Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were smarter? Would you get that promotion you want? Would you be able to participate in more conversations with confidence? Or do you just want to rule at bar trivia? 

No matter why you’re wondering how to get smarter, these tips can help you achieve that goal.

1. Embrace Change

Setting your brain on autopilot is comfortable. It can even make you really good at one thing, but it doesn’t allow you room to grow. When you change up your routine or try something new, it prompts a neuroplasticity response in your brain. 

Put simply, this is your brain reorganizing itself to deal with new situations. Functional neuroplasticity is when your brain permanently changes due to learning and development, this is how new pathways are created in your brain, giving you different ways to access data.

2. Exercise

If you want to be smarter, being stronger might help. According to an article by Harvard Health Publishing, aerobic exercise has many health benefits for your brain. Speaking neurochemically, it reduces stress hormones and stimulates endorphins. 

Aerobic exercise also causes new brain cells to be created in the hippocampus or neurogenesis. This boosts your brain’s health and can make it easier to learn and to ward off dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

3. Eat Brain Food

You’ve probably heard that fish is brain food, but why? Fatty fish, which contains an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, lowers blood levels of beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is a protein that is found in people with Alzheimer’s disease. 

But fish is just one food that can fuel your brain more efficiently. If you want to really make a difference, try eating more green leafy veggies, berries, tea, coffee, and walnuts.

4. Supplementation

In addition to adding the right foods to your diet to support brain health, you can boost your learning abilities by taking supplements that fuel your brain. 

ZenWell combines ashwagandha root extract and pure L-Theanine amino acid together to reduce stress, improve sleep, revitalize your energy levels, and, most importantly, improve your brain’s health. 

5. Mindful Meditation

Meditation is a great way to de-stress, which gives your brain a break from the train of thought it’s constantly chasing. But there is more to mindful meditation, and it might be the key to help you raise your IQ. 

An eight-week study looked at the changes mindful meditation can make in your brain. The study discovered increased density in the brain in the hippocampus region – the key learning center of the brain.

6. Read More

Reading is a fantastic exercise for your brain. The human brain was not created to read. Reading is a skill that’s learned, and your brain has to work at it every time you do it. Like a well-toned athlete, the more you read, the better you are at it. 

There are many benefits to daily reading, one of which is it makes you mentally flexible. Being mentally flexible means you’re better at adapting to the situation and coming up with new solutions.

If reading and sticking to your journey of health-lightenment is important to you, follow Live Conscious on Facebook @weliveconscious and Instagram @weliveconscious to find more articles that will help you be the best version of you.

7. Play an Instrument

A study from the University of Zurich has found that learning to play a musical instrument can make you smarter, in fact, it can raise your IQ by seven points–that’s a big deal. 

The exciting thing is that learning to play an instrument changes the architecture of the brain, no matter what your age is. This means that playing an instrument can be just as important for the growth of young brains as it is for the maintenance of older ones.

8. Play Games

There’s a lot of controversy about this at the moment. One side says playing games makes you smarter, the other side says that idea is outdated and bogus. So, where’s the truth? 

There is no definitive answer yet, but the value of games depends on the type of games, how often they’re played, and the variety of games played. An article in Medical News Today spells it out pretty clearly, the research shows that gaming can affect your brain. 

If you want to boost your brain health, you can use this knowledge to your advantage and focus on games that are mentally challenging. Try playing new games and changing your routine to give your brain an even bigger task to accomplish. You’ll also want to keep your game playing to around 30 minutes a day or less.

Waking Up To Wellness

There are many different reasons for wanting to become smarter or even to just stay on the top of your mental game. The great news is that there are also many different ways to do this. 

The best plan of attack is taking a well-rounded and thorough approach to boost your mental capabilities. While playing games may help, if you partner that with learning an instrument, eating better, taking supplements, daily mindful meditation, or exercise, then you’re really giving your brain an advantage. 

Science has proven that your brain isn’t fixed at a certain level of intellect, you can nurture and nourish your IQ, but it’s up to you. If you want to support your brain health, you might discover that taking proactive steps to boost intelligence can help you ward off age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia. 

Just reading this article is a step in the right direction. Now that you’ve started on this journey, what can you do next to keep headed in the right direction?