Mental Health

Six Valuable Yet Underutilized Cognitive Tools

Combining these six tools can improve cognitive health and performance naturally and cost-effectively.

Purpose of the Article

Inspiringly, my subscribers always encourage me to inform them of valuable tools and methods in my expertise areas. In this post, I introduce six innovative cognitive tools anyone can use and naturally benefit from. Besides, they don’t cost us money. They revolve around daily habits.

What do I mean by cognitive tools, and why do we need them?

I call processes and methods to improve our cognition as cognitive tools. Cognition comprises thinking, learning, and remembering abilities. The effectiveness of our cognitive skills determines our cognitive health.

Cognitive health refers to the ability to think, focus, learn, and remember effectively. Enhancing these abilities with various tools called cognitive performance boosting. Sensible biohackers use these tools.

Boosting our cognitive performance enables us to create and strengthen our cognitive reserves as we age. The more robust cognitive reserves we have, the better we can function when we face age-related neurodegenerative disorders.

Cognitive reserves are necessary as we get older because we get more prone to cognitive decline due to the adverse effects of neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia.

Unfortunately, millions of people suffer from cognitive dysfunction, neurodegenerative diseases, and mental health disorders.

From my observations, natural cognitive tools are underutilized, as most people only focus on supplements to boost their cognitive performance. Nootropics are typical supplement examples of people spending thousands of dollars.

In reality, combining these cognitive tools and making them daily habits can be much more efficient than overpromised and expensive supplements. Plus, they don’t cost us much and bring no side effects.

Some of us might need supplements and even medication. Nevertheless, they cannot replace these tools as the brain needs physical stimulus to grow (neurogenesis) and maintain homeostasis. These tools can also enhance our metacognition.

In the subsequent sections, I summarize six game-changing cognitive tools for personal and professional success.

1 — Adversity Quotient and Emotional Regulation

I start with the adversity quotient (AQ) as it significantly impacted my cognitive health and performance. Improving our AQ might make us more flexible thinkers and tolerant of the perspectives of others. AQ can make us resilient and unflappable in life.

AQ refers to gaining abilities to tolerate physical, mental, and emotional obstacles and setbacks and turn them into opportunities. The higher our AQ, the better we can relate to others and adapt to our environment.

Educators and cognitive scientists developed processes and techniques to measure the adversity quotient. Studies indicate that the higher the AQ and EQ, the more successful the learners are. EQ refers to emotional intelligence. So AQ can also contribute to regulating emotions.

During my post-graduate studies, I researched the behavior of exceptional and distinguished leaders. I noticed that these leaders had a very high adversity quotient with emotional maturity.

They rewired their brain to deal with setbacks and act with empathy and compassion. I emulated their thought patterns and behavior, which enhanced the meaning of my life.

I documented my findings and perspective of AQ in an article titled Here’s How to Increase Adversity Quotient in 6 Steps.

Interested readers might check the story. However, I’d like to summarize the key points to increase the adversity quotient here.

1 — Accept people, situations, and circumstances as they are.

2 — Turn setbacks into opportunities.

3 — Embrace negative criticism.

4 — Convert envy to admiration.

5 — Tame the overactive amygdala.

6 — Move from comfort to stretch zone.

Increasing the adversity quotient and emotional maturity can also improve our overall health and well-being. Our bodies must deal with a tremendous amount of adversity. Pathogens and toxins are inevitable. The body must fight against them to survive and thrive. Dealing with others requires high AQ and EQ.

2 — Reticular Activating System

All critical information between the body and the cerebrum (upper part of the brain) passes through and is filtered in the brain stem. There is a specific unit called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

RAS comprises a cluster of nerves in the brain stem. Its primary role is to filter unnecessary information and only allow essential content. RAS achieves filtering flooded information based on fixed parameters.

These parameters are our safety, survival, and other factors which have supreme importance coded in the old brain that the cognitive system (thinking part of the brain) perceives.

RAS is critical for survival as this region filters unnecessary and inundated information from multiple senses. It focuses on seeking facts validated by our perception and beliefs coded as memory.

The conscious brain might obtain proof by checking positives and negatives. For example, if we imagine the failure and focus on it, the RAS will bring evidence of failures. Likewise, focusing on success brings success. Perhaps optimists are happier and live longer for this reason.

Realistically, the conscious brain can handle a tiny chunk of information. The solution to our problems is tapping into the vast ocean of the subconscious mind. This is where RAS plays a critical role.

More specifically, RAS establishes a bridge between the conscious and subconscious mind. I documented my perspectives in an article titled Here’s Why I See RAS as the Secret to Accomplish Dreams with Less Effort.

The critical point is verbalizing our questions and concerns, being patient, and letting the RAS tap into the subconscious mind to bring desired information as fast as possible.

3 — Neurobics (Brain Gym)

The concept of neurobics is activating various brain regions with external stimuli. It can be explained with the metaphor of brain gymnastics using daily activities.

It is possible to stimulate the brain using multiple activities. For example, we can turn daily chores into brain boosters. These activities involve cognitive capabilities such as focus, attention, task switching, and working memory.

The central premise of neurobics is that repetitions can activate several parts of the brain, strengthen neural connections, and expand the neural network.

