If you don’t know what to do in your spare time, but want to improve your brain’s performance, choose one of the options. Or even combine them.
Reading
Two interesting studies were carried out in Toronto, during which it was found that people who read a lot of fiction understand other people better. Deep immersion in the book contributes to the perception of events as if they were happening in reality. This helps to develop emotional intelligence and to perceive the emotions of others.
Alcohol
It should be said at once that the systematic use of alcohol and the chronic dependence on it have a detrimental effect on the brain, destroying its cells.
However, in 2010, Norway conducted a study that lasted 7 years. It involved people over 54 years of age. The experiment found that a group of people who drank 4 glasses of wine for 14 days had better brain function and cognitive skills than those who did not drink at all. Previous experiments have already proven that a small amount of wine in old age is a good prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
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Sports
Despite the prejudice that sport is the province of silly people, the opposite has been experimentally proven.
People who perform endurance exercises remember information better and learn new material more quickly. This has been proven by scientists at the Cancer Research Institute and Harvard Medical School. Team sports have also been studied. Teamwork has been shown to improve multitasking skills, Creative thinking, responsiveness and interaction with the environment.
Dancing
In New York City, A. Einstein College of Medicine examined a group of people over 75 years of age. Their aim was to identify activities that had a positive impact on brain function. Among all the dancing activities, it turned out to be one of the most effective measures to prevent dementia, improving all cognitive skills. During the dance it is necessary to involve spatial awareness, to make the most of image recognition. This stimulates neural connections and improves brain function.
Sex
Another study on sex was conducted in Italy. Its results are rather mixed. On the one hand, sex really stimulates the work of the brain, increases the growth rate of nerve cells. But it happens only with a new partner. Therefore, sex only makes us smarter at the beginning of a romantic relationship.
Chess
Chess is traditionally considered a game for smart guys. But unlike many others, this prejudice is completely true. Chess develops the human brain in many ways: learning to calculate their actions, predict the behavior of the enemy, analyze the situation, adjust to the circumstances and look for a way out of them. Therefore, if you have decided to train your brains well, chess is the ideal option.
Music
Listening to music has a positive effect on a person’s emotional state. Music soothes, relieves stress and negative emotions. However, playing and learning to play a musical instrument gives us much more.
It has long been proven that children who go to music school learn foreign languages more quickly and efficiently, learn them more easily, and quickly adjust to the situation. Learning to play a musical instrument requires us to use a huge amount of brain resources: hearing, sight, memory, motor skills, tactile perception. It is not necessary to become a genius of violin or guitar, but to pass the time for learning to play a musical instrument is very useful.
