There is an easy way to increase your intellectual abilities.
Crystallized intelligence
There are two types of intelligence - crystallized and mobile.
Crystallized intelligence is your ability to apply information, skills and existing experience, that is, we are talking about the knowledge accumulated in the brain. It builds up with age, and is given great importance in most Western cultures (especially since they learned how to measure it using standardized tests).
Moving intelligence, by contrast, is your ability to define patterns, solve new problems, and apply logic in new situations. The point here is not how much you know, but in your ability to show creativity, understanding, innovation and foresight.
Improving crystallized knowledge is not difficult - you need to read, listen to podcasts, accumulate factual information, and learn. The situation is different with mobile intelligence. It does not concern facts and knowledge, but your ability to work with previously unknown things - in other words, to be resourceful.
Meditation as a simulator for IQ
New research has shown that there is a way to dramatically improve both the level of mobile intelligence, and your IQ as a whole. It's about meditation.
This is true: meditation is useful not only for psychological health, to combat stress and improve mood, but also to maintain the necessary emotional balance as opposed to reactivity.
And meditation can make you much smarter.
Siegfried Otmer, former president of the neural feedback department at the Society for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, conducted a study on neural feedback. For those who meditated, IQ increased by an average of 23%.
Meditation not only allowed the study participants to improve their IQ, but also had a lasting effect, a study conducted a year later showed. Its meditation participants showed a marked advantage in creativity, concentration, and introspection.
Give your brain a break
Another astounding study suggests that after four days of 20-minute meditation sessions, participants showed a significant improvement in memory, perception, and reduction in stress levels. Perhaps the most noteworthy was that the meditators for the short-term memory test were 10 times better than the control group. Namely, short-term memory is a very important component of mobile intelligence.
Why does meditation boost your IQ? There are several reasons, but the main one is that deep meditation slows down brain activity.
As soon as the brain transitions to the phase of slow pulses (also observed in delta or theta rhythms), the brain increases its flexibility or the ability to reorganize itself. By practicing concentration through meditation — no matter through breathing, mantras, or music — you give your brain the necessary respite. That's all there is to it: you give your brain a rest, and it changes for the better.
It is worth noting that none of the groups that experienced such amazing achievements did not consist of yogis and did not meditate for hours. In fact, the second group meditated for only 20 minutes daily for 4 days, just less than an hour and a half. It would take more time to watch the movie.
Chorales and vibrations
Everyone knows that meditation is good, but the difficulty is to get started. It is like going to the gym. We all know that we should register there, but ...
If you still decide to try, there are many ways to do this. One of the popular ones is Headspace , an application that positions its use as "membership in a sports club for the mind." It offers step-by-step meditation and the ability to track your daily progress in this.
In addition, there are programs that use binaural beats to fully engage the brain in work, as well as to connect the left and right hemispheres. For example, LifeFlow offers a meditation option based on 10 audio tracks that cause certain impulses in the brain, namely alpha, theta and delta rhythms, which lead to a state of deep meditation.
There are many other options. You can always practice mindfulness meditation and sit with your eyes closed, focusing on your breath. Or do the same while listening to calm music - for example, Gregorian chorales with their unique rhythms and vibrations.
The New England Journal of Medicine claims that you should meditate 12-15 minutes at a time to get the right health effect. It is not so long. In fact, the more research is done on meditation, the more it is obvious that the point is not in its duration, but in regularity.
So give rest to your brain - this will bring you closer to genius.