Think Tank: The Neuro Blog
The Surprising Neurological Benefits of Cold Showers
Cold showers may not be the most appealing way to start your day, but they can actually provide a number of benefits for your brain and overall well-being. While the idea of standing under a stream of ice-cold water may seem intimidating, the shock to your system can have some positive effects on your body and mind.
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You Can Manage Your Emotions Through These Effective Ways
Emotions make us human, but there are times when they are too much to handle. With that, it is essential to know how to manage your emotions.
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Art is Good For Your Brain
Whether it is visual arts or musicals, they have helped people in more ways than most of you think. Not only does art improve your physical health, but also your mental health. With that said, here are some reasons why art is beneficial to your brain.
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Six "Brain Food" You Don't Know About
Some foods and drinks are not just good for your body, but even better for the brain. While the popularity of nootropics, such as Neuro, is rapidly growing, few people still rely on their traditional sources of brain enhancers.
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Here’s What Music Does To Your Brain
Music has always been part of our lives. Whether you are on your way to attend to a chore or you are just lounging at a café in your city, it’s always there to accompany you. With an array of genres, it is nearly impossible to not pick which type of music is for you.
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Affirm Yourself Correctly and Daily— Here’s How
It is no secret that thoughts are extremely powerful. They can even produce a stronger attracting force once translated into words. In a nutshell, that is basically the science behind affirmations. Uttering and telling the world these positive phrases is one step further than just feeding your mind with positive thoughts. These affirmations will help you empower yourself and conquer any self-sabotaging and self-limiting patterns you may have. Affirmations can also be considered as positive conditioning for your subconscious mind. This can be correlated with human’s need for rewards and recognition. Intended to boost one’s self-worth and value, affirmations elevate your personal competence and give you a wider perspective of your capacity and power as a human being. In addition, affirming yourself also aids in your adaptability. Converting negative thoughts into positive ones exhibits your skills in terms of dealing with the realities of life and tactically creating solutions to surpass those. At the same time, it magnifies your resilience or your ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Psychotherapist Ronald Alexander of the Open Mind Training Institute suggests that daily affirmations can be done thrice to five times a day to effectively reinforce positive beliefs. According to Alexander, writing them in a journal and saying them out loud in front of a mirror are great methods to amplify the strength of the practice. However, to be the life-changing habit that it is perceived to be, you must learn the art of ideating and verbalizing affirmations the right way. Affirmations must be clear and concise Similar to goal-setting, you must be definite about your affirmations. To be able to fully manifest these, you have to say it clearly and concisely from the beginning. By doing this, you instantly position your mind to distinctly map out plans and actions to achieve your intentions. Focusing on direct statements will help you avoid distractions and hindrances towards your projections too. Focus on the positives Use positive statements instead of negative ones. Lean towards optimism rather than pessimism. For affirmations to be transformational, you have to be careful in choosing each word you say. Speak only words that will drive you to your highest good and nothing less. Negative self-talk will only translate into negative actions. Affirmations must be credible and achievable Effective affirmations need to be realistic as well. Regardless of how you can exaggerate most phrases, choose to verbalize statements that you can translate into achievable outcomes and results. Your trust and faith in your affirmations will also depend on their credibility. You may not be able to fully believe and embrace words that are too dreamy and ambitious. Speaking highly is different from speaking impossibly. Stick to what you think and know is attainable and start manifesting them through concrete plans. Repetition is key Mastery comes after practice. To steer yourself towards sustainable and lasting progress in the way you think, feel, and act, you will have to affirm yourself on a daily basis. All must be anchored on consistency, as any practice should. Training your mind to affirm yourself increases its capacity to lead you to success. Doing this regularly also encourages your brain to register these affirmations as facts. Remember, it all starts with the mind. Affirmations only start turning into actuality when you begin claiming them and pronouncing them to the world using your words. Soon enough, your actions will translate into reality. Hero image by Carlos David on Adobe Stock
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Three Reasons Why Snackable Content is Good for your Brain
Do you find yourself spending more time on TikTok than any other apps on your phone? Or do you go for Instagram Reels that last for only seconds rather than those long, dragging 30-minute content on YouTube? Well, you may not be the only one. Recent years have actually shown that humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. So, no wonder, people prefer shorter forms of content nowadays. From initially 12 seconds, humans’ attention span has significantly decreased to eight seconds in the past two decades—that’s faster than the average time of a website to fully load. And many would agree that it is mainly due to the world’s obsession over technology. The more time people spend on the digital world, the less their focus gets. These insights help brands and businesses especially to keep up and be able to stay relevant in such a fast-pacing world. They need to take these marketing trends into consideration and use it to their advantage. These short, quick, and bite-sized contents mentioned above are called snackable content. As the name suggests, it is meant to be easily digested. It can be in forms of photos, infographics, memes, short videos, or the likes, that you generally see every day when you scroll through your social media feed or browse through the web. Thus, it cannot be stressed enough that these snackables are not just for marketing purposes only. They are also great for you and your busy brain due to its non-intimidating nature. Here’s a few