The self-help industry in the US is worth more than 10 billion dollars a year . That's a lot of money that people spend to get other people to tell them how to be better at something. You'd think that if it worked, it would go down in value every year as people got better and better, until it wouldn't be worth it anymore. But somehow it doesn't.
On the other hand, you can become better mentally and physically, not just metaphorically, with a few fairly simple steps that have been empirically tested and require virtually no money or time.
10. Listening to music can improve many aspects of your well-being.
There is an actual neurological condition called musical anhedonia, which is characterized by a simple dislike of music and affects about 5% people. But other than that, we can assume that almost everyone likes some music, and that's a good thing. Your favorite music can actually reduce depression level And stress It can also improve cognitive function and memory There is even evidence that it can heal. speech defects .
If you want to be healthier, listening to light music will help you there is less . This can also improve the quality of your sleep In fact, music can improve many aspects of your life. And in most experiments, people only had to listen to music for 10 to 30 minutes while they did other tasks, so it didn't require a lot of time or effort.
9. 60 minutes of play twice a week can boost a child's IQ
In the age of video games and digital entertainment, we need to find time to turn off our devices and just be in the real world sometimes. A great way to do this is with board games. They’ve been around forever, and if you have the right group of people, it’s hard to deny the fun you can have while delving into a round of Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. And as it happens, if you get your kids involved in board games, you’re making them smarter than the average bear.
Children who were asked to play games 60 minutes twice a week, showed marked improvements in things like nonverbal intelligence and cognitive speed. And if you can't get your child to switch off, there's still hope, since some of the games the kids played to get these results were electronic games.
Further testing has shown that children who play games such as Traps and Ladders demonstrate improving math skills Even brain games that claim to boost your intelligence actually improve your working memory (although the claims of increased intelligence are not actually backed up).
8. Reading 30 minutes a day extends life by almost 2 years
Are you worried about your own mortality? If your plans to colonize another planet or clone yourself don’t pan out, you can still improve your chances of living longer with a very simple solution. Read a book. Research shows that reading just 30 minutes a day can add about two years to your lifespan compared to non-readers. Sure, if you did this for 50 years, you’d spend more than a year reading and then only have one truly productive year, but you’re still ahead of the game, right?
It should be borne in mind that this is not just any reading, this is specifically reading books. The study involved more than 3600 people aged 50 and over, and those who read books rather than magazines lived longer. If you read more than 3.5 hours a week, you're 23% less likely to die than those who don't read. If it's up to 3.5 hours, you're 17% less likely.
Why does reading prolong life? It has been suggested that it is because reading can engage your mind and improve cognitive function.
7. Writing about a past trauma can improve wound healing
Some might argue that listening to music to relieve stress and depression is simple and not all that exciting. But the things you can do to improve your life can get a lot weirder. For example, research has shown that you can heal wounds faster , if you write about a past injury.
We’ve probably all heard that talking about a traumatic situation can help us heal emotionally. And that’s true, and it’s well-documented. But what’s less well-known is that the same thing can help with actual physical trauma. In fact, writing about your feelings about a past trauma can shorten the time it takes for the physical damage to heal. twice .
In the study, which focused on a small group of healthy adults aged 64 to 97, participants were asked to keep a journal for 20 minutes a day. One group wrote about their mundane daily activities. Another wrote about some unpleasant life events.
All participants had a small biopsy wound made on their hands and were monitored for healing. More 76% tech , who wrote expressively, had their wounds healed in 11 days compared to 42% in the other group.
6. 10 minutes of daily exercise could prevent more than 100,000 deaths
These days, you don’t need anyone on the internet to tell you that exercise can improve your health. It’s something we should all be well aware of. But do you know how exercise can actually improve your health? Beyond things like helping you lose weight? If you boil it down to a simple numbers game, 10 minutes of daily exercise could prevent 110,000 deaths each year.
The study, published in Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that if people over 40 did 10 minutes of physical activity a day, more than 100,000 deaths a year could be prevented.
The study followed 5,000 participants over many years and compared those over 40 with younger participants. The data was used from 2003 to 2006, and then mortality rate was tracked until 2015. The results showed that even more lives could be saved if those 10 minutes were increased to 20 or 30.
