Everyone has different cognitive abilities. But one thing that is commonly emphasized is that good cognitive abilities are the desire of many people. Why?
With the presence of qualified cognitive abilities, a person is considered to be able to further develop and achieve his goals. Well, quoted from Scientific American, there are at least 5 ways that can be done to increase cognitive potential.
Learn New Things
Of course it is no coincidence that geniuses like Albert Einstein, can be skilled in many fields. Apparently these geniuses are constantly looking for new activities, learn new things and it becomes part of their personality. When you are looking for something new, then several things are happening.
First of all, you will create new synaptic connections or cells that work on the brain when it is involved in learning or getting new experiences, with each activity that is carried out.
These connections build on each other, increasing neural activity and creating more connections to build other connections. In addition, this activity to seek new things will also trigger dopamine which not only increases motivation, but also stimulates neurogenesis and prepares the brain for learning.
Challenge Yourself
The next way that can be done is to challenge yourself. Challenging in the sense here is always wanting to move forward after feeling good at something. After mastering one cognitive activity, it is necessary to continue with the next challenging activity.
Scientist Richard Haier once made an experiment by doing a new mental activity intensive for several weeks. The results found that during the training, the subjects experienced an increase in cortical activity. However, continuing to linger in this situation will lead to a decrease in cortical thickness.
After training, the brain will find patterns so that someone who initially finds it difficult to play something will feel lighter. This can make the emergence of feelings of laziness because they feel no longer challenged. Therefore, looking for new things that are more challenging can be one way to improve cognitive abilities.
Creative Thinking
The purpose of creative thinking here is not limited to an ability to paint pictures or the ability to do something artistic. More than that creative in this case is more about the extent of the processes that occur in the brain.
Creative thinking is not the same as thinking with the right side of the brain. Creative thinking involves both parts of the brain, aka not just the right. Creative conditions will involve divergent thinking, making long-distance associations between ideas, daring to go back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking and generating original and new ideas according to the activity.
Doing Things the Hard Way
This one method may sound a bit ambiguous. Basically everyone will try to be able to do something efficiently. In other words, a person has a tendency to be able to do more things in a short time by expending as little physical and mental energy as possible.
But in fact, this does not really help the brain to improve abilities. One example is GPS. The discovery is quite extraordinary in today's era, allowing someone to know directions in a short time without having to think hard to find directions. However, relying too much on this GPS can actually make your sense of direction worse.
Therefore, you also need to train your brain by doing things that seem complex, right!
Build Network
This network or networking can be an important element to improve cognitive abilities. By networking with other people, either directly or indirectly in certain situations, it will make goals easier to achieve.
By exposing yourself to new people, ideas and environments, you open yourself up to new opportunities for cognitive growth. It also gives you the opportunity to look at the problem from a new perspective, or even offers insight in a way you've never thought of before.