Royane Real
Variety Is The Spice of Brain Fitness:
By Simon Evans
Introductory comments
By Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”
When I was young and going to school, I always had an easy time getting good marks. When it came to book learning, I was very, very smart.
However, there were many other areas of my life where I wasn’t so smart.
For example, I was socially clueless. I was isolated and lonely. I had no idea how to make friends with anybody, or how to carry on a conversation.
And when it came to “physical smarts” I was even more hopeless. I was the slowest runner. The lowest jumper. The poorest catcher. I couldn’t hit or throw a ball to save my life.
I could never understand, even as a child, why I wasn’t able to use my strong intellect to simply learn social skills or learn to throw a ball better.
Today, I know that social skills, emotional skills, and physical skills are all determined by different ways of using your brain. These abilities are affected by the type of brain you start out with, and the way that you learn to use your brain as you go through life.
In fact, you could even say that these skills are actually different forms of intelligence. I was very strong in some forms of intelligence, and very weak in other forms.
This is true of all of us. Each of us is strong in some types of intelligence, and weaker in other types. For example, you can be very good at emotionally understanding others and getting along with them socially, yet you may not do well at school work.
Does this mean you are stupid? Only if you think that intelligence has a very narrow definition. But if you use a wider definition of intelligence, it simply means that you excel in emotional intelligence, but not in such areas as logic and mathematics.
You can improve your chances of success in life, no matter what your brain’s strengths and weaknesses are, if you learn how more about how your brain really works.
When you learn more about how to look after your brain, you will realize that every part of your life affects to some degree how well your brain can function.
You can learn how to capitalize on your existing strong forms of intelligence, and how to compensate for your weaker forms of intelligence.
Your brain also has needs for proper nutrition, sleep, mental exercise, proper breathing, stress relief, physical exercise, and social interaction. They all play their part in how well your brain works.
The following article by Simon Evans discusses some of the ways these different factors interact to produce a brain that can function at a higher level. In this article he explains other forms of intelligence besides the kind that is measured in a standard IQ test.
Perhaps you excel in some form of intelligence that you don't even realize you have.
( These introductory comments above are written by Royane Real who is the author of the book “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” Download it today and learn more ways to get the maximum use of your brainpower. It’s available at http://www.lulu.com/real )
Feature article
Variety Is The Spice of Brain Fitness: Part I – EPIQ Performance
By Simon Evans
Intelligence is more than IQ. It's more than how 'book smart' you are or the grades you got in school.
Intelligence also depends on your emotional intelligence (EQ) and your physical intelligence (PQ). Your level of brain fitness determines how well all of your intelligences work together to give you the best chance of success in life.
When it comes to the fitness of your brain (or your body) variety is key. Your brain health depends on many factors including: everything you put in your mouth; the physical and mental activities you choose to do or not to do; the amount of rest and reflection you allow yourself; and all the stuff you tell yourself in your own head.
If I had to sum up how to get the healthiest and fittest brain possible in one word, it would have to be “variety”. This applies to all the things I mentioned above, which I will be getting into in detail over the next several weeks. These are the cornerstones of your brain fitness and help to improve the general intelligences of your brain. Yes, intelligences, plural.
How smart are you?
Many people think of intelligence as your IQ or “book smarts” Really, this is only one kind of intelligence.
Other major intelligences are also your emotional intelligence (EQ) and your physical intelligence (PQ). The great thing is that you can improve all of your intelligences with effort.
Your EQ, popularized by Dr. Daniel Goleman, is your ability to control your own emotions and read the emotions of others. It is a major factor in your social skills – how well you interact with other people.
Are you responsive or reactive? If you are sharp as a tack when it comes to Einstein’s theory of relativity but have no idea how to hold a conversation with another human being, you would have a high IQ but a low EQ.
Your PQ is your ability to control your own body. This breaks down into conscious control – coordination, strength, flexibility and balance, and unconscious control – how well your internal systems respond when called upon.
How good of a job does your brain do at controlling your heart rate, disease-fighting immune system, and appropriate hormone responses to eating, stress, excitement, challenges, etc. Your physical intelligence is how well tuned your body machine is.
These are all important factors in leading a successful life. Your IQ will help you solve life’s challenges, your EQ will help your daily interactions with others and your PQ will help you stay healthy and fight disease of all sorts.
EPIQ Performance
Your brain is the master integrator of everything you do, feel, think and experience and the fitness of your brain determines your IQ, EQ and PQ. The more you work on the different aspects of brain fitness the better it all comes together.
Not only that, but each of these intelligences helps the others as well. For example, the better your PQ, the better your hormone stress response system works, the easier it is to keep your cool and the better your EQ gets.
Also, staying calm in challenging situations gives you a better chance at clear thinking and problem solving and increases your IQ.
This is only one example of probably thousands of ways that your intelligences work together. The more you work on your brain fitness the better they all get.
It all comes back to variety. Using nutrition, physical and mental activities, appropriate rest and positive thinking to improve your brain fitness and improve all of your intelligences.
Over the next several weeks I will be writing about the roles of all of these brain fitness promoting behaviors in increasing your intelligences, EQ, PQ and IQ – you can remember them as EPIQ (pronounced “EPIC”) performance. The goal is to increase your EPIQ performance in all aspects of your life as much as possible.
A focus on brain fitness will allow you greater success at work or business, improved relationships and improved brain and body health. Improving your brain fitness will help you move from where you are today to where you want to be.
Master Brain Fitness techniques for you and your family. The Brain Code is the key to unlock your maximum potential. Dr. Simon Evans puts together the right ingredients in right amount to create the recipe for success. Visit http://www.thebraincode.com for FREE Brain Fitness resources.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Brain Code LLC
Article republished from Copy & Paste Articles
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