reasons why snackable content is beneficial for you: Snackables are Quick to Digest With the oversaturated digital landscape today, everybody is exposed to a number of content on a daily basis. You may not be able to notice it most of the time, but at some point, you experience information overload and get overwhelmed with the volume of information you are introduced to regularly. A study done by the Pew Research Center revealed that one out of five of Americans feel overloaded by information. Off of that number, 40% find it difficult to determine what information is trustworthy. This validates the fact that as a human being, you can only process a certain amount of information all at once. The idea behind the just-in-time system, where what’s only needed is consumed at the moment, can be connected with this. Taking in information in small bites makes it way easier to cope. They Improve your Focus and Support Retention Experts from Morris Psychological Group did a research revealing the impact of taking in too much content. Accordingly, it affects your memory and focus massively. “Being constantly bombarded with far more information than we can process works to the detriment of our memory, our concentration and ultimately our ability to produce timely results and make good decisions,” neuropsychologist Dr. Kenneth Freundlich said in the study. Multiple and huge volumes of information do take a toll on your decision-making. Take note that your brain only has limited capacity to process everything. Therefore, short bursts of content will be kinder to your mind. Snackables will retain better than large amounts of content delivered all at once. Plus, relying heavily on visuals, snackable content will be able to improve your comprehension and retention. Instant and Heavy Impact Breaking information into tiny pieces makes everything stickier and more powerful too. Microcontent communicates with the audience much quickly with its user-friendly and easy-to-decipher format. Snackable content excels in delivering immediate results in a short period of time. The faster the content reaches your brain, the faster your brain is able to process the information. So better believe that there’s more to entertainment than what that 30-seconder video you just watched offers.
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4 Practical Ways to Build Confidence in Yourself
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines confidence as “a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something”. It is a feeling and a state of mind that propels you forward into doing things. It is a strong, intangible force that may determine whether you succeed or fail at something. Do a quick inventory of the people you know and identify at least 5 people who, in your opinion, are confident. What do they have in common? What aura and energy do they exude? What are their personalities like? How do you feel when you’re interacting with them? Confidence affects a person’s self-esteem and the way they interact with people. It influences the way they show up, talk, choose, even the way they eat! Struggling to feel confident? Here are 4 very practical ways that you can start building confidence in yourself. Start with the small things Confidence, as important as it is, doesn't happen overnight. There is no juice, pill, workout, or cleanse that you can do that will make you confident in a snap of a finger. It doesn't work that way. Confidence is a skill that you need to nurture, practice and put effort into so you can see results. You build and increase confidence by accomplishing things, by getting things done. Everyone and their mom were all up in Adele's business when she lost a lot of weight. While people only saw the change in her physical looks, Adele says "it's not even about the weight". She was going through a tough time and she didn't know how to navigate her day but her daily 9 am workouts gave her a semblance of order. She didn't know what would happen throughout the day but showing up at 9 am and allowing herself to get this seemingly small task done every single day gave her a sense of purpose. The more you get things done, the more your confidence increases. Navy SEAL Commander Admiral William McRaven says that making your bed every morning helps you get into the right state of mind for the rest of the day for the simple reason that you’ve already accomplished one thing - you’ve made your bed. This simple act will propel you towards achieving more simple tasks and prepare you to move on to more complex tasks. Invest in yourself Investing in yourself doesn’t just mean buying a whole new wardrobe every time there’s a sale in H&M or Zara. While looking presentable undeniably adds a ton to your confidence tank, investing in what’s inside is equally important as well. Do you need to be an extrovert to be viewed as confident? Not necessarily. Confidence doesn't just mean you’re the life of the party or you know the right things to say, rather it is knowing what to say, how to say and when to say it. How will you know what to say when you don’t know what you’re talking about? Investing in yourself can be in the form of doing new things, enrolling in classes about things you’ve always wanted to learn, or going to places you’ve always wanted to go. If you feel good on the inside, then chances are, you’re going to feel good on the outside. Invest in your health and make sure you’re putting in the mental focus and effort to take care of your health. Practice and prepare Confidence comes from knowing you are good at what you do. How do you get better? You prepare and practice. You do your homework because those who don't get exposed very easily. The “fake it ‘til you make it” culture is not only exhausting physically and emotionally exhausting, but it also lacks finesse and puts your past accomplishments in a precarious situation. It may work for some time, but building your confidence based on whether you can stomach another round of treatment that you know is beneath you, will have a toll on your self-esteem and mental health. It may work in the short term, but it's not a strategy you want to put all your energy in. Building confidence through practice and preparation may be a slow run, but it's sustainable and a win-win. Not only do you get to weed out opportunities and people who are not the right fit for you, but you also build enough discernment to know what's best for you. Want to be confident for a job interview? Research the company you're interviewing for. Find out what their culture is like and talk to people who can give you honest insights. Don't stop there, in order to exude a level of confidence that'll make the hiring manager go crazy about hiring you, you have to treat the interview as a conversation, not an interrogation. How? Ask sensible, thought-provoking questions! Make them sell their company as a workplace that you’d want to spend your working hours, talents and skills at. Be