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3 Popular Mistakes of a Brain Fitness Routine

Your brain is arguably the most important organ you possess. It is responsible for your movement, your emotions, your thoughts, you intelligence and more importantly, your memory. This is why those of us who want to improve our life start by improving our brain.

Unfortunately, some of the most popular beliefs about the brain are false at best… and can instead be potentially harmful. In this article, I would like to highlight 3 of the popular false beliefs that could be undermining your effort to improve your brain fitness. With that said, let’s get started.

1. Your brain is not isolated from other parts of your body. When most people think about improving their brain, they look for “brain foods” and “brain exercises”. This is largely popularized by conventional medicine’s narrow approach to healing.

Instead, when you look to improve your brain, look to improve your holistic health. For example, green leafy vegetables are obviously beneficial for your whole body - but it is also a great “brain food”. Green leafy vegetables contain large amount of anti-oxidants that fight against the process of oxidation - a process that kills cells all over your body, including your brain.

Some people mistakenly believe that what they eat do not affect their brains and learning capability but numerous studies have proven this to be wrong. If your body is healthy as a whole, so will your brain be.

So my advice is not to ignore traditional advice on improving your health. Drink more water, eat more green vegetables and don’t forget to exercise.

2. Speaking of exercise, this is another part of a brain fitness routine that many over look. Few of us ever thought of exercising when it comes to improving brain function. Exercising, on the other hand, is perceived to be a technique to adopt only if you want to build muscles or lose weight.

The truth couldn’t be further. Studies have shown that exercise keep your motor cortex healthy. Motor cortex is the part of your brain responsible for movement. Thus if you live a life that does not involve much movement, you will lose your ability to move and even balance yourself.

Exercise also reduces stress, which in turn releases chemicals such as dopamine. Dopamine increases blood pressure, increases heart rate and kills brain cells.

Other effects of exercise include longer attention span, better ability to focus and superior memory. Thus it has long been observed that people who exercise perform better than people who don’t in everything from study, business, creative skills and of course, sports.

3. Did you know that the neurons (brain cells) responsible for your thoughts are the exact same ones responsible for your actions?

Certain neurons fire signals to your limbs when you walk. When you imagine you’re walking, those same neurons would fire the same signals to your limbs. Thus even your thoughts affects your brain fitness.

This finding, unbelievable as it sounds, has been repeatedly proven in several studies. A particular research study involving a brain scan found that subjects imagining piano practice achieved formation of large neural networks - approximately equal amount of improvement as the group who actually practiced playing the piano.

Another study involved basketball players and those that imagined practicing out performed those who physically practiced.

Thus be very careful of the thoughts you put into your mind. If you expect to be frail and weak, the neurons responsible for your muscles will make sure that happens. If you think your memory is slipping, it will be a reality for you.

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