It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I only want to post if I have anything remarkable to share and beneficial. So here goes today’s post. Stick with it. It’s a really valuable one.
Create good habits and stick to them
Do you have those mornings when you get up and feel foggy, sluggish, as if you’ve had a large beer without actually having that large beer?
You find it hard to kick-start the day? There’s something you needed to remember and you can’t quite get it? You have an important speech to make and you want to impress? You have an exam and want to get all those facts right?
Exercising the brain is just as important as the physical exercise we need to keep everything working well. Our ability to learn is not fixed to intelligence or our potential, it’s about expanding our ability to learn. So here I am going to share some great morning routines to get that brain working at its peak performance. Keep that mobile phone at bay for the first hour!
First thing when you wake up is to remember your dreams and jot them down.  This is when your
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brain has been actively creative and figuring out stuff. It could be that eureka moment! Before going to bed consciously tell yourself I want to remember my dreams.
  2. Secondly, make your bed! Start the day as you mean to go on. It gives you a sense of wellbeing and success. At the end of the day you return full circle to a ready made bed.
  3. Third, do some brain gym. Try brushing your teeth with your opposite hand! The same goes for eating with the opposite hand! This really fires up the neurol networks in your brain.
   4. It is really important to keep your brain hydrated. Drinking a glass of water helps clear a foggy brain. We use up a lot of water in our body while we sleep.
   5. This one is not going to be everyone’s favourite but having a cold shower really helps relax the brain, reduces inflammation (think why we put ice packs on knee injuries) and gets the brain into the theta state which is optimal for programming and creativity! It’s got to be worth it!
   6. Drink a brain G-tea which contains ginko, ginger or green tea. Remember the 3 Gs!
   7. Whilst enjoying your tea this could be the optimum moment to write in a journal. Many successful athletes and business people keep a journal. Apart from jotting down what you remember from your dreams, focus on writing for example 3 things to accomplish today.
   8. Drinking a brain-power smoothie. Great brain foods are avocado, blueberries, broccoli, tumeric, walnuts (nature is telling us something with this brain-shaped food), green leafy veggies. Apart from the smoothies, good alimentation is clearly important so including salmon and eggs in the diet is a great brain booster, (but not so nice in smoothies)! 😉
  9. Got many books on the shelf that still haven’t been read? Set aside time to read every week. Reading keeps a well-trained muscle.
  10. Morning time is a great time to dedicate to various exercise practices. A 5-minute exercise which involves movement, e.g. yoga and raising the heart rate will set you up for the day, including meditation practice (in the form of breathing or visualisations) for as little as 20 minutes daily will make a big difference to processing thoughts.
As I mentioned earlier, consistency is key to all of this and finding your motivation for why you would want to optimise your brain state. Your motivation reasons may be for:
better focus
more confidence
more proficiency and success at work
recalling data better
remembering things more easily such as people’s names
looking after your mental health
Happy remembering!