How Brain Works
Our Brain
Mysterious Brain
Our brain is a complicated thing, but essentially it’s a muscle.
Just like any other muscle, if you keep working on it, it will get better and the more you let it relax, the worse it will become.
It is complex, because even it is part of our system we don’t have the whole access to it. Many people have been fascinated with the concept of Photographic memory and Eidetic memory.
Photographic/Eidetic memory
Is it possible for human beings to have a photographic or an eidetic memory?
The answer is not in Yes/No, because it is complicated. We kind of have photographic memory sometimes and sometimes, we don’t have it.
Confused??
Let’s see, There are lots of people who complain about their BAD memory, they complain about, how they are unable to RECALL their answers in a test paper or went BLANK in a presentation.
But these people can recite the names and the stats of all the sportspersons that they like, or recall the stories and character names of the movies they saw decades ago.
So, what is happening here? Why we have one thing cemented in our brain but the other is not?
Brain Zones
Let’s open up our brains,
Brain, generally has two parts; one which we’ve control(Conscious Brain) and the other one which controls us(Sub-Conscious Brain).
Let us try to understand the difference between the two parts,
Conscious Part
Our conscious brain is the analytical and logical part of our brain. It is also the aware portion of our brain. It helps you with reasoning, calculating risks, planning etc.
But since this portion keeps you aware, it requires lots and lots of energy. You must have observed that when you put too much emphasis on your brain, as in during exams or certain speech; you feel tired. This is because you kept your brain in aware state for too long, while your brain is designed to stay in auto-pilot mode, so that you don’t requie that much energy.
Sub-Conscious Part
This part performs 95% of your daily chores. It also controls auto-pilot mode of your brain. It works on the basis of habits, and keeps you in loop and in your comfort zone. In order to make this part remember – REPETITOIN is necessary.
This part is a giant tape recorder. This keeps recording all the time(even when you are asleep). Memory stored here is very hard to access. However, some part of it are easily accessible. Parts like your childhood memories, emotions, people close to you, personalities you know or admire, objects around you and things that you are interested in. You can acces all of this in fraction of seconds.
Analogy
Sub-Conscious Mind (SCM)
The SCM comprises all the records and data. The data which you want to learn and also the data that you don’t want to learn. SCM is hard to access, in order to access it, the simplest procedure is repetition, of the task you want to remember or lesson you want to learn. This repetition is the differnce between the toppers in the class and the ones who are not perforing well in the exams.
However there are certain areas of SCM which are accessible to us. In order to understand this we are providing you an analogy of SCM with out computer folders arrangement.
In order to understand we’ve created an Analogy of “Human Brain Segments” with that of “Computer File System”.
Let us see what do we have in our SCM,
SCM is a big recorder, it keeps recording 24*7, it means whatever you see or observe SCM puts the data here.
Emotions a.k.a. memories, such memories which are close to your heart. Special moments with your parents, family and firends.
This is the memory closest to you. It is quite unique because, we all have different sets of areas of interest. You seldomly forget anything from this memory folder.
This folder comprises of the daily use objects you use, names of objects you know. As you use these in your daily life, you always remember them.
Parents, family, friends, co-workers – you remember each one of them, always. This folder also comprises of famous celebrities, people you admire.
The difference maker. The more you practice the better you become. It is further disintegrated as HARDWIRED and LOOSEWIRED memory folders.
Understand SCM folders
As shown above in the browser window, we have denoted various segments of brain as folders.
Each folder comprises of important information that you hold. Each folder has different accessibility, meaning some of them have better accessibility and some of these folders are not easily accessible.
Let us fragment these folders and understand what do they store and how accessible they are to us,
Big Recorder Folder
The sub conscious brain is a big recorder. It keeps recording 24*7 (even when you are asleep). It stores all the data but the access to this folder is limited. If the data stored in it, is repeated numerous times, it allows some accessibility and starts storing data in other folders like people, objects etc. But if data is not used, for sometime, the data is non-accessible.
Accessibility: Very Limited.
Emotions Folder
Emotions are so near to all of us. Important moments we share with our closed ones. Our moments of happiness, sorrow, pride, laughter, love etc.; are all so important. We cherish and remember these moments.
The point to notice is that these are stored as live images in our brain. These memories is easily accessible to us and available in grave detail to us.
When we talk to our old friends about older times, and we feel that we have relived those moments. Its astonishing that our brain remember even the minute details of our great time with our friends.
In our system we will use the emotions of laughter, to make learning fun.
Accessibility: Highly Accessible.
Interest Folder
It is an unique folder. It is different for everyone. Everyone has different sets of interests. There are some common interest like sports- football, cricket and so on or movies.
We happen to remember the things related to the field in which we are interested. For example someone interested in politics will know the name of major candidates, which a person who has interest in cooking might not know but this person will know about different delicacies and its preparation which the political person have no idea.
The crux is that things in which we have interest are hard to forget. We remember the names of movie stars, sports star, some people even know all the names of the movies in which the actor has played a role and some might know all the statistics of their favorite sports star.
Many people find it hard to remember the atomic weights of elements and they give blame to their brains but easily remember the averages of the entire team. If you realize this, both atomic weights and averages are numbers. So its not the brain but the interest.
In our system we’ll try to make you learn things by linking the things in which you are interested. We will also recommend you expand your areas of interest, in order to learn quickly and we’ll make thing interesting for you so that you can remember it for longer time.
Accessibility: Highly Accessible.
