While some exercises work your left brain the analytic, logical part of your mind-others work your right brain—the intuitive, spectial part of your mind together, they give you a well-rounded mental workout.
Exercise Style Tips
Here are some rules of thumb to improve your exercise routine.
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Change out of your mental street clothes. Leave your problems and concerns outside in the locker room. Adopt the workout attitude by intending to strengthen yourself. Delight in the difficulties that you choose for yourself.
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Don’t analyze. Since the whole point of mental exercise is consciously to manipulate your mental resources, do the exercises. The amount of benefit you receive is directly proportional to how much you are willing to stretch and exert your mental muscles. Remember, good form is the key to good exercise.
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Take your time. Don’t rush your workout. It takes a while to enter deeper layers of thinking, so be patient. Give yourself plenty of time to explore your inner world.
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Repeat the exercises. A lot of the exercises in this book can be performed many times on many separate occasions. Only with time and practice will your abilities improve. Make up a routine of your favourite mental calisthenics. If you reach a block, an exercise you can’t do now, take a break and come back to it later.
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Exercise often. The more you exercise your mind, the easier it becomes. The easier it becomes, the more you enjoy it. The more you enjoy it, the more you exercise your mind. And the more you exercise your mind, the more fit your mind becomes.
Loosening Up Style Tips
There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when we’re loose. The mind becomes calmer, attention becomes clearer, and we become more ready to respond to anything that may come our way.
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Keep your mind fresh by relaxing your body. Settle into a comfortable posture, relax any muscles you don’t need to use.
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Unclutter your thinking by identifying which you need to think about. Write out a list of demands, needs, wants, pressures, anticipations, anything that’s on your mind. Release the hidden concerns by looking at the big picture.
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Bring your mind into the here and now. Develop a technique to come back to your senses. Learn the best way for you to collect the full hundred volts of your attention and to focus it where and when you want it.
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Periodically, take some time to relax and unwind. Develop the skill of letting go fully by setting aside some time each day to do nothing.
Concentration Style Tips
Pay attention to your attention—it is your most important mental muscle. Encourage it to become stronger and more flexible by periodically concentrating with all of your energy.
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Adopt a physical posture that makes it easy to concentrate. Relax your body and avoid wasted movements. Pablo Picasso said, ‘While I work, I leave my body outside the door, the way Muslims take off their shoes before entering the mosque.’
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Adopt an emotional posture that makes it easy to concentrate. Become interested in the task at hand. Gently lead your mind through encouragement, not through force. Look for the interesting aspects of the task and relate them to your other interests.
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Adopt a mental posture that makes it easy to concentrate. Identify your tasks clearly, and set definite objectives. Find a mental rhythm that builds a momentum to your work.
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When you can’t seem to concentrate, fake it. Pretend that you are absorbed in what you’re doing. Ask yourself what position would your body be in if your mind was focused? What would it feel like to be interested? What would you think about if you were economizing your attention? If you continue this, an attitude of concentration will naturally evolve.
Repeat these sentences forwards, word by word, after reading them once backwards:
Doing is answer shortest The—English proverb
yourself to yourself give but others to yourself Lerid—de Montaigue
mouth his in fish a with up come will he and sea the into man lucky a Throw. —Arabic proverb
tailor the to elegance leave, truth the describe to out are you If—Albert Einstein light own his in him show to is shadow his with person a confront To Carl Jung
Read correctly at sight the following passage in which each word is spelled backwards:
ynaM a emit I evah detnaw ot pots gniklat dna dnif tuo tahw I yllaer deveileb. – nnamppil. retlaW erehT era owt sdnik fo hturt, Harris hturt dna taerg hturt. ouY nac ezingocer llafns hturt esuaceb s’ti etisoppo si a clooheslaf. ehT etisoppo fc, a taerg hturt si rehtona hturt.
sleiN rhoB ytiraIC, thgisni ro gnidnatsrednu era y1no elbissop nehw thguoht si ni.ecnayeba, nehw eht dnim si Ilits. nehT y1no nac uoy ees yrev ylraelc, neht ouy nac yas ouy evah tcerid noitpecrep, esuaceb rouy dnir, si on regnol desufnoc. oT eb raelc, eht dhim tsum eb yletelpmoc teiuq, yletelpmoc Ilits, neht ereht si laer gnidnatsrednu dna erofereht taht gnidnatstednu si noitca. tl t’nsi eht rehto yaw dnuora. ij itrumanhsirK
