Everyday we are constantly bombarded with tons of television commercials products that promise to help improve our memory, be it a brand of milk with “special” ingredients or daily consumption of vitamin supplements to boost the brain’s memory. However, it’s always a question to the effectiveness of these commercials gimmicks.

The truth is it’s the memory muscles we trained each day that boost our memory. And you should not be too afraid that your memory will fail you. All it takes is a few simple techniques that will activate your brain cells.

1. Keep your brain running. Exercise your brain muscles as often as possible by remembering facts, figures, descriptions, numbers, addresses, and the like. Connect all you need to remember with stories and mnemonics. Remember that your brain keeps on growing and developing, so you’ll need to feed it. Play some memory improvement puzzles, like crosswords and mind games to keep your brain at a healthy level instead of watching television. Learning new things is a good way to keep your brain muscles strong. You can start by learning a new language or a new musical instrument.

2. Build up your physical body. The more you exercise the more oxygen circulate to your brain and heart. This can help prevent memory loss. Exercise can also help you feel more relaxed even during tense situations; and with relaxation comes a better chance of retaining the strength your memory.

3. Control your stress level. Do you experience that stress can actually make you more agitated and tense, thereby, making you more prone to forgetting things. You have a difficult time focusing on things. Identify things that make you stress and try to avoid them as much as you can. If you still feel under the weather, you might want to seek professional advice and therapy.

4. Seek to eat healthy. Food supplements may help you improve your memory; but, still, there remains no solid proof that these supplements actually work. Eating a healthy diet contributes to a healthy brain. This would help to keep your memory healthy. Try eating these foods as much as possible: blueberries, spinach, berries, and broccoli.

5. Organizing your life. Planning your time well will also help you maintain your memory’s performance. Organize your phone numbers in your address book, place your keys in the same place, your wallet in your bag, and your reading glasses on your neck. You know what I mean. Allocate or create a place where you would find significant items, so that you can find them when you need them. Besides, knowing that these items are where they are reduces the clutter in your head and helps you focus more.

Brain cells naturally degenerate over time. However, with all these hacks and tips, we can slow this process by living a healthy life and giving our memory leeway to perform better.

Discover the 7 Step Study System That Finally Reveals The Secrets to Score As’!

It is possible for you to accelerate your learning if you want to, you know that don’t you? Not besides helping yourself to learn faster, you can help others as well.

Whether you’re a trainer, a coach, or even a parent, this can be invaluable for you.

Everyone processes information differently -We all learn differently. A person who process thing in a certain way would learn faster using a particular method, using other learning methods would only slow him down. Now do you know why some people study so hard but could not do well in exams? That’s because the teaching method taught in school does not fit his way of processing information.

To start off, we have basically 3 ways of learning and processing…

The Examiner

The Examiner is an analytical person. If he is doing a math problem or applying a new job, he won’t understand it until he can mentally break down the process and fit it back together in his head. He has to memorize the process on the back of his hand before he can feel comfortable with the task or problem.

The ideal way to help the Examiner to accelerate his learning is to give him a great amount of time in the classroom or lab so he can devour the material and learn at their pace – without the pressures and distractions.

The Performer

The Performer is exactly opposite of the Examiner. If you want to help the Performer to learn faster, throw him in a room with the task or problem and let him play with it “physically”. He learns best if he can practice it with his own hands and learn with OTJ (On The Job) training. He’s one that would make a couple of mistakes, but that’s the gist of learning for The Performer. If you have a Performer, do not punish her for mistakes. He may make a few mistakes but he is on the process of learning. Punishing him may lose make you lose a valuable employee. And if you’re teaching your children, understand their learning strategies and praise them for their effort. This will actually encourage them and they will in turn learn faster.

In fact the more mistakes they make, the faster they learn.

The Observer

The Observer could also be called “The Modeler” or “The Imitator”. When the observer is in a classroom, he may seem to be the slowest learner. From outside, it is true that he is a slow student, but it’s certainly not true to say that he is a slow learner. The only people slow between the two are those who do not understand the learning processes of “The Observer”. The Observer understands in a holistic way and can only excel when he sees how everything links together. Only teaching in a holistic way would then provide them with an environment conducive to study.

Whether you are a teacher or a student, learning can be a nightmare or it can be fun. One thing for sure though, unless you know the person’s method of learning, it can be extremely hard to succeed in a particular field or subject.

Having said all of these methods, they are not the only ways people learn. But with these 3 main types, hopefully, with this information, you will be more equipped to train yourself up or groom another genius!

Discover the 7 Step Study System That Finally Reveals The Secrets to Score As’!

Most of us find it hard to express our feelings, because voicing out what we feel is difficult for most. Oftentimes, when we try to say what we want to say, we end up being tongue-tied, misunderstood, or worse, we end up saying the wrong thing. So instead of risking  exposing ourselves to humiliation or rejection, we tend to keep everything to ourselves. Keeping our feelings to ourselves could harm us health-wise. Bottling up emotions has psychological and physical consequences: things that we would  do well to avoid. 

If you do not want to risk getting rejected, there are ways for you to let go of your emotions without needing to talk to anyone. Below are some suggestions on what you can do to release those bottled-up emotions, minus the criticism you might get if you open up to someone else.

