- Solve some puzzles and crosswords.
- Try to be ambidextrous. Use your nondominant hand to brush your teeth, comb, handle the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Do the same with the knife and fork.
- Learn new languages
- Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
- Make mental maps of your neighborhood, state, country.
- Block one or more senses. Eat with your eyes closed, use earplugs, bathe with eyes closed.
- Develop comparative tasting. Learn how to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese, etc.
- Develop leadership attributes.
- Find intersections between seemingly unrelated subjects.
- Learn how to use different keyboard layouts.
- Help others.
- Play some musical instrument.
- Find new uses for common objects. How many different uses you can find in a nail? 10? 100?
- Reverse your assumptions.
- Learn techniques of creativity.
- Go beyond the “right” answer.
- Go beyond obvious reality. Ask yourself: What if…?
- Play your favorite videogame
- Become a critical thinker. Learn to realize common lies.
- Learn logic. Solve puzzles logically.
- Familiarize yourself with the scientific method.
- Draw. Make doodles. You don’t have to be an artist.
- Think positive.
- Do some calculus and mathematical operations.
- Read these exercises to keep a young mind and try to retain the essential ideas of the post.
- Sit up straight.
- Listen to music.
- Catch all the ideas. Form a list or database with your favorite ideas.
- Eat at different restaurants.
- Simplify your to-do list.
- Learn to spell long words backwards.
- Change your environment. Rearrange items in your room or office.
- Write! Write stories, poetry, create a blog and write on it.
- Learn sign language.
- Visit museums.
- Study how the brain works.
- Meditate about managing your time.
- Watch movies of different genres.
- Get in touch with nature.
- Relax throughout the day.
- Commit to lifelong learning.
- Travel to other countries. Learn other cultures and different lifestyles.
- Learn Braille.
- Buy a piece of art that you like. Stimulate your senses in a way that makes you think.
- Try different perfumes.
- Keep a glossary of interesting words. Invent your own words.
- Learn metaphors.
- Manage stress.
- Read random things in this blog.
- Deliver more than expected.
Mastering Emotional Discipline Through Music: A Practical Guide
Mastering Emotional Discipline Through Music: A Practical Guide
This is an exercise for developing mental discipline, a follow-up to our post about the power of a disciplined mind. Music has a unique ability to evoke emotions, often bypassing our rational mind and speaking directly to our emotional core. This power can be both a gift and a challenge. While music can uplift, inspire, and heal, it can also overwhelm us, pulling us into emotional states we may not consciously choose to inhabit. What if you could harness this power, not by avoiding emotional responses, but by developing the ability to engage with or detach from them at will? This exercise is designed to help you cultivate emotional discipline, using music as a tool to explore and master your inner landscape.
The Exercise: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Choose a Sentimental Piece of Music
Select a song that you know stirs strong emotions within you. It could be a piece tied to a memory, a melody that resonates with your current state of mind, or simply a composition that moves you deeply. The key is to choose something that reliably elicits an emotional response. - First Listen: Surrender Fully
Play the song and allow yourself to fully immerse in the experience. Let the music wash over you, and don’t resist the emotions it evokes. Whether it’s joy, sadness, nostalgia, or longing, surrender to the flow. This step is about acknowledging the power of music to influence your emotional state. - Second Listen: Observe with Detachment
Play the song again, but this time, after a few moments, shift your perspective. Instead of being swept away, observe your emotions as if you were an outsider. Notice how the music manipulates your emotional body—how it rises, falls, and shifts. This step is about developing awareness of the mechanics behind your emotional responses. - Third Listen: Resist Engagement
On the third listen, consciously resist the pull of the music. Refuse to let the emotions take hold. This doesn’t mean suppressing your feelings; rather, it’s about maintaining a sense of control. You’re practicing the ability to disengage, even when the music tries to draw you in. - Fourth Listen: Alternate Between Surrender and Detachment
This time, alternate between surrendering to the music and pulling back. For a few moments, let yourself be fully immersed, then step back and observe. This step is about cultivating choice—recognizing that you have the power to decide how deeply you engage with your emotions. - Expand Your Practice
Once you’ve worked through these steps with one piece of music, repeat the exercise with other sentimental songs. Each piece will evoke different emotions, giving you a broader range of experiences to practice with. Over time, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of how your emotional body responds to external stimuli.
Stronger Memory, Bigger World
Memory is the ability to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve information. Clearly, this definition comprises 3 functions. First, input to the system is considered (storing), which involves perception and transduction of the perceived images into the “right format” for saving the perceived information in the brain. Second, the inputted information must be preserved for a specific time (retaining.) And finally, the stored information has to be recovered from the brain, following our commandment (retrieving.) In this post we’ll review the nature of memory and a few options to improve it. A healthy memory amounts to a bigger vision of our world.
10 Exercises for Keeping a Young Mind
Simply put, your mind needs some exercise in order to stay young and healthy. The basis for brain’s life is processing of new data and stimuli. Our minds should be regularly exposed to updated information and new experiences, in order to reach higher levels of creativity, openness, speed, and adaptation. Looking for new ways of thinking is an excellent exercise for being smarter and more sociable. Nevertheless, in the following I detail a neat list of simple exercises for keeping a young mind and improving our minds’ state:
