Scans of the brains of child musicians before and after musical training have yielded compelling evidence that proficiency and skill relies on hard graft, not innate genius.
It has been found that like muscle, brain tissue can change with exercise.
Music Lessons Provide Brain Workouts
July 31, 2010 Leave a Comment
How Positive Mood Can help You?
December 20, 2008 Leave a Comment
Being positive helps. Positive moods can increase one’s ability to take good decisions. According to a recent study, a positive mood enhances efforts to attain future well-being, encourages broader and flexible thinking, and increases openness to information. the study has been conducted by the uiniversities of Georgia and Chicago.
The study has been published in Journal of Consumer Research.
The researchers presented identical statements to study participants in one experiment. The statements in each set were preceded by either a smiley face or a frowny face.
Simply associating a smiley with a statement resulted in the statement being construed at a higher, more abstract level.
During the follow-up studies, the research team induced positive and negative moods by asking participants to describe either the happiest or unhappiest days in their lives.
The participants were also asked to fill out three different questionnaires, with a view to determining the level of abstract versus concrete thinking. The researchers said that all three questionnaires showed that people in a good mood thought more abstractly.
According to them, being in a good mood allows people to step back emotionally.
Those in a positive mood not only adopt higher-order future goals and work harder toward attaining them, but also reduce their efforts when goals are proximal or concrete.
How Sleeping Boosts Creativity And Memory
December 5, 2008 1 Comment
If you get interrupted sleep,it can affect your memory. This has been suggested by a new research. In contrast, taking a nap may boost a sophisticated kind of memory that helps us see the big picture and get creative.
“Not only do we need to remember to sleep, but most certainly we sleep to remember.”
Scientists increasingly are focusing less on sleep duration and more on the quality of sleep. Particularly important is “slow wave sleep”, a period of very deep sleep that comes earlier than better-known REM sleep, or dreaming time.
Fishbein suspected a more active role for the slow-wave sleep that can emerge even in a power nap. It is possible that our brains keep working during that time to solve problems and come up with new ideas.
The research included 20 English-speaking college students who were given lists of Chinese words spelled with two characters-such as sister, mother, maid. Half the students took a nap, being monitored to be sure they didn’t move from slow-wave sleep into the REM stage.
Upon awakening, they took a multiple-choice test of Chinese words they’d never seen before. The nappers did much better at automatically learning.
Fragmented sleep, whether from aging or apnea can suppress cell birth in the hippocampus, where memory-making starts enough to hinder learning weeks after sleep returns to normal.
Rats with disturbed sleep could only randomly stumble upon an escape hole in a maze that their counterparts detected easily by using room cues.
How To Harness Power of Boredom For Achievement
November 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
Boredom is one of the most important things in human life. It exists only when the mind starts coming closer to enlightenment. And boredom is just the polar opposite of enlightenment!
We have so many entertainment resources at our disposal. TV, radio, cinema, internet, books, movies, songs, concerts, shows and so on. But still we are more yearning and more bored when compared to people in thenpast ages when nothing of this sort was ther.
An intelligent and intelligent and above-average person can get bored easily. Does this imply that people are more intelligent these days?
You need to be sensitive to get bored.
Today, people live very luxurious lives. Even the mythical paradise has become out of date and context, as we have more comforts and more luxuries than ever before!
Gautama Buddha, inspite of all the comforts of life at his feet got fed up and left in search of truth, of self-actualisation, of permanent contentment.
However, we hope that, one day, everything will become all right and we will be content. So, we are bored but not fully because somewhere we feel that much more is possible in our lives.
We should observe this phenomenon of boredom more closely. It will make us understand that boredom is very human and it has a higher purpose if we allow that purpose to lead us to meditation and transform our lives.
Boredom comes with monotonyYou have done all those things earlier. There is monotony. Nothing has changed. Boredom indicates that you have become conscious of this.
If you escape from boredom, you would try diverting your mind in other directions. Alcohol, drugs, infidelity stems from this phenomenon of escapism..
Boredom is a part of human growth. We need constant simulations to keep ourselves occupied. That is why we keep looking for new goals, new cars, new houses, new friends, new clothes, new promotions because being content can make life dull and boring.
