How to keep the brain alive

I don't mean literally. Never the less, how to keep the brain stimulated ? Before the how, let's delve to the question of 'why'. Why does one need to keep the brain stimulated. The answer is - we have a brain that is highly under utilized and in every one's best interests, the brain power, so called has to be utilized to the maximum potential. Not utilizing brain power is analogous to investing a few hundred thousands in a Lamborghini and drive the car at 20 mph. It doesn't hurt to do so, but it's not of any good either.

Everyone is aware of this fact. It shouldn't come as a surprise that, on an average we harness less than 10% of our brain power. I'm speaking about the average person here, not the crafty painter, the savvy investment banker or the psychology professor at Johns Hopkins. What got me into this thinking was my own lifestyle. I realized over a period of time how passive my lifestyle had become. To quote, during my high school days, I was a top achiever in almost every aspect and correspondingly my mind stayed very active. After high school - over a period of 10 years I can't seem to recollect many instances which stimulated my thinking and let me out of the box. There were such instances but not many. It's in my best interest to regain the activity level of those high school years, simply because a sedentary brain makes one more sedentary and the realization that I have a Lamborghini sitting idle in my garage, doing those occasional 20 mph runs. How to achieve that and what does this change in thinking translate to day to day living:


1. Giving up on Television - the most passive and mindless activity on this planet, period. I was never a fan of television mostly because of the commercials, but the more I kept 'surfing' the channels, the more mindless the activity became.
2. Giving up on movies - Movies of all kinds are mostly passive entertainment with the exception of a few.
3. Giving up on alcohol - This might seem a little crazy but I think drinking leads to an overall malnourished brain. An occasional drink should still be fine but regular partying surely eats up the brain cells.
4. Taking up reading : Not just the Fredrick Forsyth and the Jeffrey Archer thrillers - but the more stimulating ones - like Shantaram.
5. Taking up on certain video games - Not the ones where you have to kill all the time.
6. Waking up early - It's not a joke , 4 AM to 6 AM is the time the brain is most active. Hindus called it "Brahma Muhurta" for this reason.
7. Exercise - Again this does not translate to 45 minutes of muscle tearing bench presses and barbell workouts. A 15 minute jog would suffice.
8. Yoga and meditation: I'm still in the process of getting into Yoga but eventually Yoga will be the answer to keep the mind totally active.

It's true, not all minds think alike, but certainly the superiority of one mind over the other is just contextual. In today's ever competing world, it sure pays off to own a Lamborghini but the payoffs vanish the moment one hits the tarmac and drives the lamb at 20 mph. The extra boost has to be unlocked and the same is true holds true for the human brain as well.