Everybody wants to boost their intelligence. There’s no denying that. So, where do people get stuck?
Some may try to debate this, but here are the facts: Even though genetics play a role in cognitive growth, or what most of us call “intelligence,” most people are born “blank slates.”
This means that no one is born knowing something or having certain traits. Instead, all information is gained through experience and learning. Don’t forget that your brain works like a muscle.
The more you work with it, the smarter it gets.
So, think of reading this as going to the gym for your brain. You shouldn’t miss it!
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading, you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
1
Boost your intelligence by questioning everything
Albert Einstein once famously said: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
People who always question everything around them are the smartest people you will ever meet.
And that’s because we learn about the world around us by asking questions.
Please let us explain.
First, asking questions about everything makes you more curious, which is a key part of growing your mind.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when a person is curious. Dopamine is a key part of the brain’s reward and motivation processes.
This chemical reaction makes learning fun and makes you want to keep learning more and more. It can get quite intense.
Second, this way of thinking makes it easier to think critically.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, evaluate, and put together different pieces of knowledge to make good decisions or solve hard problems.
You can train your brain to be more discerning and analytical if you always question assumptions and look for other answers.
Third, asking questions about everything makes you more adaptable, which is an important trait we made a whole video about.
In a world that changes quickly, it’s important to be able to adjust to new knowledge and situations. If you keep asking questions, you’ll be more comfortable with uncertainty and better able to change your views and plans as needed.
Last but not least, it helps you get into metacognitive states where you are “thinking about thinking.”
Metacognition means being aware of your own thought processes and being able to control them well.
Research shows that metacognitive skills can help you boost your intelligence and learn better. Because people who use them are more likely to keep track of what they know, find gaps in their knowledge, and use good learning techniques.
So, yes, the next time someone tells you to question everything, know that they are giving you the best advice in the world.
2
Boost your intelligence by learning a new language
Learning a new language is a powerful and rewarding way to boost your intelligence.
It uses different cognitive processes and improves brain plasticity, which is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.
It improves your memory, your ability to pay attention, and your ability to solve problems.
People who speak more than one language have a better working memory. An important feat for things like reading comprehension, mental math, and switching between jobs.
Aside from that, being bilingual also changes the structure of the brain, making it more connected and dense.
These changes make it easier to handle information quickly and improve cognitive reserve.
This is the brain’s ability to resist the decline that comes with getting older.
So, learning new languages has been linked to a delay in the start of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Also, learning a new language helps people develop tolerance and cultural awareness, which are important parts of social intelligence.
Immersing yourself in a different language helps you understand the norms, beliefs, and points of view of the people who speak it.
This will help you handle different social situations and connect with people from different backgrounds in a useful way.
Remember that being smart is not the only thing that makes you smart. It has many different kinds.
3
Boost your intelligence by reading things that intimidate you
If a book makes you nervous and scared, that’s a sign you should read it.
When you deal with difficult material, your brain has to work harder to understand it. This makes your brain stronger and helps you learn more about complicated subjects.
This is the best and most effective way to boost your intelligence, end of story.
By being exposed to new ideas and concepts, you improve your critical thinking and logical skills. This helps you understand the world better and improves your ability to make decisions and solve problems.
Texts that are hard to understand also encourage the often-mentioned “growth mindset,” which is the idea that you can get smarter with hard work and persistence.
This way of thinking makes you more likely to take on problems and solve them. As a result, this boosts your self-confidence and makes you want to face even harder problems in the future.
As you study more difficult material, your vocabulary and language skills will naturally improve. This is because you will be exposed to new words, phrases, and writing styles, which will improve your ability to communicate and your language skills.
And, maybe most importantly, facing things that scare you helps you build mental strength.
Reading difficult texts teaches you how to deal with frustration and adapt to hard situations. This builds mental toughness that helps you not only with your academic goals but also in dealing with the challenges of everyday life.
By reading things that make you feel uncomfortable, you invest in your intellectual and emotional growth. Give yourself the tools to become a more capable, adaptable, and well-rounded person.
4
Boost your intelligence by applying everything you learn
Knowledge is power: You hear it all the time, but knowledge is not power. It’s only potential power.
It only becomes powerful when we apply it and use it. If knowing is half the battle, action is the second half of the battle.
