14 ways to increase brain power

Here are 14 ways to increase brain power.

Can't locate your car in the parking lot? Or recall the movie you saw last Sunday? Having trouble remembering where you left your keys? Or the name of that new restaurant you went to? Feeling scatterbrained? You're not alone. As we get older, our brains become more "noisy", and are not as good at registering new information.

For years, scientists believed that we were stuck with the brain we were born with. Enter: Neuroplasticity. A theory that proves our brains have the ability to change. The more you use and test your brain, the better it will perform. So stop using a meager 5-10% of your brain and train it to capture information and recall it swiftly.

Here are 14 different ways to increase your brainpower. So if you want to find your car in that crowded parking lot or ace your next exam, scroll down.

1. Mind Games
Your brain is a muscle. You need to exercise it regularly. Norman Doidge, psychiatrist and author of The Brain's Way of Healing, suggests playing scrabble and sudoku to sharpen your mind. According to Cynthia Green, PhD, Author of Brainpower Game Plan, you must time yourself while working a crossword or Sudoku to boost processing speed, attention and positive intellectual engagement. People who are cognitively active have better memory as they age. So quiz yourself, flex your brain and improve your memory power.


2. Ayurveda
Dr Ashutosh Gautam, Clinical Operations and Coordination Manager at Baidyanath says, "Ayurvedic herbs such as Ashwagandha, Brahmi and Shankhapushpi help improve the brain's memory functions like attention and concentration, and prevent nerve cell damage".


3. Aromatherapy
The next time you need to train your brain, consider using the practice of aromatherapy to increase your productivity. "Aromatherapy works wonders, and some particular essential oils help sharpen the brain", adds Dr. Ashutosh Gautam. You can try rosemary for mental clarity and alertness, or peppermint/ basil oil to reduce mental fatigue and enhance your mind's innate ability to focus. You can use diffusers to aerate the oil or directly apply some essential oils to the skin to reap their benefits.


4. Exercise
Did you know that every time you exercise, you create new brain cells? Any form of exercise increases your heart rate, which gets blood flowing to your brain, thus keeping your memory sharp. For at least 30-45 minutes a day, run, swim, dance or cycle as it benefits your brain health, cognition and even helps enlarge the hippocampus i.e. the catalyst for long term memory in the brain. If that isn't reason enough to get you off the couch, who knows what is? Just take a 10-15 minute walk around the block or do a few jumping jacks to reboot your brain in case you don't have time to squeeze in a full workout.


5. Quit Multitasking
Can't find your car keys? It's probably because you weren't paying attention when you put them down. As it turns out, the brain does not actually multitask. It switches focus from one thing to the other. So when you're juggling too many things, you're bound to forget. The brain needs about eight seconds to process a piece of information to your memory. So if you're talking on the phone and carrying your groceries at the same time, and then you put down your keys, you're unlikely to remember where you left them. Make it a point to concentrate on the task at hand. It's crucial. Studies suggest that saying "I left my keys on the cabinet" out loud actually helps the brain process it.

6. Meditate
According to a study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, researchers measured the brains of 16 people who had never meditated before, and then measured their brains again after the group had completed an eight-week meditation program. During that period, the group spent an average of 27 minutes a day practising mindful meditation. Tests done on the group after the program found that there was an increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, t