Boredom should be looked at positive way. Give yourself new tasks, new challenge every now and then. Do a new thing to spice up your life. Learn a new language, learn new instrument. Read few new books.
Use intertia of boredom to produce postive life energy.
Inspired by an article in TImes of India
A Comparison of Proactivity and Reactivity
November 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
Proactivity – Requires brain in gear
Reactivity – No brain-work involved
Proactivity – Time taken for consideration
Reactivity – Snap decisions
Proactivity – Will overcome obstacles
Reactivity – Bounces off obstacles
Proactivity – Worthwhile goal in sight
Reactivity – Drifts aimlessly
Proactivity – Priorities sorted out
Reactivity – Deals with stuff as it happens
Proactivity – Time used efficiently
Reactivity – Time wasted automatically
Proactivity – Determination holds good
Reactivity – Changes mind frequently
Proactivity – Discipline needed
Reactivity – Why be so hard on yourself?
Proactivity – Disappointments endured
Reactivity – Gives up if there’s any difficulty
Proactivity – Enjoys the doing
Reactivity – Craves immediate results
Proactivity – Will make a difference
Reactivity – Life becomes pointless
Proactivity – Counted as truly human
Reactivity – Behaves like an old primate
Step Back To Move Forward
September 26, 2008 Leave a Comment
It might seem like a contradictory title but this is what a new study suggests.
When you’re upset or depressed, should you analyze your feelings to figure out what’s wrong? Or should you just forget about it and move on?
In a study by university of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross, the best way to move ahead emotionally is to analyze one’s feelings from a psychologically distanced perspective.
As a human being we all are in habit of thinking and reviewing our mistakes. But this makes us to re-experience the same negative emotions again and again and thus keeping us stuck in negativity
Therefore it is very helpful to create a mental time-out, sit back and try to review the situation from a distance avoiding being subjective.
This is quite similar to what has been taught for centuries in our eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Taoism. According to the research any one can do this by little practice.
The research says
Go back to the time and place of the experience…take a few steps back and move away from your experience…watch the experience unfold as if it were happening all over again to the distant you… try to understand the emotions that the distant you felt as the experience unfolded…why did he (she) have those feelings?
What were the underlying causes and reasons?
It is really like steeping back to move forward.
What Are Methods of Persuasion
September 23, 2008 Leave a Comment
Persuasion can be done by manya methods. Usually applied emthods are a combination of following
Appeal To Reason:
* Logical argument
* Logic
* Rhetoric
* Scientific method
* Proof
By appeal to emotion:
* Advertising
* Faith
* Presentation and Imagination
* Propaganda
* Seduction
* Tradition
* Pity
Aids to persuasion:
* Body language
* Communication skill or Rhetoric
Use Persuasion to Increase Your Influence
September 21, 2008 Leave a Comment
Persuasion is method of social influence.
Wikpedia defines persuation as guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. It is strategy of problem-solving relying on “appeals” rather than strength.
Principles of persuasion
These principles have been defined by Robert Cialdini
Reciprocation
It is in human nature to return a favor. Have you ever noticed how common it is for companies to provide free samples. You can increase your influence by providing help to people without asking them anything in return
Commitment
CPeople once commit are verylikely to honour it. Getting commitment is an important principle.relationship may it be personal or social.
Provide Proof
People like to see proofs. If you could provide them, it adds to your advantage.
Authority
People will tend to obey authority figures. So if you want to persuade, creating an authority is a must.
Liking
People are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. So it is good to have a pleasing personality
Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate demand. If you could create a picture of scarcity, you create an urgency and people are more likely to complete the action
Finding A Safe Place For Your Mind Problems
August 14, 2008 Leave a Comment
Our actions and reactions are guided by our emotions. Sometimes this influence is very obvious and at other times quite subtle to be recognized. We often see emotions as a sign of weakness. We try to put them aside and try to focus on the rational aspects more and more.
No matter how strict and logical you want to be, the emotional aspect cannot be overlooked. We will always be a human being, not a robot.
Our feelings make us human beings
Material success is important and we might see our emotions as an obstacle in that. But at the same time positive emotions are a life long goal for many of us. [Read more...]
This website is by a young orthopedist who is exploring ways to enhance mind power and beauty.