How to Increase Brain Power?

[Raphael]

Hey there,

I'm trying to improve my brain power. I recently started to eat a bit less, I notably reduced my quantity of rice and I noticed that it cleared my mind a lot. I also did some work to release past traumas and it reduced many of my negative thoughts.

I would just like to know if you guys have advices to improve my mind and my ability to focus and have clear thoughts. I'm not only looking for healthy food but anything that has an impact on the mind: food, traumas, kind of physical activity, the external environment, etc. I personally currently eat mostly healthy, exercise a bit every day, and try to sleep well (when my mind isn't too crazy).

By the way here is how I'm planning to eat for the next month:

• Breakfast: a smoothie consisting of half an avocado, blueberries, and a date. I will also add some oats
• 10:00 AM Break: a small mix of fruits (apple and oranges) with some almonds and cashew nuts
• Lunch: average portion of rice + Eggs or Fish + 2 vegetables + Kiwi
• 04:00 PM Break: : a small mix of fruits (apple and oranges) with some almonds and cashew nuts
• Dinner: a small portion of rice + Some Grains (peas, chickpeas, lentils) + 2 vegetables + black chocolate

Cheers.

[Michael569]

17 hours ago, Raphael said:

Breakfast: a smoothie consisting of half an avocado, blueberries, and a date. I will also add some oats

@Raphael I would start here. If this is your breakfast, make it bigger. More complex carbs, more protein and more fats. Breakfast should basically be your largest meal, not only does it set your metabolism to the optimal speed, it also sets the tone of your blood glucose balance for the rest of your day and your blood glucose balance is one of your primal brain power factors. Perhaps you could combine your meal number 1 and 2 into a single breakfast meal that will give you 50-60% of your daily calories and then not eat till around d 3pm (lunchtime) 

The diet balance is nice but I'd suggest a bit more calories from complex carbohydrates (wholegrain, lentils), cutting out all white rice and white potatoes and replacing it with high-fibre wholegrains will also clear out a lot of brain fog

Also, exercise definitely needs to be part of the routine. Not a light jog but a more rigorous strength-based form, this increases density of mitochondria in your brain cells and also stimulates BDNF. So either weights, or bodyweight, some kettlebells, HIIT with your own weight, pullups, pushups that kind of stuff. Also some agility training to deploy more areas of your brain (like primal movement, look up Ido Portal - that sort of stuff) 

Add some green tea in the mix. 2-3 cups per day to stimulate your neuroplasticity 

Make sure you go out, get some sunshine or at least expose your eyes to daylight every day, very essential for optimal brain performance. 

Make sure your zinc intake is optimal 

You can check my 2 part blog on BDNF as well as gut-brain axis post. I've put over 30 hours of research into those, you may find some helpful info in there, just follow my link in signature and click on "blog". 

 

[Eternal Unity]

Read a lot of books.

[The0Self]

Meditation. Serious meditation.

Adequate protein and carbs, and minimal but sufficient fat. I used to think sugar was the devil and fat was great but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Interesting rice was an issue for you. White rice gives me energy and clarity.

[Raphael]

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

@Raphael I would start here. If this is your breakfast, make it bigger. More complex carbs, more protein and more fats. Breakfast should basically be your largest meal, not only does it set your metabolism to the optimal speed, it also sets the tone of your blood glucose balance for the rest of your day and your blood glucose balance is one of your primal brain power factors. Perhaps you could combine your meal number 1 and 2 into a single breakfast meal that will give you 50-60% of your daily calories and then not eat till around d 3pm (lunchtime)

I feel like when I'm eating a big meal, the digestive process causes some brain fog.

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

The diet balance is nice but I'd suggest a bit more calories from complex carbohydrates (wholegrain, lentils), cutting out all white rice and white potatoes and replacing it with high-fibre wholegrains will also clear out a lot of brain fog

I chose to replace white rice by brown rice.

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Add some green tea in the mix. 2-3 cups per day to stimulate your neuroplasticity

I'll try to add some green tea, but I think that it caused me some issues in the past, but I don't remember what.

[freejoy]

On 4/25/2021 at 0:23 PM, Raphael said:

Hey there,

I'm trying to improve my brain power. I recently started to eat a bit less, I notably reduced my quantity of rice and I noticed that it cleared my mind a lot. I also did some work to release past traumas and it reduced many of my negative thoughts.

I would just like to know if you guys have advices to improve my mind and my ability to focus and have clear thoughts. I'm not only looking for healthy food but anything that has an impact on the mind: food, traumas, kind of physical activity, the external environment, etc. I personally currently eat mostly healthy, exercise a bit every day, and try to sleep well (when my mind isn't too crazy).

By the way here is how I'm planning to eat for the next month:

• Breakfast: a smoothie consisting of half an avocado, blueberries, and a date. I will also add some oats
• 10:00 AM Break: a small mix of fruits (apple and oranges) with some almonds and cashew nuts
• Lunch: average portion of rice + Eggs or Fish + 2 vegetables + Kiwi
• 04:00 PM Break: : a small mix of fruits (apple and oranges) with some almonds and cashew nuts
• Dinner: a small portion of rice + Some Grains (peas, chickpeas, lentils) + 2 vegetables + black chocolate

Cheers.

