Do you know why children easily learn new things? Because they are constantly training their brain. Memory is a very powerful tool, but it becomes weak if it is not used for a long time. What do you do to make your brain stay active and productive?

We offer you 10 ways to improve memory and personal effectiveness.

1. Learn something new

Think on what you would like to learn and start. It may be a new hobby, such as painting or horseback riding. Try yourself in writing a poem or a fairy tale. Do something you have never done before, and let your brain actively participate in it.

2. Read good books

When reading a book, your brain is “forced” to memorize information about the characters and events of the book. Images that arise in the brain stimulate the imagination. So, reading improves your memory, enhances your brain power and enriches your vocabulary.

3. Get rid of the routine

Try to make unfamiliar actions and take spontaneous decisions. For instance, you can replace your usual breakfast with something new, or try to learn to write with your non-dominant hand, or change your everyday route to/from work.

4. Sleep well

Eight hours of sleep are essential for maintaining your brain in a good condition. All day long, your brain solves various problems and faces different challenges, so it needs a good rest at night in order to effectively solve the problem again tomorrow.

5. Computer Games

Gamers will be glad to know that they do not just waste their time spending hours at the monitor, but also train their brain. However, half an hour or maximum one hour of game is sufficient for daily brain training, but not the whole evening or day. Try to choose intellectual or logical games where you have to think, choose the best strategy and plan your steps. If you have a routine job, then a half-hour game will help your brain stay active.

6. Learn poetry

How many poems do you know by heart? Little children know dozens of poems. So you can learn nursery rhymes with your children or memorize some classic or contemporary poems. Thus you will not only train your memory, but will also touch beauty. And one day you will surprise your colleagues or relatives, reciting some poem.

7. Language learning

Learning a foreign language ​​is not only a great workout for the brain, but it also can be useful in life. The point is to learn at least ten new words a day. When you master this pace, you can move to something more difficult such as, for example, learning phrases and idioms instead of words.

8. Enrich your vocabulary

Try to discover new words every day. These can be words of general use or those on your subject/interest. Use a dictionary for unknown words or pick synonyms for already known words. Also try to use new words in your speech.

9. Work with numbers

Do you easily do mental arithmetic? Well, I am sure you cannot imagine your life without calculators or computers. However, mental calculation not only makes your brain work, but enhances your memory as well. For example, you can start with such a simple thing as calculating your purchases at the supermarket.

10. Tell about the past

Try to tell someone about how your day was yesterday, starting with the end, i.e. first tell what you did in the evening, then – during the day, and finally – in the morning. Recalling the events of the near or distant past, you will activate your memory and will not let it erase this information as unnecessary.

The book “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown contains a chapter on some amazing experiments. According to the author, our soul is a material substance which can exist outside the body and can have weight. Therefore, it can be weighed. One of the characters in the book, Katherine Solomon, was able to weigh human soul. She placed a dying man (he had donated his body for scientific purposes) in an air-tight capsule, fitted with very sensitive micro weight detectors. While the man was alive, the scales showed a figure of 51, 4,534,644 kilograms. And after the old man’s death, the micro scales showed a decrease in the body weight. Brown does not specify this difference as a number, but makes a general comment: “This difference, though microscopic, is quite measurable.” This experiment allowed Brown to stipulate that the human soul does exist.

Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill (Massachusetts, USA), was the first scientist to conduct this kind of experiment in 1906, as reported by the New York Times on March 7, 1907. McDougall “detected” the change in the body weight when the person had died. The measurements were performed on a special bed, which was also a gigantic scale with high precision, and have shown that the “soul” weighs 22.4 grams. Another weight measurement of the “transient substance” was done almost 80 years later, in 1990, by another researcher – Lyell Watson from the University of New York. In his experiments, the deceased became 2.5 – 6.5 grams lighter. And almost identical results were obtained by Doctor of Science Eugenyus Kugis from the Institute of Semiconductors of the Lithuania Academy of Sciences in 2006. He found that at the time of death, the person loses between 3 to 7 grams of body weight.

It is not clear yet if the difference in weight can be attributed to the soul. But the question related to the existence of soul may be answered soon. The studies designed to prove the existence of soul have now been conducted in 25 clinics in the U.S., Canada and the UK. Dr. Sam Parnia is in charge of these experiments. He came up with an idea to test the hypothesis of human soul escaping the body after death, the phenomenon which has been persistently described by individuals who had experienced clinical death. The Doctor and his assistance place cards with written notes in intensive care wards, in places not visible to the patients from their beds, on the ceiling, for instance. The patient who becomes “dead” for a short duration, will need to read the words written on cards and then tell them to physicians. If the word is read and told correctly by one of the patients, then it is possible to say that an intelligent entity is separated from the body during death. And what else can it be but the human soul? The experiment will end at the end of 2013, and the separation of this intelligent entity from the body will be observed in 1,500 patients.

Skeptics’ opinion

Russian scientist, the head of the intensive care unit and resuscitation, Nikolai Gubin said:

“My colleagues and I conducted experiments on mice to determine when and how theweight loss occurs when a living organism dies. Four newborn mice weighing 4 and 5 grams were injected with strychnine. After that, two of the mice were placed in the laboratory containers without lids. And the other two mice remained in tightly sealed special containers. When the mice were later weighed, it was found that the weight loss (meaning the “soul” separating from the body) occurred in the first two test subjects, which were dying in the open air. Their weight decreased by 3 and 6 mg. The mice, isolated from the outside world, had their weight unchanged. It turns out that this possible weight loss during the process of dying can be attributed to natural physical processes (water losses during respiration, heat and evaporation losses), and their effect on difference in body weight can be eliminated by sealing the test subjects undergoing the process of dying.”

In addition, it has been long known that a decrease in body weight can be recorded during sleep. In an experiment by Swiss scientists, 23 volunteers laid in bed, outfitted with ultra-sensitive scales and went to sleep. At the time when an individual transitioned from being awake to falling asleep, a weight loss between 4 and 6 grams had occurred.