These ten ways to make your brain smarter

这十种方法让自己的大脑变得更聪明

Brain fitness has basic principles: variety and curiosity. When anything you do becomes second nature, you need to make a change. If you can do the crossword¹ puzzle in your sleep, it's time for you to move on to a new challenge in order to get the best workout for your brain. Curiosity about the world around you, how it works and how you can understand it will keep your brain working fast and efficiently². Use the ideas below to help attain³ your quest for mental fitness.

大脑健康的基本原则是保持多样化与好奇心。不论做何事一旦成了习惯，就需要改改了。假如你可能在睡醒后做纵横填字游戏，如果把这段时间换做其他求解式游戏，那么大脑会得到更好的锻练。对周围世界的好奇心越强，对事物理解就越深刻，大脑反映越快，效率也越高。采用下述10种健脑法，会使你的大脑更健康。

1. Play Games

1.玩游戏

Brain fitness programs and games are a wonderful way to tease and challenge your brain. Suduko, crosswords⁴ and electronic games can all improve your brain's speed and memory. These games rely on logic⁵, word skills, math and more. These games are also fun. You'll get benefit more by doing these games a little bit every day-spend 15 minutes or so, not hours.

玩健脑游戏是向大脑挑战的最好方式。纵横填数字游戏，纵横填字游戏，电子游戏都能使大脑更敏捷，记忆力更强。这些游戏都是运用逻睫分析能力，语言能力，数学能力及其他更多方面的能力。玩这些游戏能也给人带来了乐趣。通过游戏也会使人获得更多的好处——每天玩大约15分钟即可，不要花费过多时间。

2.Meditation⁶

2.冥想

Daily meditation is perhaps the single greatest thing you can do for your mind/body health. Meditation not only relaxes you, it gives your brain a workout. By creating a different mental state, you engage your brain in new and interesting ways while increasing your brain fitness.

每天静坐冥想也许是唯——种最有益身心健康的方法。冥想不仅放松了身体，同时也锻炼了大脑。由于营造了一种与往不同的心理状态，因此在增进大脑健康的同时，也使大脑处于一种非常有益的新状态。

3.Eat for Your Brain

3.为大脑的健康而吃

Your brain needs you to eat healthy fats. Focus on fish oils from wild salmon⁷, nuts such as walnuts⁸, seeds such as flax seed and olive oil. Eat more of these foods and less saturated⁹ fats. Eliminate transfats completely from your diet.

大脑需要有益健康的脂肪，注意多吃野生鱼油如大麻哈鱼油，坚果类如胡桃，种子类如亚麻子，植物油类如橄榄油，吃少量来自肉类与乳类的饱和脂肪。杜绝摄入反式脂肪酸（注：这种反式脂肪酸是高血脂的真正罪魁祸首。其存在于植物性奶油、马铃薯片、沙拉酱、饼干以及薯条等食物中。）4.Tell Good Stories

4.讲引人入胜的好故事

Stories are a way that we solidify¹⁰ memories, interpret events and share moments. Practice telling your stories, both new and old, so that they are interesting, compelling and fun. Some basic storytelling techniques will go a long way in keeping people's interest both in you and in what you have to say.

讲故事是巩固记忆的一种方法，在讲故事的同时，讲故事的人也有所收获。通过讲故事，不论新老故事，听的人都会感兴趣，注意倾听，同时也带来乐趣。讲故事时如果采用一些简单的技巧，会使昕故事的人注视讲故事的人并全神贯注地昕故事。

5.Turn off Your Television

5.离开电视机

The average person watches more than 4 hours of television everyday. Television can stand in the way of relationships, life and more. Turn off your TV and spend more time living and exercising your mind and body.

一般来说平均每人每天看电视的时间均超过4小时。看电视过多会妨碍人际交往，日常生活与其他许多方面。关掉电视机，把更多的时间用于日常生活与身心的锻炼。

6.Exercise Your Body to Exercise Your Brain

6.借助体育运动锻炼大脑

Physical exercise is great brain exercise too. By moving your body, your brain has to learn new muscle skills, estimate distance and practice balance. Choose a variety of exercises to challenge your brain.

进行体育运动同时大脑也得到了锻炼。通过肢体运动，大脑也学会了控制肌肉的新技巧，增强了判断距离的能力和保持肢体平衡的技巧。应选择多种运动方式来锻炼大脑。

7.Read Something Different

7.阅读不同类型的书籍

Books are portable, free from libraries and filled with infinite interesting characters, information and facts. Branch out from familiar reading topics. If you usually read history books, try a contemporary novel. Read foreign authors, the classics and random¹¹ books. Not only will your brain get a workout by imagining different time periods, cultures and peoples, you will also have interesting stories to tell about your reading, what it makes you think of and the connections you draw between modern life and the words.

书籍具有携带方便，借阅免费的特点。书中有许多有趣的人物、知识与故事。通过阅读各类书籍扩大知识面。如果经常阅读历史方面的书籍，试试改读一下当代小说。读些外国人写的书，读些名著，读些随机遇到的书。通过对不同时期的故事情节，文化背景，和各类人物的联想，不仅丰富了头脑，而且也能把你读到的那些有趣的故事讲给别人，这些故事会使你产生联想，发现书本知识与现实生活之间的联系。

8.Learn a New Skill

8.学习一门新技能

Learning a new skill works multiple areas of the brain. Your memory comes into play, you learn new movements and you associate things differently. Reading Shakespeare, learning to cook and building an airplane out of toothpicks all will challenge your brain and give you something to think about.

学习一门新技能会使大脑更多区域参与活动。头脑中的旧记忆也会发挥积极的作用，你掌握了一套新动作，也发现了不同的新旧事物之间的联系。读莎士比亚的著作，学习烹饪，用牙签做飞机，所有这些都锻炼了大脑，促进了大脑思考。

9.Make Simple Changes

9.改变习惯

We love our routines. We have hobbies and pastimes that we could do for hours on end. But the more something is "second nature", the less our brains have to work to do it. To really help your brain stay young, challenge it. Change routes to the grocery store, use your opposite hand to open doors and eat dessert first. All this will force your brain to wake up from habits and pay attention again.

人们都喜欢按常规办事，都有各自的兴趣爱好与娱乐方式，而且可以几个小时不间断。但是人们习惯性动作越多，大脑参与的活动就越少。为了让大脑保持青春状态就要剌激它。改变去副食店的路线，改用另一只手开门，吃饭时改为先吃餐后吃的甜点与水果。所有这些都会把大脑从习惯中唤醒，重新充满活力。

10.Train Your Brain

10.做大脑训练

Brain training is becoming a trend. There are formal courses, websites and books with programs on how to train your brain to work better and faster. There is some research behind these programs, but the basic principles are memory, visualization¹² and reasoning. Work on these three concepts everyday and your brain will be ready for anything.

训练大脑正在变成一种趋势。有各种正式的课程，各种相关的网站与各种相关的书籍，所有这些都是有关于如何训练大脑，使大脑保持最佳状态与最敏捷状态的内容。有些学术研究落后于现状，但是大脑训练的基本原则都是训练提高记忆力，想象力和推理的能力。每天训练这三个能力，会使你的大脑对遇到的任何事情都应付自如。