Building Up Mental Power

In the second half of the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton, the father of classic physics, was given a mathematical problem by the royal society. The problem,which had been tackled by the best minds in Britain for a number of months, was to find the formula that described the shape of the curve of a hanging string. Newton received the problem in the morning and sat at his bedside, Completely still and blotting out the rest of the universe, untill he'd found the answer. By dinner time, Newton had not only solved the problem, he had also developed and applied differential calculus.

Newton had many traits that distinguished him as a mental giant.
He wrote and thought deeply, about philosophy, optics, Physics, as well as mathematics. It's said that he found it strange and Euclid.

Newton's greatest gift was his remarkable ability to concentrate for long periods. In his own words, " If i have done the public any service, it is due to patient thought." In short, Newton's mind was conditioned.

All kinds of action require mental conditioning: getting columns of numbers to balance, working through the options in a commodities market, wrestling down four term papers and six exams in two weeks, any kind of thinking that demands an increased level of activity for a long stretch of time.

There's no short cut for conditioning. A conditioned body, with a strong heart and open lungs, reaches that state through aerobic excercise: running,swimming,jogging,rowing,cycling. A conditioned heart beats easily during normal activity, but responds quickly to increased demand.
Similarly, a conditioned mind grows fit by regular exertion. You must put yourself in the position where you need to concentrate for a sustained time. You must persist. You must guide your mind to go where you want it to go. With practice, your mind becoms used to concentrateting, and your thinking becoms clearer.

Calculation is a tried and tested way to add backbone to your thinking and to condition your mind.

Number Excercise
Recite the following number series:
Up by: 1,2,3,4,......100
Down by: 100,99,98,97,......1

Recite the ascending and descending series:
Up by: 2,4,6,8,.....100 Down by: 100,98,96,94,.......2
Up by: 3,6,9,12,.....99 Down by: 99,96,93,90,.........3
Up by: 4,8,12,16,....100 Down by: 100,96,92,88........4
Up by: 5,10,15,20...100 Down by: 100,95,90,85,.......5

Deepak

Positive Thinking

Believe in yourself ! Have faith in your abilities !
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. But with sound self-confidence you can succeed. A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realisation and successful achievement.

Lack of self-confidence apparently is one of the great problems besetting people today. In a university survey was made of six hundred students in psychology courses. The students were asked to state their most difficult personal problem. Seventy-five per cent listed lack of confidence. It can safely be assumed that the same large proportion is true of the population generally.

So if you feel that you are defeated and have lost confidence in your ability to win, sit down, take a piece of paper and make a list, not of the factors that are against you, but of those that are for you. If you or I or anybody think constantly of the forces that seem to be against us, we will build them up into a power far beyond that which is justified. They will assume a formidable strength which they do not actually possess. But if, on the contrary, you mentally visualise and affirm and reaffirm your assets and keep your thoughts on them, emphasising them to the fullest extent, you will rise out of any difficulty regardless of what it may be. Your inner powers will reassert themselves and, with the help of God, lift you from defeat to victory.

Below are the few excersise to build up greater self confidence :

1. Formulate a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Never permit it to fade.Your mind will seek to develop this picture.
2.Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind, replace it with a positive thought.
3. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.
4. Ten times a day repeat withing yourself " I Can"
5.Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you.

" if you think you can, you can, and if you think you can't, you are right"

Deepak Tiwari

Mind Control

How would you rate your level of mental fitness ?

1. High - My mental performance is exceptional. Just call me Leonardo.
2. Medium - I occasionally think of new things and sometimes challenge my thinking muscles.
3. Low - My mind is like a bowl of tapioca pudding. I'm in real need of a mental workout.

No matter which category you selected, remember that mental fitness - your ability to concentrate, to reason, to visualize, to imagine, to make decisions, to solve problems, and to think clearly and creatively - depends greatly on how well and how often you excercise your mind. If you feel that you are mentally out of shape, then cheer up; you can improve simply by taking the time to work out your mental muscles.

Why are some people's minds sharp, energetic, and overflowing with creative ideas and other people's intellects less than dazzling ?

There are two main reasons: the demands made by circumstances and the pull of mental habits.

A stonemason dosen't need to go to the gym to built up his arms. In the course of his work of mixing mortar and hauling bricks, his arms are naturally strengthened. Similarly, an accountant dosen't need to go to school to lighten up his arithmetic skills. Because he is constantly dealing with numbers, his mathematics muscles are kept trim. If your circumstances don't challenge your thinking muscles, you don't get the stimulation you need to keep fit.

Your mental life - what you notice, how much you pay attention, how well you learn, how you approach and deal with problems, what you remember, what you worry about, what you enjoy, what you think about all day long - is also largely guided by habits.

The key to mental fitness is to develop a good set of habits that help you get to where you want to go. Mentally fit people can exert themselves whenever they want to. They also know how to change habits through conscious, deliberate action and can form effective tendencies, such as the habit to daydream less, or to weigh decisions more carefully, or to take more risks. Together, these good habits encourage the mind to become more responsive and ultimately to develop the most important habit of all: the habit to develop good habits.

" Sow a thought, and you reap an act.

Sow an act, and you reap a habit.

Sow a habit, and you reap a character.

Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."

What makes a good Mental Exercise ?

Solving a crossword puzzle - Preparing for an exam- Conducting a television interview - Improvising on stage - Studying a difficult text - Cooking a gourmet dinner - Making up a chewing gum jingle - Visualizing a friend's face - Recalling the last time you had ice cream - Reciting the national anthem backwards - Naming your elementary school teachers - Continuing the sequence: 2,4,8,16, as long as you can - Learning a new language - Telling a convincing lie - Programming a computer - Changing a bad mood into a good mood - Recalling an important conversation you had last month - Asking your boss for a raise - Explaining why the sky is blue to a four-year old - Negotiating a contract - Playing a video gam - Searching for truth.