Learning without using what you’ve learned is only half the job because getting information is only the first step in understanding and mastering a topic.
When you learn something new, you get some theoretical information. However, it’s how you use that information that helps you understand it better and boost your intelligence and practical skills.
Here’s why:
Reinforcement: Putting what you’ve learned into practice helps you remember and use the information in the future.
This makes the links in your brain stronger, which helps you remember the information for a long time.
Context: Applying knowledge lets you see how it fits into real-world situations.
This gives you a better idea of how and why what you’ve learned is important. Which can, in return, make the knowledge more meaningful and easy to remember.
Problem-solving: When you put what you’ve learned into practice, you often face hurdles and problems that require you to think creatively and solve them.
This not only helps you learn how to think critically, but it also lets you use what you know in different ways.
Skill development: Action lets you sharpen your skills by giving you the chance to practice and improve your methods.
The more you practice, the better you get at using what you know, which improves your skills and ability.
5
Boost your intelligence by exercising daily
A healthy mind will never function properly without a healthy body.
Taking care of your body and working out every day is important for your general health, and it can also have a big effect on your intelligence level.
The Latin term “mens sano in corpore sano,” which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body,” shows how mental and physical health are linked.
Here are some ways that taking care of your body by working out can boost your intelligence:
Regular exercise has been shown to improve brain function. This is because it increases blood flow to the brain, which brings more oxygen and nutrients that are important for brain health.
This can lead to the growth of new neurons and the strengthening of links between existing neurons. This can improve memory, attention, and the ability to solve problems, among other things.
Reduced stress: Exercise is a good way to get rid of stress and worry, which can hurt your brain if you don’t deal with them.
By lowering stress, you make the environment better for learning, remembering, and overall cognitive function.
Enhanced mood: Regular exercise has been linked to the release of endorphins and other “feel-good” chemicals in the brain, which can improve mood and mental health.
A positive emotional state can help you be more focused and driven, which can help you learn and remember things better.
And last but not least, discipline and focus: Sticking to a daily exercise plan takes discipline and focus, which can help you in other parts of your life, like learning and fixing problems.
This is what we call the “ripple effect” of good habits.
6
Boost your intelligence by eating well
Do you ever feel tired or run down and can’t figure out why? Do you feel like you can’t just focus sometimes?
Well, there could be a lot of reasons for this, but most of the time the problem keeps coming back because the food you eat isn’t giving your body what it needs.
Most of the food in the grocery store isn’t real. The point is to sell it, not to feed you, so now people have to make an effort to choose the best food to stay fit.
You can’t be casual about the fact that bad food will make you stupid.
Here are a few reasons why healthy, well-balanced foods can help people boost intelligence:
Brain source of energy: For your brain to work well, it needs energy all the time.
A well-balanced diet that includes complex carbs like whole grains, fruits, and veggies can give your brain a steady supply of energy to keep it working at its best.
Essential fatty acids: Foods like fatty fish, walnuts, and seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for brain health.
These important fatty acids help keep the structure and function of brain cells in good shape, support the production of neurotransmitters, and reduce inflammation. All of these things help improve cognitive function.
Vitamins and minerals: Many different vitamins and minerals help keep the brain healthy.
For example, B vitamins are needed to make neurotransmitters and keep nerve cells healthy, and antioxidants like vitamins C and E help protect brain cells from damage caused by oxidative stress.
Minerals like magnesium, zinc, and iron are also important for keeping your brain working well.
Amino acids: Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
Proteins are needed to make neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that allow brain cells to talk to each other.
Protein-rich foods, like lean meats, fish, eggs, and beans, can help your brain work at its best if you eat enough of them.
Gut-brain axis: New study shows that there is a strong link between the microbiome in our gut and how our brain works.
A healthy gut microbiome, which is supported by a varied and well-balanced diet, can help improve cognitive skills by boosting the production of neurotransmitters, lowering inflammation, and improving the health of the brain as a whole.
We could keep talking like this for a long time. Let’s just say that there is a big difference between filling your stomach and eating yourself.
So watch what you eat and try to stay away from junk food as much as you can.
7
Boost your intelligence by sleeping well
Sleeping well is a key part of boosting intelligence because it helps with important mental and physical processes that help the brain work at its best.