Underwater swimming.

Holding ones breath underwater causes co2 in the blood vains and expands the arteries going to and from the brain.

By keeping doing this the arteries keep expanding and don't go back to the original size. The brain will get more oxygen and nutrients and can remove more toxins.

Try to get where you can hold your breath for about 4 minutes.

 

[SgtPepper]

practice semen retention. 

[Human Mint]

Check out about Ginkgo Biloba: https://www.andro-health.com/post/many-faces-of-ginkgo-biloba (post by @Michael569 )

[kinesin]

You say you want to improve brain power, but your post contains no mention whatsoever of learning.  I've boosted my own awareness and intelligence hugely over the past 5 years, so I can give some solid advice.

Of course, diet, exercise and proper sleep.  You already know all of that.  Regular meditation and mindfulness aimed at developing concentration and insight - but you probably know that too considering you're on this forum.  As far as learning though, it's not so much a question of just stuffing your brain full of information, but rather if you want to develop intelligence and brain functioning you need to take a systematic approach toward developing yourself a broad, low-level, fine-grain education which will teach you knowledge, methods and insight which are applicable to a wide range of other things.  The more fundamental the knowledge you gain, the more widely applicable to many other things it'll be, and this knowledge acts as a portal which can skip you to a more advanced level of understanding in other topics.  You need to spend a lot of effort to plan this out and find out what the most fundamental subjects are for you and your needs.

Here's a solid example from my own experience.  A few years back I got introduced to 'movement' as a topic of interest, and I decided to learn as much as I could about it.  I spent a lot of time focusing my awareness on my body, the placement and movement of my limbs, spine and hips, the sense of weight and balance.  I realized that I could 'plan out' a specific movement such as a jump or an arm swing by consciously recognising the starting, mid and end position of the movement in order to maximise the efficiency of it.  What did this practice lead to?  Well, I suddenly found myself able to dance.  I found myself able to practice perfect form in exercises naturally without guidance, and to develop my own exercises.  I could throw further, run and swim better, jump higher and more gracefully.  I had an intuitive high-level understanding of yoga.  I'm now able to play the piano by 'dancing' my fingers across the keys in coordinated patterns.  These are just a few of the many benefits I've noticed, all of which came as a result of developing a core focus on a single specific thing.

Find the right fundamental skill or perspective and a whole new world of brain functioning will open up to you.

[Max_V]

@kinesin I love that reply.

Do you by any chance know Ido Portal? That’s what immediately came to my mind when you mentioned movement so specifically

[kinesin]

@Max_V  Yes, it was encountering a video about Ido Portal 6 years ago which got me thinking about movement in this way.  Of course originally when I encountered him, I was impressed by the physicality of his feats and part of me wanted to be able to emulate those, but as I continued being aware of movement over time, I realised the truth depth of his teachings with regard to their applicability to so many things.

[UDT]

On 26/04/2021 at 0:54 PM, Michael569 said:

@Raphael I would start here. If this is your breakfast, make it bigger. More complex carbs, more protein and more fats. Breakfast should basically be your largest meal, not only does it set your metabolism to the optimal speed, it also sets the tone of your blood glucose balance for the rest of your day and your blood glucose balance is one of your primal brain power factors. Perhaps you could combine your meal number 1 and 2 into a single breakfast meal that will give you 50-60% of your daily calories and then not eat till around d 3pm (lunchtime) 

This.

And you need to supplement with O3 oil, etc. When I study for heavy med exams I take o3, hyperzine a, ltheanine, codliveroil, ashwaganda, lionsmane, coffee --> super genius mode

 

+ You neeeeeed 8+hours of good sleep!

Edited May 20, 2021 by UDT

[Striving for more]

I don't know the right answer but what I've heard may be true : Would be interesting to hear if anyone resonates with any of these.

1. Optimize sleep (The first thing you should do, the only certain thing without conflicting opinions) 
2. Optimize Diet (so much conflicting opinions) 
3. Meditation?? 
4. High intensity exercize? 
5. Brain Training? >> Reading books, studying, thinking, solving problems, doing calculations, learning new language, learning new skills or instrument 
6. Socialising & Networking? (I intuit that social situations challenge the brain in unique ways)
7. Nootropics  & Dietary supplementation
8. Detox / Mercury Detox / Plastics detox 
9. *Outsource ideas & memories to your pc/phone 
10. Sex? (- I could intuit that the endorphins release may lead to more clear mind, better serotonin (although I am very undecided about masturbation debate) 
11. Cold shower? 
12. Use visual stimuli >> Set up your room, desk, office, workspace whatever to be appealing, bright, colourful, inspiring 
13. Micro dosing? 
14. MDMA Therapy?  
15. Adrenaline releasing activities  >> Competitive sports, Dancing, riding motorbike, winter sports, skiing, hot yoga, beach sports,
16. Fasting? 
17.  Binaural beats, focus music, flow state music 
18. Walking in a , riding bike in a forest (Sparks creativity, allows meditation)

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Striving for more

[Michael569]

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

• Optimize sleep (The first thing you should do, the only certain thing without conflicting opinions) 
• Optimize Diet (so much conflicting opinions) 
• Meditation?? 
• High intensity exercize? 
• Brain Training? >> Reading books, studying, thinking, solving problems, doing calculations, learning new language, learning new skills or instrument 
• Socialising & Networking? (I intuit that social situations challenge the brain in unique ways)

definitely! all of them

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Nootropics  & Dietary supplementation

meh, mostly not unless you already fixed everything above. Good for short term boost thou if you need to extra brain time

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Detox / Mercury Detox / Plastics detox 

if you ran out of other options (eg. all of the above) then this may be the next step 

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Cold shower? 

heck yah !!

