Undeniably, intelligence is one of the important factors that determine our success. Not only does it affect career and business success, intelligence determines our overall success.
We are helped a lot in living our lives by our intelligence. To clarify it, we take the easy example, for example we buy five liters of rice in a grocery store. If the price of one liter of rice is nine thousand rupiahs, then the price of five liters of rice equals nine times five, the result is forty five thousand rupiahs. So, the price of five liters of rice if the price of one liter is nine thousand rupiah is forty five thousand rupiahs.
The ability to know the price of five liters of rice if the price of one liter is nine thousand rupiah is an example of intelligence capabilities, aka intelligence. We will not be able to calculate the price of five liters of rice in the example above if we do not have intelligence. If we don't have intelligence, then we will not be able to live independently. We will continue to depend on the help of others.
Intelligence is one of the factors that distinguishes us, humans from animals. Since we live in a social environment, which means we need to work to meet the needs of life, intelligence cannot be separated from us.
What often becomes a problem is, what if our intelligence is lacking? Can intelligence be improved? If so, how do we improve our intelligence?
To find the answer, let's refer to this article from beginning to end.
What Is Intelligence
In general, intelligence can be defined as the ability to understand something, learn new information, and the ability to utilize the new information to solve problems and learn new skills.
Can Intelligence be Enhanced?
Many of us believe that intelligence is innate, that intelligence is genetic. Many also believe that intelligence will decrease with age. The older, the intelligence decreases.
With the assumption as above, we also think it is impossible for us to make various efforts to improve our intelligence. All efforts to increase intelligence will be in vain because our intelligence cannot be changed.
Contrary to the above assumption, many recent studies have found that intelligence is dynamic. This means that intelligence can be improved, no matter how old we are.
A behavioral therapist named Andrea Kuszewski, for example, found that the intelligence of autistic people can be improved. This is evidenced by his own experience when training the intelligence of children with autism, where he succeeded in increasing the intelligence of one of the therapy participants who was a person with autism, who initially only had an IQ of 80 points. After following his therapy for three years, the child managed to increase his IQ by up to 20 points.
Well, if the intelligence of autistic people (whose intelligence is lacking due to brain damage) can be improved, let alone our intelligence. Through various ways, our intelligence can be improved.
What are the ways? Come on, let's just look at some ways to improve our intelligence.
Looking for new experiences
Experts find that when we experience new experiences, there is an increase in dopamine levels in our brain. Dopamine is a substance that functions in increasing motivation, aka mood.
It also plays a role in stimulating neurogenesis (formation of new neurons). Well, according to experts, neurogenesis is an important factor in intelligence. They found that intelligence can continue to increase during neurogenesis in the brain.
Finding Challenges
Many people think that certain games can increase intelligence. But, according to Andrea Kuszewski, what happened was not the case. According to him, intelligence training using certain games cannot improve intelligence. Instead, with the training we actually become experts in the game.
That's because, when we play games (where we first play them), the brain becomes active. But, after we are experts in the game, we also play it automatically.
Now, when we play it automatically, there is no significant brain activity. The game is no longer able to activate our brain cells.
Therefore, we must look for new challenges. New challenges mean new games, which we have never played before, also new things that challenge us to solve them.
With new challenges, brain cells are constantly activated. Neurogenesis also occurs. In turn, intelligence increases.
Choosing a Difficult Way
As our physical health is influenced by physical exercise, so does the health of our brain. Healthy physicality requires physical exercise, aka regular exercise.
If we are not used to exercising, then our body becomes weak. People who are not used to exercising will feel heavy when they have to do physical movements. Conversely, people who are accustomed to exercising will certainly feel light when they have to do a lot of physical movement.
Our intelligence works like our physical. When we don't get used to thinking, our thinking ability becomes weak. We will more easily complain of tiredness and headaches when we have to think hard.
Conversely, for a person who often trains his brain by thinking often, he is not easy to complain of tiredness and headaches when he has to think about solving the problem, for example.
The discoveries of new technologies such as GPS, autocorrect, and spell-checks are thought to blunt the brain's ability. This is because, these technologies help humans to solve their problems without using their brain abilities.
With GPS, we don't need to understand the map (one of the activities that uses the brain). GPS replaces our brain to find the address we want to go.
The same thing happens when we use autocorrect when writing in a foreign language. Autocorrect replaces our brain to correct the grammar and spelling we write.
With technologies like the above, our brains are not used to thinking. This at the end will weaken our brain's ability, or in other words, will reduce our intelligence.
So that our brains are not blunt, we need to constantly train them. The trick is to do activities manually. Avoid using technology that replaces our brain to solve a problem. Avoid using GPS, autocorrect, spell-chcek, and other technologies that prevent us from using our brains.
Easy, isn't it, increasing our intelligence? We only need a little effort to do it. If you are busy or easily feel bored, integrate the above ways in your daily life.
For example, when you visit a place you've never visited before, use a map to find the place. This trains your brain to think. When you are on a plane or train or bus, you can chat and exchange experiences with people sitting near you.
That way, besides your brain is used to thinking, it also has new knowledge that can be used as a source of problem solving.
Now, now, are you ready to increase your intelligence? Don't hesitate to comment.