Immediate action and perseverance
The slower you are to react to the warnings, the less chances you have of success. Keep in mind that it takes the brain an average of two months to form a new habit, which is why it is important to start dealing with the problem immediately and stick to the principles you set for yourself with determination.
Make time
To make sure your efforts aren’t in vain or only a temporary endeavor, you need to set time aside and define when and for how long you will engage in your new form of mental stimulation from the start. Let’s say half an hour twice a day every day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Or an hour every night during the week. Or two hours in the morning on weekends. It doesn’t matter when you do it. The main thing is to do it on a regular basis. You need to make this practice a habit and an integral part of your life.
Intellectual work
The easiest and most effective way of preventing your brain from shriveling up is to get a job that requires you to either make decisions or make use of your creativity. We are instinctively averse to work. Fortunately for many, things are not completely glum – mental recovery starts at just 8 hours of mental activity a week, although it will take at least 20 hours to reach optimal health and life expectancy. More good news: you don’t have to suffer while you work. If you don’t go to work in the morning with a song in your heart and force yourself to go home at the end of the day, chances are you haven’t found your place in life, no matter how much money you get paid. Also, when you like what you do, you’re not likely to harm your brain by just idling the time away. Even the laziest person won’t trade a good job for a sofa.
Never stop learning
In order to use your intelligence in a purposeful manner, you must never stop learning. When you’re speaking to successful and wealthy people, one obvious observation sticks out immediately: they are all constantly in the process of learning something. Sometimes this desire for knowledge becomes a genuine obsession. Nevertheless, higher education, various courses, seminars, webinars, etc. are a very effective and efficient way to use your brain. Make sure that you are learning from competent and qualified sources, that you attend classes regularly, take responsibility, and find practical ways to apply the knowledge gained.
Mental exercise
There are many different methods of maintaining your intellectual capacities. The most popular and effective ones are: studying foreign languages, discovering science, mastering new skills, training for a profession, reading non-fiction books, writing books and articles, drawing, playing a musical instrument, and much more. On the other hand, solving monotonous crosswords or other primitive brain teasers is a virtually useless waste of time.
Variety
The variety of your mental workload is of great importance. Never forget that our brains have many functions and amazing plasticity. For this reason, you must not only exercise your memory, analytical resources, creativity, and quick thinking but also make sure that these skills are applied to as many areas as possible. The kinds of mental capacities you exercise in each area can be alternated.
The right choice
Choosing interesting exercises is one of the critical success factors for the long-term maintenance of healthy brain function. Start with your interests and choose your mental exercises solely based on them. Always wanted to learn a foreign language? – Finally, there’s a good reason to go for it. Been planning to write a book ever since you can remember? – All that’s left to do is set yourself a work schedule. Does sculpture tickle your fancy? – Start exploring the basics of clay modeling this week. Maybe you have an undiscovered knack for programming? – You can learn independently and through organized courses. Always wanted to try lucid dreaming? – Get your hands on the textbooks and lectures of the author of this text and start living in two worlds at once. A good choice of mental stimulation not only gives the brain a work out but also brings real pleasure and practical benefits.
The key is getting started
Our brain is always actively trying to avoid any new mental charge, discouraging us from it. This is normal because it doesn’t want to spend energy unnecessarily. However, luckily, our brains can be outwitted. All you have to do is force it to do the work and push through the first 15-30 minutes. As a rule, during this time the brain will recalibrate itself to enter performance mode, after which you yourself will not want to stop.
There is no end to progress
So you’ve learned everything you set out to learn? Don’t stop now: any knowledge always opens doors to new, related areas of knowledge you have yet to acquire. And if you are still under the impression that you have mastered everything there is to master in your chosen field, it might mean that you should set yourself a more challenging mental task, such as learning a language. In the case of language learning, it is almost impossible to achieve perfection, even after a lifetime of learning.
Wean yourself off junk information
Our brains are easily tempted to engage with light and sentimental information. The more we get of it, the less we are interested in making any mental effort. If you want to turn on your brain, isolate yourself as much as possible from junk information that saps your energy and discourages the desire to put your brain to good use while giving you nothing in return. What do you get from watching the daily news? What do you get from browsing your social network feeds? What do you get from watching TV series? It is not necessary to completely remove these elements from your life but it makes sense to set certain limits.
A comprehensive approach
The processes in our bodies are all interconnected and a balanced lifestyle is the key to solving any problem. There is a possibility that the crux of this particular problem lies in another area of your life altogether. It is these questions that the M99 standard resolves, and why it is so important to strive to achieve optimal results for all of its parameters.