Boosting Your Intellectual Health
Do you want to think faster? Are you looking for ways to increase cognitive function? Do you wish you were happier and had better overall health? You can do and be all of these by boosting your intellectual health.
When you want to improve your physical wellness, you take steps to care for your body. The same care should be given to maintaining a healthy mind. Not only will it improve all of the things we discussed above, but activities that keep you mentally stimulated may help stave off dementia.
What Is Intellectual Health?
You can call it intellectual health or refer to it as wellness. Whatever term you settle on, wellness is a state of complete well-being. Which makes intellectual health or wellness the pursuit of achieving your optimal intellectual state. It might be opening your mind to new ideas and perspectives, expanding your skills, nurturing knowledge, thinking critically, or learning more about yourself. It’s simply being open and ready to grow in all directions.
Boosting Your Intellectual Health
You can invest hundreds of dollars in supplements, but you don’t need that type of help to boost your intellectual health. The truth is the power to increase your intellectual wellness is entirely in your hands.
- Do Something New
Your brain never loses its capacity to evolve and by doing new things you can help ensure it does so. Stress, stimulation, and new experiences all contribute to your brain so, go out there and provide positive experiences to boost your intellectual health! Ditch your comfort zone and go do something different.
- Read
Reading isn’t just about gaining new knowledge, there are plenty of other benefits. For example, children who read a lot often develop language skills quicker and have wider vocabularies (https://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/news/reading-to-your-kids-can-boost-their-vocabulary-by-over-a-million-words/). Read books you’re interested in, read something that will introduce you to new views, choose something to expand your mindset, and add to your knowledge. There are so many genres of books to explore.
- Get Social
Humans are social creatures and as we’re hardwired for human connectivity, you need to engage with others if you want to thrive. You will be happier for doing so, but it’s also the best way to boost your intellectual health. Of course, by spending time with others you have an opportunity to grow because you will be exposed to new stories, different opinions, and other perspectives. Don’t just nurture your existing relationships (though you should), look for new friendships too.
- Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is an excellent method for engaging your brain. By reflecting on your actions, thoughts, character, and motivations, you get a better sense of your overall life. Self-reflection aids self-awareness and can help provide you with perspective to enable growth and learning.
- Be Curious
The best way to increase brain activation is to be and stay curious. When you’re curious about things it improves your knowledge of that subject, but it also increases your overall ability to retain knowledge and learn new things overall. If you want to know how your watch works, try taking it apart. If your video games console is on the fritz, watch YouTube videos and make an attempt to fix it yourself. Watch documentaries, read books, and just go out there and learn more about things.
- Be Creative
Exercising your creative skills improves your intellectual health and overall health. For example, musicians have higher executive functions when compared to non-musicians. Executive functions include working memory, cognitive flexibility, problem-solving, and processing speed. So, exercise your creativity by playing music, painting, drawing, crafting, writing, or whatever.
To get started on your intellectual health journey, start with one of the options above and see how you get on. Once you get in the groove, you can try another one or two.