During sleep, the brain goes through a process called synaptic homeostasis, which is what makes neural links stronger and weaker.
This process helps the brain organize and connect new knowledge and experiences, which makes it easier to remember things and solve problems.
Also, sleep makes it easier to get rid of waste products like beta-amyloid proteins, which can build up and hurt brain function if they aren’t cleaned properly.
So, a well-rested brain is better able to learn new things and adapt to new situations.
One of the most important ways that sleep affects intelligence is by helping the different steps of the sleep cycle happen.
There are two main types of sleep: REM sleep (when your eyes move quickly) and non-REM sleep. REM sleep is when you think and your memories get stronger. Non-REM sleep has three stages, with the third one being the most restful.
Deep sleep (stage 3 non-REM sleep) is important for brain cell growth and repair. And this is when most of the brain’s growth hormone is made.
This hormone not only helps cells grow and divide, but it also improves neuronal plasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change and reorganize how its nerve cells connect with each other.
So, a good sleep cycle makes sure that a person can use all of their mental abilities to the fullest. So, the lesson is that if you want to be able to work well, you need to sleep for at least 7–9 hours every night.
Or, if you can’t, take a few short naps during the day. That won’t fix the problem, but it will help you sleep.
8
Set ”SMART” goals and stick to them
Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals can make you smarter by giving your learning process order and focus.
By setting clear and specific goals, you can focus your time and energy on the skills and information that will help you grow intellectually.
This targeted method ensures that what you learn is useful and efficient.
SMART goals are measurable and doable. You can track your progress and make changes as needed.
By evaluating your progress often, you can find out what works and what doesn’t in how you learn, which will help you boost intelligence.
This constant feedback loop makes it easier to change and speeds up your brain growth.
Lastly, having goals that are important and have a deadline encourages motivation and discipline, which are important for getting smarter.
Match your goals to your hobbies and set reasonable deadlines. This way, you create a sense of urgency and responsibility that pushes you to keep working on what you’re learning.
Your intelligence will improve a lot as a result of your constant effort to learn and engage with the learning process.
9
Reality Check Yourself Often
Look, asking people for feedback on how you can improve as a person isn’t easy, and sometimes it isn’t even accurate.
Most people are afraid to tell you the truth or are just misinformed.
So, in this case, the best thing you can do is give yourself a reality check.
No one knows you better than you do, and being able to think about yourself is a key part of becoming self-aware.
By doing truth checks on yourself often, you will not only learn more about yourself but also boost your intelligence.
10
Spend time in nature
Spending time in nature has been shown to make people smarter by improving brain function and mental health.
First, being in nature gives us a lot of sensory information that stimulates our brains and helps them make new links.
This variety of sights, sounds, and smells encourages interest and learning. In the long run, this leads to better cognitive skills and a higher IQ.
Second, being in nature calms our thoughts and reduces stress and anxiety.
Less worry has been linked to better mental performance and the ability to solve problems.
Spending time in nature helps us focus, remember, and think differently, which can help you boost your intelligence.
Lastly, spending time outside encourages physical exercise, which has been shown to help brain function.
When you work out in the outdoors, endorphins are released and blood flow to the brain is increased.
This increased blood flow brings important nutrients and oxygen to the brain, which helps keep the brain healthy and improves memory and intelligence.
11
Meditate
Meditation is one of those practices that people talk about but never do right.
But don’t get the wrong idea: this isn’t ghost science. People don’t know that meditation has a lot of benefits:
First of all, daily meditation practice helps to strengthen the connections between neurons in the brain. This leads to more gray matter in areas of the brain that deal with learning, memory, and emotional control.
This improved brain structure makes it easier to process knowledge, solve problems, and make decisions, which leads to a boost in your intelligence.
Second, it is known that meditation improves focus and attention by teaching the mind to focus on one item or thought at a time.
This ability to stay focused helps us do better at complex cognitive tasks. It makes it easier to understand and remember new knowledge.
Meditation raises our general intelligence by helping us pay more attention and focus better.
Lastly, meditation helps you control your feelings and be more aware of yourself. This makes it easier to deal with stress and negative emotions.
For the brain to work at its best, it needs to be calm and in balance. This lets the brain handle information more quickly and accurately.
Meditation can make you smarter in a big way by making you feel good emotionally and making your mind clear.
