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How to Increase Your Capacity by Developing Your Mind's Health

By Okonkwo Noble

One of the 21st-century human struggles has to do with the ability to be productive and remain so. In a time when social media, smartphones, and numerous other activities simultaneously scream for attention, it is little wonder why a large percentage of the population suffers from a lack of productivity.

Other timeless factors, such as health habits, also account for a large percentage of productivity issues.

Seeing that these vices, injurious, albeit are here to stay, only makes sense to pursue extensive options while effectively increasing capacity. One of the most effective ways to increase your capacity/productivity is to develop your mind's health.

Source: Image by John Hain from Pixabay

The Mind

Your mind is arguably the most powerful tool you have. The human mind is probably the greatest gift you have.

In truth, developing your capacity by developing your mind's health is the easiest route to follow. This is especially true given your mind's role and the sheer influence it can have on your entire well-being.

The question beckons, how can you increase your capacity by developing your mind's health?

Developing your mind's health

There are several paths to follow to develop your mind's health. From over-the-counter prescriptions, physical and mental exercise, and diet, you can pretty much develop your mind's health through any of these methods.

Here's an extensive take on some of the most effective ways to build capacity by developing your mind's health:

Exercise

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And by exercise in this context, it means physical exercise.

Physical exercise aids your mental health by ensuring inflammation reduction, insulin resistance, and new blood vessels' build-up in your brain. It is also important to note that exercise also aids sleep and helps to curb the bane of today's society: anxiety and stress.

Exercises do not necessarily have to involve a ball or track shoes. Using the stairs at the office or walking the dog are all effective exercises. The idea is to keep your heart pumping.

In certain cases, household chores may be seen as exercise. Think about that time you had friends over and had to mop the floors rigorously. Was your heart beating? Did you pant like a marathon racer after your bout of spring cleaning?

If so, then you exercised.

Eat Healthy Meals

An irony of life is that most individuals take better care of their possessions than themselves.

Source: Image by Deborah Breen Whiting from Pixabay

Healthy meals, especially those that directly affect your mind, are of utmost importance. This is because your brain represents the powerhouse of your body. If your brain is malnourished, so is your body. And if it is healthy, then healthy is your body as well.

A healthy brain ensures efficiency and effectiveness and an overall increase in capacity. A typical example of a healthy diet for your mind is Omega-3 acids. It helps to build up cells and nerves, ensuring improved emotional health and learning abilities; what better way is there to increase your capacity than feeding your brain the right nutrients.

Drink Water

As mundane as this sounds, water may very easily be the singular most important activity to consider when trying to improve your productivity levels.

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The brain is made up of 70% water at the very least. Thus, you must drink water and lots of it. This is because dehydration affects the functionality of your brain and your entire body.

Inadequate consumption of water will almost certainly hamper your capacity. To improve your capacity, simply drink water.

A caveat, contrary to popular belief, it is indeed possible to drink too much water, and this can be life-threatening.

When you drink too much water, you may experience dilution of the sodium content (hyponatremia) in your body due to your kidneys' incapability to effectively excrete the excess water. The condition (hyponatremia) is more common in athletes.

Read a Book

Reading helps to relieve tension and stress. It also provides a multi-faceted view of most things. By reading books, you undertake mental exercise, and as such, it strengthens your brain and increases your empathy levels.

Source: Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Reading is especially an efficient way to develop your capacity as it improves your brain as an anatomical part of your body while improving its ability to cope in the real world.

Think about all the books you've read as the number of times you've exercised your brain muscle. Imagine reading a book a week on your field of specialization. What better way to improve your capacity than reading a book?

Take New Routes

Humans are creatures of habit, and as a result, we often tend to stick with old habits formed in our younger years without seeking change.

Source: Photo by Katie O'Malley on Unsplash

Because the brain expands when pushed, taking your regular routes, in other words, a route of less risk, home is going to keep your brain from expanding.

To expand your brain and develop your capacity, always ensure to take new risks, and do things differently. Understand that failure is a path towards success and not the end in itself. Therefore, do not be afraid to fail.

Take more risks (calculated risks). By doing so, you'll open up new connections in your brain, which ensures flexibility, expansion, and an ability to adapt quickly.

These are all hallmarks of a developed capacity.

Get More Sleep

The importance of sleep is grossly downplayed, especially in society today. Like the machines we build, humans need rest. Your brain is no exception to this.

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While trying to send those last few emails before you go to bed, you must understand that at that point, your brain functionality begins to dwindle. Hence your productivity falls as well. Therefore, it makes sense to ensure good health and capacity development by getting the required hours of sleep and working when fully productive.

During sleep, brain cells are regenerated to ensure maximal functionality. Toxins are also excreted during the sleep window.

The standard number of hours for healthy sleep is seven-nine hours, starting at 9:00 pm.

Sleep deprivation will not just hamper productivity levels; it can cause threatening long term health challenges.

Listen to Music, Especially Mozart

Studies have shown the effect of listening to music on the human mind. This especially has to do with classical music. Coined the Mozart effect, listening to the music in this genre for extended periods has been proven to increase three to four-year-olds' spatial abilities compared with their peers.

Source: Image by PublicDomainArchive from Pixabay

What makes this phenomenon exciting is that music is beautiful anyway; all you have to do is listen.

Turn on your media player on your way to work, play Mozart while you complete your morning runs, and watch your capacity skyrocket to peers and spouses' amazement.

Write

Writing is a language that tells your brain what is important, clarifying information, and validating others. You do not have to be an exceptional writer to pen your occasional thoughts down once in a while.

Source: Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

While the use of electronic devices for writing pretty much does the same job, better results emanate from writing with a pen and paper. This may be attributed to the process of calling out the alphabets, their shapes, and their positions on paper.

Writing with a pen and paper also tends to spark creativity in most individuals. It also eliminates the distractions that come with electronic devices when writing electronically.

Meditate

Try shutting your eyes and concentrating on nothing else but your breathing. If you're a first-timer, it is only natural that your mind begins to wander in no time.

Meditating helps to improve your ability to focus on tasks. It also helps ensure that you remain focused on a task or several tasks until they are completed.

Source: Image by Irina L from Pixabay

This is not exactly an easy task, thus the need to meditate. Meditation is especially helpful today as humans continue to battle with an allocation of attention on multiple fronts.

From social media notifications, multiple web browser tabs, ringing phones, pagers, crying children at the back seat, and almost missed appointments at the other end of town. The list is endless and continues to grow exponentially, making the process of focus a lot more challenging.

By meditating, you effectively learn how to control your focus. And remain focused on whatever activity you deem fit until the very end.

There are a plethora of ways you can develop your capacity through the mental health route. However, those above are some of the most pronounced methods used extensively by professionals all over the world.

Why not increase your capacity today by developing your mind?

About the Author

Okonkwo Noble understands the need for sustainable travel. He is a foremost trumpeter, writer, Electrical electronic engineer, and adventurer. He also volunteers as a part-time English teacher for Internally displaced children.

He’s a writer for Simple Smart Science

Disclaimer:

The above guest post is published based on the premise that it will be helpful and informative. The opinions made within it are those of the author and not of sunnyray.org. The links you may find within this post do not necessarily imply our recommendation or endorsement of the views expressed within them.

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