Intellectual wellness is a game of mindset – interacting with the world as an active and constant learner without boxing yourself into a fixed mindset
Fizza Junaid
It’s becoming a trend to take care of your body and focus on your physical wellness. However, looking after your body alone cannot let you taste absolute wellness – as it includes many other areas as well. Intellectual wellness is one of the crucial parts of the overall well-being journey. Keep on reading to find 13 effective ways to improve your intellectual wellness.
These intellect improving methods will teach you about how you can nurture your mind with personal growth and intelligence. You can incorporate these essential practices to stimulate your mind with learning and growth.
Table of Contents
What is Intellectual Wellness?
The best words to summarize intellectual wellness are;
Tapping into your creative and cognitive abilities to strengthen your knowledge and skills. Anything that expands your understanding and stimulates your mind about the world around you.
Being intellectually well means you have better sleeping and eating patterns alongside a constant curious mindset. Moreover, there is a cognitive side of intellectual health. Another aspect to keep your brain active – strengthening your abilities to solve problems and critical thinking. This can also include recognizing biases, analyzing all sides of dilemmas, and questioning social norms.
Why it is Important to Keep Improving Your Intellectual Wellness?
When people think about self care, intellectual wellness does not come to mind at first. However, it is as important as any other aspect of health and fitness. Your intellectual health is worth paying attention to as it is crucial to establish a well-rounded wellness practice. The reasons why you should nourish your intellect include:
- It improves the personal growth of a person
- It refines the activity and fitness of your mind
- It enhances the decision-making power
- It establishes a sense of purpose
A few Successful Ways to Improve Your Intellectual Wellness
Are you searching for the right activities to help you improve your intellectual wellness? Browse through these 13 effective intellectual wellness practices and choose the ones that best suit you!
1. Get Creative to Stimulate Your Intellect
Creativity always boosts the intellectual wellness of a person as it improves overall health. For example, music – you might have heard that it makes you smarter. Research showed that EF (executive functions) were increased among musicians in comparison to non-musicians. These executive functions include working memory, cognitive flexibility, problem-solving, and processing speed.
It’s completely fine if you are not a music lover. There are numerous other ways to be creative, it can be crafting, photography, doodling, writing, gardening, or painting. Or it can be anything that makes you excited and comes with an open mind and heart while diving into exploration and curiosity.
2. Sleep On Time for Optimal Performance
You may be thinking isn’t it odd to give importance to sleep when I want to work on my intellectual wellness? Shouldn’t it be like doing everything actively rather than sleeping? People often misinterpret wellness as always being active and constantly working. This is the wrong perception, in fact, the reality is – that when we go to sleep our brain starts taking ‘mental trash’ off and removes stored toxins. This is a necessity for our brain to function properly.
A study found that sleep is necessary as it has a restorative function. When we ignore a regular sleeping pattern it impairs problem-solving, attention to detail, reasoning, and many other abilities. People often wear a proud badge ‘I don’t sleep much’ Are you one of those? If yes, then instantly start working to take your sleep properly. Because when you don’t have enough sleep of at least 7 – 8 hours both your body and mind cannot work efficiently.
3. Keep a Daily Journal to Express Yourself
Keeping a daily journal is another effective way to improve your intellectual wellness. When you write down your daily activities and express yourself without hesitation – it improves your brain cell activity. You can start by writing about important events in your life, this way you’ll find how relieving and necessary it is to express your thoughts. Or you can initiate by writing one gratitude every day to be more grateful for life.
4. Play Brain Games to Strengthen Your Memory
Grab your pencil and try hands on a crossword puzzle or Sudoku. It’s also best to recall your childhood memories especially if you are a kid from the ’80s or ’90s. Or if you are into fast-paced games then go online and select any of the challenging games like Crime Scene, checkers, trivia, chess, Mastermind, and much more.
5. Read to Expand Your Mindset
One of the most persistent habits among successful people around the world is ‘reading’. For instance, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Oprah, and Sheryl Sandberg are all avid readers.
Here a question might be coming to your mind – what should you read? There is no hard and fast rule for what specifically a person should read. You can read anything that expands your views, knowledge, experiences, and your overall mindset. It can be a newspaper, magazine, or some interesting non-fiction or fiction book. The selection of a book does not matter, what matters is how it stimulates your thought process.
If a piece of paper allows you to learn various new things and stimulates your mind to generate interesting ideas – it’s perfect for you. Besides, there is no specific rule about what time you should read, you can continue your book before sleeping, after completing your house chores, or while traveling for a vacation/business tour. Here are some interesting suggestions for hours flight Top 10 Best Books to Read on Long Haul Flights.
6. Exercise to Boost Your Learning Ability
Exercise and physical activity are not only good for your body but also beneficial for your brain. A study performed at a British university suggests regular aerobic exercise boosts the brain area’s hippocampus – involved in learning and verbal memory. Another study showed that aerobic exercise helps in stimulating the release of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This factor promotes the growth of new and effective connections in your brain.