That’s why we emphasize meditation in the Alux app. It’s a scientifically proven method to boost your intelligence and we know it. It’s time you did too.
Go and download the app right now! You’ll be amazed how fast you can improve by using it for just 10 minutes per day. You’ll thank yourself for this decision soon.
12
Practice Mental Exercises
Mental exercises can make you smarter by improving brain function, promoting neuroplasticity, and making it easier to solve problems.
First of all, doing puzzles, brain teasers, or memory games on a daily basis helps to improve important cognitive skills like memory, attention, and processing speed.
These changes in cognitive function make it easier to learn, understand, and remember new knowledge. This leads to an overall boost in intelligence.
Second, mental exercises improve neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change and adapt to new situations and challenges.
By constantly challenging the brain with mental exercises, we encourage the growth of new neural connections. Which in turn improves cognitive function and overall intelligence.
This process of constant change and growth allows the brain to work better.
Lastly, mental exercises help improve the brain’s ability to solve problems. Teach it to think critically, examine situations, and come up with new solutions.
By doing these exercises regularly, you can improve your ability to think logically and creatively, which are both important for success in a wide range of intellectual activities.
Mental exercises are a key part of getting smarter because they help you get better at fixing problems.
13
Engage in artistic activities
Exploring any form of art has the ability to make a big difference in a person’s intelligence by encouraging creativity, sharpening cognitive skills, and improving emotional intelligence.
First of all, getting involved in artistic activities like drawing, sketching, or writing helps you think creatively, solve problems well, and come up with new ideas.
These skills add to a general boost in your intelligence because they encourage adaptability, mental agility, and creativity, which are important for success in many areas of life.
Also, creative tasks help the brain grow by keeping it busy and promoting the formation of new neural connections.
Making art requires putting together many different kinds of thinking, such as awareness, memory, and decision-making.
Doing these kinds of mental exercises can improve cognitive skills like focus, memory, and analysis, which can lead to a rise in intelligence.
14
Have meaningful conversations
Participating in conversations that make you think can make a big difference in how smart you are. This is because it gets your brain working, helps you see things from different points of view, and improves your critical thinking skills.
First of all, when we have deep conversations with other people, we expose ourselves to a wide range of ideas, views, and insights that broaden our intellectual horizons.
This cognitive enrichment helps us improve our problem-solving skills, fine-tune our thought processes, and boost our general cognitive abilities, which leads to a higher IQ.
Next, deep talks help us learn to see things from other people’s points of view. Listen carefully and try to understand them.
This habit of being open to different points of view helps us improve our emotional intelligence and social reasoning. Both are important parts of a well-rounded intelligence.
Accepting different points of view also helps people become more open-minded, flexible, and creative, which are all important skills for managing the complex world we live in today.
Lastly, having important conversations forces us to use critical thinking. We break down, evaluate, and combine different ideas and points of view.
This practice in critical thinking improves our ability to think logically, makes us better at analyzing things, and helps us grow as people.
By actively taking part in intellectually stimulating talks and learning more about difficult topics, we improve our cognitive functioning and make ourselves smarter.
15
Always aim to be smarter than you were yesterday
Having the goal of always being smarter than you were the day before is a powerful way of thinking. It helps you grow as a person and makes you smarter.
First of all, this way of thinking makes you want to keep learning and be curious. This makes you want to seek out new information and situations.
By constantly introducing yourself to new ideas and challenges, your brain refreshes and your neural connections build strenght. This leads to better cognitive skills and a higher IQ.
This way of thinking also makes you more resilient and flexible. It encourages you to learn from your mistakes and failures.
Look back on past experiences and break down the lessons you’ve learned. This way, you can improve your ability to solve problems and think critically.
This growth-centered way gives you the tools to get better at making decisions and making sense of things, which boosts your overall intelligence.
Lastly, always trying to do something smarter than you did the day before builds a strong sense of self-awareness and reflection.
By evaluating your strengths and weaknesses often, you can get a better idea of where you need to make changes. This lets you take targeted steps to improve your skills.
This never-ending journey of self-improvement and personal growth not only makes you smarter but also gives you a lifelong desire to learn and grow.
These have been the 15 daily habits that will boost your intelligence. Start implementing them then come back in a while and let us know how smart you’re feeling!
