Two weeks back, I watched Discovery Channel with the boys and the title of the series was Re-Design My Brain. It was basically about a man named Todd Sampson who is on a quest to expand his brain capacity. There were activities addressing speed, memory, flexibility and so on.
He had to do juggling for half an hour everyday for the next few weeks (see I can't even remember that part). Apparently, juggling does not just improve our hand-eye coordination, it also boosts your memory. He also had to practice his attention to detail and response speed through a series of computer exercises and help his detail retention through the art of mnemonics. At the end of his training, he is supposed to compete in World Memory Championships where individuals of different ages display their brains' prowess through a number of levels and tests.
As a newbie, he is supposed to memorise a deck of cards in full detail on exactly how they were arranged. And guess what? He was able to! It was awe-mazing!
So I thought, why not try it?
My mom always say that our brain should always be challenged. If we don't interact on the same level of people as we used to, our IQ will go down. She said, "take me for example, because I am a stay-at-home mom, my IQ was not as high as it used to be". Well, I'm not sure of the IQ part and do not entirely agree on the reason of being a stay-at-home but she is partially right.
I remember when I stopped working for awhile and I just became a couch potato. I was not reading anything academic, not abreast with current events, I was mostly playing games on the computer or watching TV series and reading gossip columns. The silliest and shallowest things amused me. Even my perspective on various areas became laughable. When I recall some of the conversations I had then, it was awful to the point of cringe-worthy. I almost want to write a disclaimer that anyone who had a conversation with me during those years, please erase it from your memory.
So yes, if our brains became idle and are not fed with good value information, junk instead of nutrition, naturally and expectedly, it will wither away.
It is very fortunate that we have technology on our hands, that information now is more accessible than it used to be. There is no excuse for being misinformed. It doesn't matter whether you are a full time mom, part time mom, not a mom, fresh graduate, man, woman, old, young, student, each one of us is armed with information.
I think our nemesis now is which information retention and filtering. After all, this is the generation of 6-second video Vines, 140 character Tweets and few seconds Snapchats. It almost feel like we are those test subjects being fed subliminal messages through blinking words in the middle of a movie.
I have always aimed at continuous learning and improvement. Always into reading but now on top of my reading, I make it a point to read at least 3 articles a day about current events, technology or HR, first thing in the morning before work becomes hectic. I am also more involved now with the kids' Math and English exercises. After watching Redesign My Brain, I was even more intent on boosting my brain.
Then I found BrainHQ. So far, it's keeping me entertained, so are the boys. After all it is presented as a game. Who doesn't like a game? I for one is addicted to games. As they say, "practice makes perfect". It's not really perfection that we are looking for but improvement. Improve we all did as we go along. Our rates improve with every practice and I notice my information retention is getting better too.
The boys are asking me to subscribe. We're using the free version at the moment. Maybe I will subscribe. If our progress is consistent, I sure will.
He had to do juggling for half an hour everyday for the next few weeks (see I can't even remember that part). Apparently, juggling does not just improve our hand-eye coordination, it also boosts your memory. He also had to practice his attention to detail and response speed through a series of computer exercises and help his detail retention through the art of mnemonics. At the end of his training, he is supposed to compete in World Memory Championships where individuals of different ages display their brains' prowess through a number of levels and tests.
As a newbie, he is supposed to memorise a deck of cards in full detail on exactly how they were arranged. And guess what? He was able to! It was awe-mazing!
So I thought, why not try it?
My mom always say that our brain should always be challenged. If we don't interact on the same level of people as we used to, our IQ will go down. She said, "take me for example, because I am a stay-at-home mom, my IQ was not as high as it used to be". Well, I'm not sure of the IQ part and do not entirely agree on the reason of being a stay-at-home but she is partially right.
I remember when I stopped working for awhile and I just became a couch potato. I was not reading anything academic, not abreast with current events, I was mostly playing games on the computer or watching TV series and reading gossip columns. The silliest and shallowest things amused me. Even my perspective on various areas became laughable. When I recall some of the conversations I had then, it was awful to the point of cringe-worthy. I almost want to write a disclaimer that anyone who had a conversation with me during those years, please erase it from your memory.
So yes, if our brains became idle and are not fed with good value information, junk instead of nutrition, naturally and expectedly, it will wither away.
It is very fortunate that we have technology on our hands, that information now is more accessible than it used to be. There is no excuse for being misinformed. It doesn't matter whether you are a full time mom, part time mom, not a mom, fresh graduate, man, woman, old, young, student, each one of us is armed with information.
I think our nemesis now is which information retention and filtering. After all, this is the generation of 6-second video Vines, 140 character Tweets and few seconds Snapchats. It almost feel like we are those test subjects being fed subliminal messages through blinking words in the middle of a movie.
I have always aimed at continuous learning and improvement. Always into reading but now on top of my reading, I make it a point to read at least 3 articles a day about current events, technology or HR, first thing in the morning before work becomes hectic. I am also more involved now with the kids' Math and English exercises. After watching Redesign My Brain, I was even more intent on boosting my brain.
Then I found BrainHQ. So far, it's keeping me entertained, so are the boys. After all it is presented as a game. Who doesn't like a game? I for one is addicted to games. As they say, "practice makes perfect". It's not really perfection that we are looking for but improvement. Improve we all did as we go along. Our rates improve with every practice and I notice my information retention is getting better too.
The boys are asking me to subscribe. We're using the free version at the moment. Maybe I will subscribe. If our progress is consistent, I sure will.
RSS Feed