The most prominent benefits of exercise relevant to the brain are:
- Sharpens your memory
- Helps you feel more active and better overall
- Enhances your ability to learn
7. Meditation is an Answer to Your Ails
Mindfulness and meditation boost your brainpower and wash out all of your ails. You might be thinking how? The answer is very simple – meditation helps achieve greater emotional and mental clarity by allowing you to calm down your thoughts. If you don’t want to meditate, then just try deep breathing.
Breathing helps improve circulation and brings oxygen to your brain and muscles. Moreover, it initiates your digesting and resting system (parasympathetic nervous system). Deep breathing also quiets your mind and promotes a state of calmness.
You can start instantly, just get through this step. Did you hold for a second and take a deep breath when you started reading this article? No, that’s what we usually do as we are always in a hurry. You can practice meditation or deep breathing only for five minutes – but make sure to add it to your routine. After a few days, you will feel a clear difference and improvement in your intellectual wellness.
8. Talk It Out to Relieve Yourself
As human beings, we depend on our relations for survival and happiness. Have you ever noticed when we talk about our problems with our loved ones – how we become hopeful? It is because sharing your thoughts with trustworthy people reduces the level of your stress. You can try this by bringing up some recent events for discussion over the phone, at a small gathering, or with a friend online.
It is important to listen with broad minded thoughts while making a conversation. Make sure you are giving consideration to the point of view of others as well even if you do not agree with them. By using this formula you can expand your intellectual wellness through having lively discussions.
9. Reduce Your Stress Level to Enjoy Life
Stress is a silent killer that never caught sight but can destroy your intellectual wellness. Stress has a major role in your mental and physical health. Try to reduce and manage your stress levels through different activities like light exercise and meditation. You can also relieve yourself from stress by spending time with loved ones. Or you can enjoy your time in outdoor activities and playing with your pet.
10. Stay Curious to Increase Mental Activation
Are curious about how your local baker established his bakery? Go ask him. Are you curious about how the engine of your car works? Check and take it apart. Are you curious about what is this plant-based movement? Turn on your laptop and watch a documentary. Always keep identifying things that you wish to know better, no matter how small or big it is. Just find a matter you are curious about then explore it while activating your brain.
Hence, staying curious increases your mental activity. When you remain curious about something, it improves your learning ability about the relevant subject. It also enhances your retention capabilities and overall learning. Curiosity is what leads a person to be more successful in his relevant field or career.
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If you want to know more about how to improve your career wellness, explore this article. Here you will find numerous tips and tricks to boost your career health and wealth.
11. Try Something New to Grow Your Mind
The term neuroplasticity is the capacity of a brain to continue evolving and growing – that comes in response to the experiences of life. At the early stages of development, scientists believe our brain stops growing after childhood. Modern researchers have proven this concept wrong and suggested the human brain continues to change and grow throughout its lifespan. Your brain adapts and changes through stress, experiences, and stimulation.
Try something new outside of your comfort zone. Some examples include:
- Travel to a new location to learn its history
- Learn some foreign language
- Start playing a new sport
- Start some new learning courses.
Just focus on finding a challenging thing to expand your brain power.
12. Stay Hydrated to Get Electrical Energy
More than 75 percent of our brain is composed of water. Do you know what happens when we get dehydrated? Your brain cells get dehydrated too and you start experiencing headaches, loss of focus, loss of memory, brain fog, fatigue, and moodiness. This is because water is the electrical energy for our brain functioning – including memory and thought processes.
If you want to improve your clarity and focus – aim to have at least eight glasses of water daily. Make sure to increase your hydration thought adding more electrolytes or a small amount of sea salt. Sea salt helps improve the absorption process into your cells.
13. Eat Well to Fuel Your Body and Brain
Food is a fuel for the human body as well as the brain. The reality is your brain consumes 20 percent of your daily intake (calories). Similar to body requirements, inflammatory foods like sugar and refined carbs have negative impacts on your brain health. And nutrient-dense clean foods improve your intellectual wellness.
Some of the beneficial brain health foods are:
- Pumpkin seeds for effective micronutrients (zinc and magnesium)
- Blueberries for antioxidants
- Green leafy vegetables for beta carotene and vitamin K
- Chocolate for flavonoids
- Nuts for compounds and healthy fats
Try to incorporate these food items into your diet for improved intellectual wellness.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does intellectual wellness affect you?
Your intellectual health helps in becoming more mindful by encouraging learning. Being intellectually healthy means you have optimal exploration abilities and possess everlasting curiosity aspects.
How you can improve intellectual wellness?
There are numerous healthy ways to improve your intellectual wellness. For instance, develop the habit of reading to broaden your perspective and knowledge. Try something out of your comfort zone or experience the arts to know your imaginative side.