Start a Journal. Keep a journal on hand whenever you need to discharge any emotional turmoil. With today’s technology era, where writing using a paper diary is considered passé, creating a blog or online journal is the rage. This is a fun, albeit more public alternative to pen and paper. Whichever you choose, the important thing is that you use the journal as a tool for catharsis. Writing down what you feel purges you of everything you’ve been keeping inside. If you are a person who really craves privacy, don’t leave your (paper) journal lying around. If you chose to make a blog, don’t give your blog’s URL or address to anyone. If you are about to talk about a very private, very sensitive issue, it is advisable to use a diary instead, or a blog that has an option for private posts or password-locked content. James W. Pennebaker PhD, author of the book “Opening Up,” stressed that “If we can create a cohesive personal narrative of our lives and if we can link up our emotions with specific events, then we have the power to take control of how those emotions and events affect our lives.” 

Engage in Creative Dramatics. This is most advisable if you have your own room. Just face a mirror and talk to yourself on how you feel at the moment. You can even pretend you are talking to the object of your emotions. Say what you want to say, and censor nothing. Who knows, it just may hone your acting skills.

Write a Letter. Are you dying to let this guy know how you feel? Or do you want to confront your parents about how bad you feel about their stringent rules? If you can’t muster enough guts to talk to these significant others face to face, why not write a letter addressed to them?  Say everything you want to say then seal and keep it, unless you genuinely want to let them know how you feel. 

Unleash Your Creative Side. If you can’t say it, write it. Write it in prose or poetry. However you want to express your feelings, just go and write! You just may have an inner Ernest Hemingway or Elizabeth Barrett Browning in you? According to a study by Boysun and Smyth, “The simple act of writing about bad times can be a potent, and low cost, method of relieving pain and symptoms of chronic illnesses.” Whoever thought writing could be close to a panacea?. 

Finding ways to release your emotions in a way that need not involve another is limited only by your imagination. If you are the religious type, and your beliefs involve prayer, you can talk to your Supreme Being about your feelings. If you are in a belief that does not have a concept of a Higher Being, then you can meditate your strong emotions away. The bottom line is that you have an outlet for your emotions. Don’t wait for your emotions to be displaced on someone else or for it to eat you up. Express them, and move on. You can never go wrong with that.

All of these were sent to me in one of my emails by a student. It’s made by different students. Take a break from studies and have a laugh.

Read the rest of this entry

One of the scariest things for a student may be transferring to a new school. Nothing can be worse than walking alone in the campus while everyone seems to already know each other and gather in packs. Together with the new environment, you have to deal with academics, extra-curricular activities, teachers, and lone weekends. If only you have someone to go through it all with, school life would be a breeze. 

Building friendships with strangers is not as easy as parents make it sound like. It can be intimidating and the results of a single move to initiate may either be worthwhile or devastating. However, there are ways to successfully merge into your new school, make new friends and make your whole experience fun. Here’s how. 

1. A new school may mean a new attitude. Now is the best time for a fresh start and change the old routines and ways that you disliked from your past school. Try to explore new places and leave your safety zone because it might boost your confidence in the process. It also exposes you to several people that you may have a lot in common with, which means small conversations that could lead to lasting friendships.
   

2. Be confident. Start with your appearance and try to dress well and clean, but comfortable. Smile, be friendly and be ready for quick conversations. Your body language will tell much about your mood; so people will be attracted to you more if you carry yourself well and appear open for anything fun.
   

3. Stop worrying. Worrying will only alter your mood and affect your confidence. Do your best not to be anxious about not being accepted, because there are always people whom you share common interests with.
   

4. Socialize. Join a club or group because these are great places to meet and talk to new people. Ask a few open-ended questions such as hobbies, music, food or anything that can spark up interest. Keep the conversation spontaneous, light and free-flowing. Volunteer in a few activities to widen your network of people.
   

5. Lend a hand. Help someone with her books or homework or offer to sit with someone alone at lunch in the cafeteria. You’ll soon have a person or two willing to stay by you at one moment or another.
   

6. Mind your own business. Whether it is listening to class, solving math problems or playing team sports, people will look up to you for being good and focused on what you’re doing. You’re most likely to have someone asking questions, help or guidance from you. Also, don’t hesitate to ask questions if you need help.
   

7. Fight back. There will always be bullies and people that will try to make you feel bad being new in school but it’s better to fight back – appropriately. Refer to proper authority during such instances like a teacher or principal. You will be admired for standing by your principles and being confident about yourself.
   

School life is meant to be fun, especially when you’re at the prime of your youth. You only need to feel good about yourself before others will feel the same way about you. With the right attitude and patience, in due time, you will be well-socialized, well-adapted and able to perform to your fullest abilities in your new environment.

You’re finally living independently in college and it’s been a few months since you left the confines of your home and constant parent supervision, in exchange for a room shared with another seemingly acceptable character. The excitement of living alone and being your own boss has died down after all the fun and exploration; and you finally decide to settle down and focus on your academics, which are the main reason why you’re living away from home anyway.

You, then, realize your roommate wasn’t as cool as he used to be. He seems to be getting on your nerves these past several days. He can’t seem to stop talking to you when you’re studying, or plays his mp3s out loud when you’re trying to sleep before an exam. Despite the initial advantages of splitting expenses and having a constant buddy around, the annoyance of his noisy nature is beginning to take its toll. You realize that you have to deal with it before the situation becomes unlivable.

Here are some tips on how to deal with a noisy roommate. Read the rest of this entry