Awaken The Genius In You!

What if somebody tells you that you are a genius? And, you have never even in your wildest imagination thought of taking a Mensa test and, right now, you are living a downright ordinary life with zero noteworthy achievement. Well, in all probability you would reckon that the person must be out of his mind.

Take it from brain experts like Tony Buzan that your brain is a sleeping giant. Truth be told, your brain has close to 100 billion cells and each of them is inter-linked with about 20,000 other cells. Based on such a myriad of linkages, this means that you are capable of generating 100 billion to the 20,000th power of thoughts or ideas!  

That is all head knowledge and would not do you no good unless you use your brain more to work for you. For example, you have heard it often enough from people that they are in two minds when they are unsure about a matter.

What if you are told that you have actually three minds? First and obvious one, is your Conscious Mind. This is the physically alert state of mind that you use to receive and process incoming information by comparing them with your stored memories to make a snap decision on the fast lane or deliberated decision on the slow lane.

Not so obvious is the Subsconscious Mind. This is where you store every data, information, experiences, decisions or thoughts that have been filtered through and generated by your conscious mind. Whatever you accept as reality will be stored as such by your subconscious mind. If you affirm that you are a genius, then your subsconscious will record accordingly.

Then, there is the least known mind of all -- the Superconscious Mind (i.e., culmination of the unconscious). According to Brian Tracy in his book "Creativity & Problem Solving", "Your ability to tap into and use your superconscious mind on a regular basis is your key to unlocking your creative genius in every part of your life."

My theory is that the superconscious mind is what people label as 'at the back of my mind' or the back-burner. Remember, being on a holiday but not really feeling like you are on a holiday because of a gnawing problem? The superconscious mind is actually working constantly at the back of your mind. However, it is working against you because you are stewing the problem.

So, how do you activate the superconscious state of mind to work for you? My suggestion would be to focus on the positive rather than the negative; to search for a solution rather than nurse the problem or to set a new goal with new resolved rather than dwelling still on your missed goal (yes, you missed the first position in swimming by three seconds a year ago).

Get the positives into your subconscious in as many ways as you can: (i) Write down your quest for a solution or a dream as specifically as possible and review it daily (visualization); (ii) speak to yourself affirmative words so that your can hear it and not just think about it silently (auditory); and (iii) act out like you have achieve what you want to achieve (kinetic). 

Once, the subsconscious gets hold of what you want to attain in no uncertain terms, the information that is transferred to your superconscious mind will commence working for you non-stop and align your entire being so as to attract and work out a solution. Hey, you have billions of brain cells to count on. 

Come to think about it -- you've got something better than the folktale genie in a bottle who would only grant you a maximum of three wishes! Get real, go for it and awaken the potential genius in you!

Bibliography

Creativity & Problem Solving by Brian Tracy

When a Thing is a Think!

"No two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is -- in other words, not a thing, but a think." -- Penelope Fitzgerald

Remember, our ancestors thought that the world was flat, without fuller exploration.

So, when we say we can't, we can't. On the other hand, "They can because they think they can." -- Virgil

"It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor." -- Edmund Spenser

According to Anthony Robbins in his book "Unlimited Power", we create our own realities based on the positive and negative internal representations or beliefs which we have created. 

And, he has identified the following seven beliefs which have helped many people to find success (think thinking your way to success):

1) Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves us.

2) There is no such thing as failure. (Failing is not the same thing as being a failure! Consider, President Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison.)

3) Whatever happens, take responsibility.

4) It's not necessary to understand everything to be able to use everything (such as our brain!).

5) People are your greatest resource.

6) Work is play. "The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation." -- Mark Twain

7) There's no abiding success without commitment.

Note: I couldn't resist putting my own comments in brackets.


That said, it is time for us to think better and higher thoughts for our own success. 

"The ancestor of every action is a thought." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action." -- Thomas Henry Huxley

"If you can dream it, you can do it." Enzo Ferrari

On that note, I wish you more brainpower for a better and greater tomorrow!

You Can Have a Better Brain!

Problems would often weigh us down as we cope with them while trying to get through the day and deal with other matters on mind. We might even develop a headache and then decide to turn in early and sleep over the problems. 

Lo and behold, after a good night’s rest we find ourselves better able to cope and deal with the pressing problems on the following day. I think we can also recall how why taking a bath or a shower we were able to remember things which had earlier slipped our mind or come up with a solution to a problem.

Well, for Archimedes of Syracuse, it famously led him to a Eureka moment. As told in Wikipedia: “According to Vitruvius, a votive crown for a temple had been made for King Hiero II, who had supplied the pure gold to be used, and Archimedes was asked to determine whether some silver had been substituted by the dishonest goldsmith.

Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down into a regularly shaped body in order to calculate its density. While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water in the tub rose as he got in, and realized that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown. 

For practical purposes water is incompressible, so the submerged crown would displace an amount of water equal to its own volume. By dividing the mass of the crown by the volume of water displaced, the density of the crown could be obtained. This density would be lower than that of gold if cheaper and less dense metals had been added. 

Archimedes then took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying "Eureka!" (Greek: "εὕρηκα!," meaning "I have found it!"). The test was conducted successfully, proving that silver had indeed been mixed in.”

In more recent times, we could also find ourselves drained out as we multi-task and stay afloat by dealing with a flood of messages screaming for our attention from media platforms such as e-mails, sms, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram,YouTube and Facebook. 

What are the scientific explanations for the aforesaid experiences? In his article “Hit the reset button in your brain”, Daniel J. Levitin explained that our brains have two dominant modes of attention: the task-positive and the task-negative networks of neurons (like electrical circuits within the brain).

The task-positive network is called the central executive and it is active when we are actively engaged in a task; focused and undistracted. This part of the brain has helped us, inter alia, to harness fire, build airplanes and discover penicillin.

But such discoveries and inventions would probably come from the task-negative network which is recognized as the daydreaming mode.

The switch between the daydreaming mode and the central executive mode is controlled by the part of the brain called the insula which is like a seesaw: when one mode is active, the other is not. If this switching happens frequently, we will feel tired and a bit dizzy.

Following from this, we can see how important it is to get some rest and recreation after tackling our tasks. For example, take a walk in the park, smell the roses, take naps, go for an unhurried holiday or listen to music.

Here are two suggestions from Daniel J. Levitin which you may fine to be useful for leading a more productive, creative and energized life:
1. Partition your day into project periods. Your social networking should be done during a designated time, not as constant interruptions to your day.
2. If we can train ourselves to take true vacations without work and set aside time for regular contemplations and naps, we will be in a stronger position to solve problems in our world. 


Yes, we can have a better brain if we understand better how to make the most of it. By the way, we are only using less than 10% or so of our brain. Imagine if we could use more or just go watch Lucy (2014 film).


Daniel J. Levitin is the director of the Laboratory for Music, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University and the author of “The Organised Mind: Thinking Straight In The Age Of Information.