your own cheerleader This one may mean looking inwardly and evaluating years of conditioning, but this is such an important part of building confidence. Ask yourself these questions: Why is it so easy for you to applaud someone for their accomplishments, but so hard for you to recognize your own? Why do you always tend to downplay it and credit it to luck or any other reason, rather than from your very own ability to accomplish it? Why is it so easy to say amazing things to describe someone but a tad too difficult to say something positive about yourself? Why do you get so uncomfortable when someone compliments your work, or your shirt, or your looks? Say you’re doing a major project and 90% of the work was done on time, and 10% was late. How is it that you’re too focused on beating yourself up for the remaining 10% but find it hard to celebrate yourself for the rest? Recognizing that you’re amazing is not being conceited, nor being arrogant. It is an important part of the confidence-building process, therefore shouldn’t be ignored. You can’t say you’re confident, and then beat yourself up for every minuscule thing that didn’t go according to plan. The next time someone asks you about what you do, speak positively about you and your work. Speaking “positively” doesn’t necessarily mean bragging, especially if you stick to the truth. The next time someone asks you to do something at work and it’s out of your bandwidth, refuse politely. Standing up for yourself may be difficult, but setting boundaries is important and people should know you’re serious about them. Most importantly, be patient with yourself. Confidence doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen very easily. It’s hard work and would require you to step miles away from your comfort zone most of the time. But if you make the first step today, and the second step tomorrow, and so forth, you’ll be surprised at how far you have come. Hero Image by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash
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4 Reasons Why It’s Time To Get A Pet
Whether you’re already a pet parent or have admired pets of friends and family (even strangers) from a distance, you know how amazing it can be when you spend time with these little gifts of sunshine walking on four legs. Videos of cute animals receive millions of views every day for the very simple reason that they make people feel better. Pets have that effect on people - they’re too cute and adorable without even trying. Pets are companions that love you without condition and bias. They just simply do! If you’ve already watched a dozen dog videos on YouTube and are thinking of becoming a pet parent but can’t seem to get over the line, here are some reasons that may just help you make up your mind. Pets are an amazing source of comfort and support Imagine this, you come home after a long, hard day at work and the minute you open your front door, you are greeted by your overly excited pet - wagging tail, warm, fluffy, cuddles, and all. It doesn’t matter if you left him alone the entire day, the only thing that matters to him is you’re home. Now, wouldn’t that turn any bad day into a good one, in an instant?? Pets are also known to provide comfort and support during difficult times for the very simple reason that they fulfill the very basic human need for touch. According to research, interacting with animals decreases the stress hormone cortisol and also lowers blood pressure. Oxytocin or the hormone responsible for creating a sense of calm and comfort have been observed to increase in people interacting with animals. Therapy dogs are especially good at reducing hospital and nursing home patients’ stress and anxiety. Dr. Ann Berger from NIH Clinical Center in Maryland shares that mindfulness, a way to help decrease stress and manage pain, is something that animals do innately. Pets can improve your health If you have pets that need exercise and physical movement as part of their routine, chances are you’re going to be moving with them too. Walking your dogs, or cats in a nearby park not only allows them to get the fresh air and physical activity they need, but you also get your daily dose of sunshine and movement as well. A growing number of studies have also shown that kids who grow up surrounded by furry animals are less likely to develop asthma and skin allergies like eczema. Having pets are also proven to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels while providing a lot of opportunities for socialization! Pets give you purpose Kookai, a fur mom to her furry Dirk, shares that her “little boy” changed her life. She always wanted a pet dog growing up, and one day she just decided to come home with one! Her entire life changed that day, and the rest is history. “Taking care of a dog is the BEST feeling you’ll ever experience in your life. It’s life-changing and it will bring you immeasurable happiness and love. Because of Dirk, I finally understood what unconditional love meant. He made me feel I have a purpose”, shares Kookai. Pets need their owners for survival, and this need gives their owners a sense of purpose and reason. When a living thing depends on you for something, you find it in yourself to deliver and be there for them. Pets make you responsible One very important nugget of wisdom that you have to remember when getting a pet is that it is a living, breathing creature that requires food, water and attention to survive. Not because they’re fluffy, furry and cute doesn’t mean you can leave them lying around when you’re done playing with them just like you would to a stuffed animal. NOPE. Kookai shares one bit of advice to future parents, “Love them as your own. If you want a pet, don’t keep them in a cage nor tie them up. If you’ll only put them in one, then don’t get one. They don’t deserve that kind of life.” Pets require attention, resources and energy from their carers. When you decide that you’re ready for that type of commitment, you knowingly and consciously bear the responsibility that comes with getting yourself a fluffy (or even scaly) companion. While dogs and cats are the common pet options for most people, don’t discount other animals too! Some pet owners choose to take care of fishes, turtles, and tortoises, among others because they are low maintenance and don’t require as much attention compared to dogs and other furry pets. If you feel you’re not yet ready and you still need a bit of time and adjustment before taking the plunge, worry not! There are plenty of other alternatives available for those who want to spend time with animals but are not yet ready to take care of them full time. If you have friends with pets, you can volunteer to be pet sitters for a few hours while they run errands. You can also try and be a volunteer in animal shelters that care for animals that need permanent homes. Hero Image by Eric Ward on Unsplash
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