Objects Folder
Chair, Table, Bed, Computers, Mobile etc all these objects you use are stored permanently in you brain. You know how they look, how their shapes are and what are they use for.
So why do we need Objects folder. We are going to use these objects for linking purpose. This has been utilized in methods like linking system and peg system.
Objects are easy to visualize and can be use to make links for memorizing purpose.
Accessibility: Accessible.
People Folder
We are socially surrounded by many people. Names, faces, memories of our parents, family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers are always stored permanently in this folder. We always remember the faces of our loved ones so much so, whenever we come across with a person who has the same name as that of our loved ones, for one moment we visualize their face in our head. It becomes easier for us to remember that person for a while.
Accessibility: Highly Accessible.
Practice Folder
This is the most important section, this section makes all the difference in a person’s life. If you keep practicing an art, you will get better and if you are not you will end up being a mediocre.
The toppers in the examination are practicing more than you, they are getting better because they are rewiring their sub-conscious mind by practicing.
As we have discussed earlier, sub-conscious mind can be rewired by repeating things. Now, we know that whatever we see it goes into our RECORD folder, the problem is that it stores 24*7, so the data keeps moving below the new data. If the data is observed well it has some life but if it is not given much attention it has not much life.
If this data is not recalled in some time it is lost forever.
So if we keep practicing the same thing over and over again the data is shifted to Practice folder.
The practice folder is further divided into further segments, HARDWIRED and LOOSE WIRED folders.
Hardwired: Those arts which we are practicing daily throughout our lives. For example – Learning Alphabets and Letters, today you might find it very easy to read but can you recall how hard it was once. Now you don’t have to make any conscious effort to read anything. This is because you have been practicing reading for so long. Similarly our motor skills like walking, talking all have been hardwired in our sub-conscious mind and we can perform them even without any effort.
Loose wired: Those arts which we are practicing daily for some time. For example – Education, new craft or lessons. This comprises of data which is essential to you in near future only. That is why we tend to forget lessons and chapters after some time, even when we learnt them thoroughly. We practiced them for some time but then we stopped and now we remember some bits of it or none at all.
In our system we’ll recommend you to repeat the links, as we are trying to link study material with memory you have access to, in order to retain them you need to practice the links many times. The good news is that these links will always be there with you in you mind, you don’t have to write them, just close your eyes, visualize again and you just revised it.
Brain Health
Why emphasis on Brain Health?
Human brain is the most advance brain among living beings on this planet. Our conscious brain (a gift of evolution) makes us different than the other living beings.
So, anything which can harm our Conscious-brain, we need to avoid it (alcohol, drugs and smoking) and must take a good care of our brain, in order to make it perform better.
For our sub-conscious brain, we have seen it is powerful but at the same time is the most vulnerable part of our brain. Since sub-conscious brain is always open, it keeps recording and it creates impact on the way you think or make decisions. That’s why lots of jingles and great visuals in advertisements of products, so that you remember the product while you purchase.
How to better our Brain Health?
1. Work MORE with it
We have discussed earlier that our brain is a muscle and just like any other muscle it needs to work. If it doesn’t get proper exercise, its efficiency reduces.
There was a time when people used to learn phone numbers of their loved ones but we don’t do this anymore because now we can store it in our smartphones. Learning phone numbers or anything is a kind of exercise that your brain needs, by not doing that we are giving our brain too much comfort.
We need to keep our emphasis on learning and keep pushing limits of our brain in order to keep its efficiency higher. We recommend you to read more, especially books(not magazines). The reason is that when you red a book without much picture you have to use your imagination, which will help you to better your creativity.
2. Meditation
Meditation is proven to be the best method to keep your brain health on track. The breathing exercises allows more oxygen input to your brain, resulting in an alert brain.
Meditation also curbs the adversaries of brain i.e. anger, stress and anxiety. Meditation brings more awareness to the brain, it allows brain to negate the negative thoughts and prevents procrastination.
A 5-10 minutes session daily is sufficient. You will feel more calm and relax which will enhance efficiency of your brain.
3. Resistance Training
Resistance training can enhance the self discipline muscle in your brain. It is a method to push your limits, you will feel mentally stronger. The resistance training comprises of easy home exercises like push-ups etc, which you can perform at your home.
The resistance training requires you to increase your stamina and endurance, and also to take more pain which helps you in building more self discipline.
The resistance training helps your brain to be strong and stay more focussed on an activity.
4. Avoid Harmful Chemicals and addtiction
In order to achieve better results in your endeavors your brain is a huge asset and you don’t want to sabotage it. If you induce it with harmful chemicals it will start to malfunction.
It is wise to stay away from these harmful chemicals. We highly recommend you not to consume alcohol, smoke cigarettes and don’t take un-prescribed drugs.
You brain is full of chemicals and it requires some dosage of chemicals (dopamine and endorphin) in regular intervals. These chemicals are also called as happy chemicals which provide you happiness and calmness in your mood and these chemicals are release naturally in your body.
But once you are addictive to tobacco, alcohol, adult videos, drugs then your happy chemicals’ release will depend on these. It means that whenever your brain need dopamine and endorphine, your body will crave for these addictions as the body will be dependent on these chemicals to release these chemicals. You will fall in a cycle or rut of these addiction.
Take good care of your brain and it will help you achieve all your goals. A healthy mind will be your best friend and a unhealthy one will be your biggest nemesis.
Tag:Brain, Meditation, Mind, Sub-conscious mind
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