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Sex? (- I could intuit that the endorphins release may lead to more clear mind, better serotonin (although I am very undecided about masturbation debate) 

don't have sex to improve brain power ffs  have it with the person you love because it is the most intimate connection you can have with them. Masturbation has no impact on brain performance, if anything it just numbs you down. 1

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Adrenaline releasing activities  >> Competitive sports, Dancing, riding motorbike, winter sports, skiing, hot yoga, beach sports,

short term boost, risk of long-term chronic fatigue and adrenaline addiction 

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Fasting? 

IF is great for boosting BDNF, definitely. Long term fasting will lead to muscle atrophy and with that possibly decline in BDNf and brain power. 

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

 Binaural beats, focus music, flow state music 

possibly, works nicely sometimes

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Walking in a , riding bike in a forest (Sparks creativity, allows meditation)

absolutely! time spent in nature = brain on steroids 

[Raphael]

@Striving for more

Interesting that you've added socializing into it. It also seems to me that any life experience can improve someone's mental capacity and that any experience can be used later in a different field. The more diverse life experiences someone has, the more flexible its brain is.

[Raphael]

5 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

don't have sex to improve brain power ffs  have it with the person you love because it is the most intimate connection you can have with them. Masturbation has no impact on brain performance, if anything it just numbs you down.

Actually, I feel a bit more clarity after masturbating but that's mostly after not doing it for 2 - 3 days. Masturbating every day do numbs me.

[flowboy]

On 26/04/2021 at 6:43 PM, Raphael said:

I chose to replace white rice by brown rice.

I would switch back. The hulls of rice are taken off by the largest population of rice eaters for the longest of times, for a reason. Do you think people would traditionally go through the tedious work of peeling rice, if it wasn't necessary? Think about that. They contain arsenic, which is a poison, and indigestible lectins which irritate the lining of the gut and put you at risk of leaky gut and autoimmune.

 

On 26/04/2021 at 6:43 PM, Raphael said:

I'll try to add some green tea, but I think that it caused me some issues in the past, but I don't remember what.

@Raphael If you don't tolerate caffeine well, here's another way to increase neuroplasticity - microdosing.

I've increased my brain power by a lot lately because I take small amounts of psilocybin 5 days a week.

Personally, I noticed cool things like learning new skills more quickly and learning to prioritize quicker and more effortlessly. (I had difficulty prioritizing, it cost me a lot of brain power)

It also cuts procrastination dramatically for me. Puts me in the zone. Increases my drive and energy. Makes me less distractable.

Here's some articles and sources on it:

https://observatory.synthesisretreat.com/neurogenesis-can-psilocybin-help-grow-your-brain-cells

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211023

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30604183/

https://www.psypost.org/2020/10/international-study-finds-79-of-individuals-who-microdose-with-psychedelics-report-improvements-in-their-mental-health-58391

[Striving for more]

1 hour ago, Michael569 said:

short term boost, risk of long-term chronic fatigue and adrenaline addiction 

Lool cmon these things aren't bad! 

@flowboy That's insane I want to try psilocybin, not sure where to find it reliably though.

@Raphael Suprised no one has mentioned learning how to learn. 

sleep & meditation ect.. = basics but Im realizing it's about how you use your brain & how you study,  think, strategize & organize your mind. 

Spaced repetition & Forgetting curve 

https://www.mosalingua.com/en/memory-the-forgetting-curve/

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Striving for more

[Striving for more]

2 hours ago, Michael569 said:

IF is great for boosting BDNF, definitely. Long term fasting will lead to muscle atrophy and with that possibly decline in BDNf and brain power. 

@Michael569 You're supporter of eating big breakfast. 

Do you normally stop consuming completely by say 5 or 6 PM ect.. to allow a 16 hour break ? 

Do you notice a worthwhile enhancement in cognition due to regular 16 hour fast? 

[Michael569]

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Do you normally stop consuming completely by say 5 or 6 PM ect.. to allow a 16 hour break ? 

Yeah, recently I've been doing that, cutting down on my dinner and sometimes not having it at all end then fasting through night and having proper breakfast at 9 or 10. 

1 hour ago, Striving for more said:

Do you notice a worthwhile enhancement in cognition due to regular 16 hour fast? 

I definitely notice a large dinner making my sleep worse and then that has a knock-on effect on everything else but otherwise I don't see any real benefits of it. It is more for practical reasons of not disrupting sleep.