Neurobic activities can be designed to activate the neocortex, the thinking part of the brain. They can increase our cognitive reserves to lower the effects of neurodegenerative diseases.

We can use brain-stimulating activities, like dexterous writing, brushing teeth with both hands, washing dishes mindfully, decluttering the home, solving puzzles, singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, playing with children, laughter yoga, and, my favorite, barefoot walking on grass or beach sand.

Many people enjoy brain-stimulating games on PC and mobile phones. For example, some of my friends are subscribed to gaming services, such as Lumosity and Elevate. I also use them daily without getting addicted. As computers and video games can be addictive, I don’t spend too much time playing.

4 — Flow State, Mindfulness, and Meditation

I have been researching mindfulness for decades. When I started, it was a controversial topic in the Western world. Fortunately, mindfulness practices, especially meditation, entered the mainstream and were embraced by health and well-being communities.

Flow state is a mindfulness practice. In this state, neurotransmitters and hormones work in a more balanced way. The flow state is ideal for creating desired results with less time and effort, balancing our energies, and reducing stress while working or studying.

The body and the brain experience less stress in the flow state. In addition to joy and happiness, the flow state is ideal for creativity and productivity. We can achieve the flow state by improving our cognitive abilities like focus, attention, working memory, task switching, and problem-solving.

The flow state puts us in a meditative and trance state. Therefore, meditation might be an excellent tool in our mental health first aid kit. It might help instantly or contribute to our long-term health and well-being. Like many thought leaders, I made regular meditation a hobby. Nowadays, I meditate three times a day.

Regular meditation might balance our hormones and neurotransmitters. Besides, meditation might contribute to regulating our emotions and increasing cognitive flexibility. Consequently, it might increase our creativity and productivity and improve our relationships.

Meditation can also empower us to enter a flow state quickly. In a meditative state, RAS can also tap into the subconscious mind faster. Therefore, meditation is a handy tool cognitive to improve our attention, focus, memory, and problem-solving.

5 — Self-Talk and Expressive Writing

Self-conversations might bring both tangible and intangible benefits. Its therapeutic value can be exceptional for our cognitive health and performance. I explained why talking to myself was not crazy but clever.

The immediate benefit of self-talk is stress reduction and mental clarity. The long-term cognitive development effect can be seen as intangible, but it is a precious tool for our mental health.

Regularly practicing self-conversations might significantly increase cognitive reserves and reduce the adverse effects of mental conditions such as dementia. In addition, they can increase our creativity, especially when we start doing it systematically and asking intricate and a wide variety of questions.

Self-conversations can help us create innovative and inventive ideas that might contribute to our personal development and professional growth. In addition, methodical self-talk might deal with boredom effectively. Self-talk might turn boring times into more exciting ones, making them more productive.

We can record our voices and turn self-talk into personal stories. I documented an example of self-talk in an article titled here’s how I talk to myself for self-therapy. Talking and writing can activate different regions of the brain. Their combination can create better cognitive outputs.

Similar to self-talk, expressive writing can be therapeutic and bring many cognitive benefits. I documented my research into expressive writing in an article titled therapeutic value of expressive writing for mental health based on scientific studies.

6 — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

I left this to the end as the previous items can significantly change our behavior and be used as therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy based on conversations between patients and practitioners.

The primary goal of CBT is to change negative thinking patterns to produce positive behaviors. The fundamental premise of CBT is: when we change our thoughts and feelings, our behaviors will automatically change.

Even though CBT is generally used as a treatment method for some mental health disorders, such as addiction, anxiety, depression, or traumatic stress disorders, it can also improve cognitive performance.

The good news is that we can do CBT by ourselves on our own time. We can also perform it via support from mental health professionals. More importantly, regularly practicing CBT might increase our cognitive flexibility and contribute to our emotional regulation.

Conclusions and Takeaways

These cognitive tools and processes can turn into habits. By gaining healthy lifestyle habits, we can improve our cognitive capabilities and enhance our physical and mental health. These tools can also enhance our metacognition.

We need to observe our habits mindfully. As the body and mind are connected, we must factor in both the physical and psychological aspects of habit-building. Habits can make our lives easier as the brain loves patterns and routines.

The brain’s neural connections get more vigorous when we establish and strengthen the habits with constant practice. As a result, we achieve more with less effort. These tools can improve our cognitive health and performance.

Cognitive health refers to the ability to think, focus, learn, and remember effectively. Improving these abilities is called cognitive performance boosting, creating cognitive reserves as we age.

These six tools are natural and do not cost us much money. Even though cognitive health is vital at any age, it is crucial for the older population because, as we age, we experience accelerated cognitive decline. For example, we might get more anxious as we get older and experience dementia symptoms.

Even though these six tools can be valuable, cognitive health also depends on fundamental human needs such as food, sleep, rest, movement, recovery, and fun.

These fundamentals are essential requirements to balance hormones and neurotransmitters. The balance of the endocrine system is vital for cognitive health and performance.

If you often feel stuck in “Fight-Flight-Freeze” mode and lose control, you might try these practical steps to get unstuck and move on.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

I aim to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and write about various hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.

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