaking or discussion. Vague statements and mere generalizations will not always serve the purpose.

Our knowledge must be accurate and exact. So make written notes of what you read; for this kind of "writing maketh an exact man".

The completion of this quotation will make its meaning clearer: "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man writes little, he had needed have a great memory; if he confers little, he had need of a ready wit; and if he read little, he had need of much cunning to seem to know that he knoweth not."

The above words should be taken to heart by young men who want to become public speakers. For a public speaker must have a full mind, readiness of speech, and an accurate and exact knowledge of his subject.

3) Get adequate exercise everyday

Many people these days live sedentary lifestyles and do not get the recommended amount of physical exercise that they need. This happens due to the fact many people are overloaded with work.

When a person has excessive work, he or she will run short of time to attend to other extracurricular activities. As I pointed out above, unfortunately, today's work environments, long commutes and limited free time make it difficult to obtain the exercise that the body requires in order to keep the blood circulating easily, so that it can nourish all of the cells in the body.

Exercise actually helps to create new cells in the brain, increases brain function, and enhances neurogenesis. Getting up and getting moving goes a long towards increasing intelligence. We will now look at this problem from a different angle. Getting regular exercise is probably the single best thing that we can do for our bodies. It is also the most natural, most convenient, the safest, cheapest and the most empowering of all self-care techniques. A small sampling of the proven health benefits of physical activity as per the findings of a recent research is given below:

* Increased protection from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes

* Enhanced immune function and defense against infection

* Bone building and improved posture

* Increased muscle strength and flexibility

* Stress reduction

* Improved movement in the joints and back

* Slowing down of the aging process

In addition, exercise can sharpen the senses, enhance memory function and inspire self-esteem.

4) Train the brain immediately

Many people desire to have a better memory. By taking the time to memorize little things such as telephone numbers, driving license numbers, or Employee Provident Fund numbers, you will begin to notice that your ability to remember things will improve. I know a certain HR girl working for a large organization who has tremendous ability to remember man numbers of all the employees whose personal files she deals with.

With the heavy stress, many students are now having, they tend to forget all important study points. As a result, you need to get away from the unnecessary stresses if you need to keep the study points in your brain.

5) Take a healthy diet

Children now a day eats heavy foods for lunch as well as for Dinner. When you take heavy diets, it is obvious that you cannot concentrate properly at your studies. It stands to reason that what we put into our bodies would affect every aspect of it, including our brains. Students do not realize the fact that taking heavy meals affect the entire body system. Instead, what they think is that this is best time of the life to enjoy with meals.

Having the said wrong concept in their mind, they eat whatever the foods which come in their way. This is a pathetic situation. Considering that our brains alone consume 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake, it is clear how a diet rich in healthful, nutritious foods plays a huge role in intelligence. Feed your body and brain with fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and foods that made out of Soya.

6) Get sufficient sleep

Some students, I have seen, keep on studying till vary late in the night.

This is a very bad practice. One particular student who studies very late night puts her legs in to a water basin just to protect her from getting sleepiness.

My question is that how long she could continue with this system without falling sick. Lack of sleep can leave anyone feeling groggy and out of sorts.

Sleep allows time for the body to perform cell regeneration and detox itself of accumulated toxins. Getting six to eight hours of sleep is highly recommended.

Though the children know the importance of getting proper sleep and the consequences they have got to face, still they break rest and give priority to their studies by breaking rest in the night.

Sleep is essential for a person's health and wellbeing, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) of America.

Yet millions of people do not get enough sleep and many suffer from lack of sleep. For example, surveys conducted by the NSF (1999-2004) reveal that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders and 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems a few nights a week or more.

Most of those with these problems go undiagnosed and untreated. In addition, you might have seen a large amount of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month or few days a week or more.

It is reported that even our children experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.