5. 10 minutes of meditation can improve memory and concentration
What's your opinion on meditation? A useful method of introspection and relaxation? Or just New Age nonsense? Well, if it's the latter, you might want to take another look. It turns out that meditation has some real-life benefits that go beyond a general sense of calm.
If you find that you have trouble concentrating and remembering things, perhaps try meditation. Total 10 minutes a day have been shown to improve concentration. If you practice even more often, the results can be even more impressive. In one case, brain scans of students who meditated 5 times a day for 8 weeks showed the ability to switch between states of consciousness. Other tests Also showed memory improvement .
4. Cutting 20 Minutes of Facebook a Day Improves Your Mental Well-Being
Despite the fact that almost every story about Facebook in the media has been negative over the past few years, the social media giant has shown little sign of dying. They still boast almost 3 billion monthly active users on the platform. But if all the terrible things you've heard about Facebook and its policies haven't yet made you quit, consider what real benefits it could bring you.
Research shows that if you avoid Facebook at least for 20 minutes more than usual per day, you're doing yourself a favor. Facebook addiction and social media addiction in general are real things. Many users feel the need to constantly check for updates to see what others are saying or whether anyone has interacted with them. This leads to a noticeable decrease in overall psychological well-being. But cutting out those 20 minutes could improve your situation.
The less time you spend on Facebook, the less depression , and you might even exercise more. And it makes sense — take the 20 minutes you’re wasting on social media and just go for a walk. One study tracked nearly 200 Facebook users who were on the site for an hour a day. Half stayed on for the full hour, and half were cut back to 20 minutes. Those who cut back reported feeling less depressed and generally better after three months.
If you find that you feel out of place and are also on social media a lot, cut back and see if it makes a difference.
3. Playing 3D games for 30 minutes a day can reduce the risk of dementia
Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are devastating not only for the victims but also for their families. The effects can last for years, and they are not pleasant in any way. But while we wait for new treatments or a cure, there is a glimmer of hope in the ways we have discovered to reduce the risk. In particular, 30 minutes of video games per day can significantly reduce the risk.
Study participants aged 60 to 80 were asked to play the game for 30 minutes a day for four weeks. One group played Angry Birds , and the other one played Super Mario World , which takes place in a three-dimensional environment. While both groups showed improvement in cognitive skills at the end, the group Super Mario World were more significant improvements , and memory also improved.
Clearly more research needs to be done, but the improvements do support the idea that conditions like Alzheimer's can be prevented with something as simple as regular play.
2. Meditation can improve your mood, but also your immune system.
We've looked at meditation earlier in terms of how it can benefit your mind, but let's dig a little deeper to get more tangible results.
Meditation has been proven to have beneficial effects on the body's immune system . This means that if you meditate, you can literally make yourself healthier, at least to some extent. This can affect not only those who meditate in a more secular sense, but also those who pray and have spiritual/religious experience .
Neurologically, brain scans of people deeply immersed in prayer or meditation show increased activity in areas associated with concentration, which makes sense, but also decreased activity in parts that provide our sense of self and our orientation in the world. This reflects the sense of oneness with the universe that people report, and it exists in all people, regardless of their beliefs, when they engage in intense prayer or meditative experiences.
From a body perspective, blood samples taken from those who meditate frequently show increased expression of genes and telomeres associated with fighting disease or maintaining health.
1. 30 minutes a day Super Mario 64 increase the amount of gray matter
People love scapegoats when things go wrong. Rock and roll was once the scourge of youth. That evolved into heavy metal. And in more modern times, it's video games. People blame video games for violence , low ratings , unemployment , sexual dysfunction and many other things. Makes you wonder if there is anything good about video games. Well, good news: there is.
It turns out that games can actually make you smarter and improve brain function . Remember when we said that gaming can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's? Well, the way it works can benefit everyone, not just older adults or at-risk groups. Memory, planning, spatial orientation, and fine motor skills have all been shown to improve as a result of playing video games.
Adults in Germany asked to play in Super Mario 64 30 minutes a day for two months. Afterwards, they underwent MRI. Compared to the control group that did not play the games, their brains showed a significant increase in gray matter. This was observed in the right hippocampus, the right prefrontal cortex, and the cerebellum.
A few years later experiment was repeated for six months with three groups. The third group took computerized piano lessons. Once again, the Super Mario group showed an increase in gray matter.
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