As per Dr Mercola, one of the scholars on the subject interrupted or impaired sleep can:

* Dramatically weaken your immune system

* Accelerate tumor growth-tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions

* Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you've already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight

* Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep-meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours-can impact your ability to think clearly the next day

* Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving ability

Lawrence Epstein, MD, medical director of Sleep Health Centersin Brighton, Mass., an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a past president of the AASM and a member of the AASM board of directors, says that sleep deprivation effects not only whether a student can stay awake in class but how they perform as well.

Other recent studies outline the adverse effects of poor sleep among students with regards to their success in school:

* Sleepiness and poor sleep quality are prevalent among university students, affecting their academic performance and daytime functioning.

* Students with symptoms of sleep disorders are more likely to receive poor grades in classes such as math, reading and writing than peers without symptoms of sleep disorders.

* Students with insomnia have significantly more mental health problems than students without insomnia.

* Students with medical-related majors are more likely to have poorer quality of sleep in comparison to those with humanities major.

* Students who stay up late on school nights and make up for it by sleeping late on weekends are more likely to perform poorly in the classroom. This is because, on weekends, they are waking up at a time that is later than their internal body clock expects.

The fact that their clock must get used to a new routine may affect their ability to be awake early for school at the beginning of the week when they revert back to their old routine.

My advice is to attend to your home-work and the other academic activities during the day time as much as possible without disturbing your sleep habit.

7) Use your brain for everyday tasks

Even to multiply 1000 with 10, I have seen not only school or university children even adults have come to a stage where they are looking for a calculator or a computer to find the answer.

This is a highly pathetic situation. About a couple of decades ago, even the vegetable sellers at the weekly fair used their brain to add up even ten fifteen figures together.

They never used a calculator. But now what they do is that immediately reaching for the calculator or looking something similar.

But what you should do is to try using the good old fashioned methods such as figuring out the problem using mathematics. Even to find a meaning to difficult word, refer the dictionary or encyclopedia.

This allows you to use your brain. Instead, many children uses modern technology to find solutions to the problems they encounter.

It is true that speed is essential but during your time as students, you must always try to use your brain in everyday tasks.

8) Take time to clear your mind

With all of the stresses in life these days as a student whether you are still in a school or university, it's easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed.

This can leave you feeling fuzzy and unable to think straight, so to speak. In this situation, relaxation is very important.

Allow some time from your busy schedule to relax and ponder on your circumstances and often times you'll realize some things just aren't worth worrying about.

Clean your mind and work on organizing your thoughts and this will leave you with a clearer head and perspective, both of which work to improve intelligence and finally to a good grade in your studies.

9) Brain games and puzzles

Take some time out to play a challenging brain game or puzzle.

These require thinking and concentration and will help you focus. Even crosswords can really pick your brain, making it sharper in the process.

Now a day, our children irrespective of their age pond to play more and more pre-designed computer games which has become a serious social problem in the country more than anything else. Chess is a brain improvement game all children should learn how to play.

In our country, after 7.00pm, most families could be seen sitting together and watching mega tele-dramas daily.

Certain children know the time-table of these dramas by memory though they are unable to remember what they learnt a couple of hours ago.

10) Explore your creativity

'Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up'- Pablo Picasso

The below is a quote from an article which I read recently.

"Creativity is a gift that has the power to transform how people perceive the world.

The major difference between creative people and less creative people, is not talent, it is persistence.

Discovering your creativity is an active process of committing yourself to its development.

Becoming an expert in a subject that interests you is a great way to discover your creativity.

Acquiring knowledge about the subject of your interest can increase your confidence about the subject.

With confidence and knowledge, you are free to brainstorm new ideas and inspirations that come to you about the subject of your interest."

What a lovey statement the above is? We must realize that each and every one of us possesses some form of creativity. To become a creative person, you must first become a strong thinker.

Thinking of new and interesting ways in which to do something old, or try something new.

By exploring your creative side, you are also simultaneously improving your intelligence.

Find exciting ways in which to channel your creativity. End result will be fabulous.