From childhood, we’ve been told that men think differently than women, that artistic and creative people can’t be rational and that working with numbers and calculations just isn’t for them. But is all this true? If you were told that these are just myths that people have developed over the years or the results of irrational cultural thinking, you’d be just as surprised as we were when we were exposed to the 10 claims that refute almost everything we thought we’d known to this day about the human brain. If you internalize and apply it, a new world opens up to you that proves that you’re capable of anything, and it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, creative or logical. have a fun read!
How many times have you heard that logical people work with the left side of their brain while others who are more creative and imaginative are assisted by the right side of their brain? In fact, it turns out that this isn’t true, because the human brain is very complex and today, after decades of research and study, we finally understand that this is the organ that science knows the least about. The idea of the left and right brain was created somewhere in the 1960s as a result of a study by Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry, who claimed that there are people with one side more dominant than the other which influences their behavior in life.
So, the question arises: can we categorize people and group them according to the characteristics of "right brain, left brain"? Is it that simple? In a study conducted by a team of neuroscientists at the University of Utah, which carried out an experiment that examined more than 1,000 people for two years to see if this was true, the results showed that both sides were more or less equal on average in their activity. In light of these findings, you shouldn’t limit your thinking and abilities by believing in one myth or another, and you need to understand that you can use both sides of your brain. After all, there aren’t really people who are more rational or creative...
People tend to think of their problems and concerns as something unique to them, and that all responsibility for their situation lays solely on them alone; As a result, the person’s spirit can fall and their sense of happiness can become diminished. If you look around you, you’ll find that the same things that you experience or make mistakes in are happening to tens of thousands more people around the world. While it may seem wrong to find solace in others’ misery it's just a stepping stone in understanding that you can decide to be happy.
Think of your brain as an old computer with software failures that sometimes repeat itself, such as lack of motivation to go to a gym, lack of confidence about a specific project, etc. Know that the difference between those who succeed and those who only look on from the sidelines and stay frustrated is clear; In order to be successful, you need to work on your weak areas consistently. Learn to accept these "flaws" and try to understand how they affect you, find a way to improve your brain processes and make them better. When you realize that your happiness depends only on you and that you’re able to change your way of thinking and the things that happen to you, then you’ll feel true happiness.
Some people, when asked why they do something a certain way, respond with, "Because that's just how I was born." This typical answer is mostly correct, but there are attributes that can be changed with just a little willpower. In general, most people don’t change their personalities for two reasons. The first is that they like the safe and comfortable option of staying the same, and the second is that they don’t know how to.
So, if you've thought so till now that you can’t change parts of your personality, now you know that you can and should if you decide that you want to, which by the way is a good start. Even if the prevailing general opinion says that the way in which you were shaped in the early years of your life remains fixed, know that there’s a way to change yourself; Just look at your personality as a material that has come out of a mold, and as rough as it is, if you work on it enough, you will be able to fix, change, and remold it. This is difficult because in such a situation you are both the designer and the sculptor, however, it is possible and certainly achievable.
This myth is refuted by the question: If 90 percent of the brain is removed, will it still function? of course not! So, it's just not correct to say that people use only 10% of their brains, and what's actually more accurate to say is that people don’t always use all their mental abilities. Factors such as motivation, environment, general health, and sleep all create different levels of impact on the possibility that our performance is closest to 100% at any given time.
If so, it turns out that we are taking advantage of the full percentage of our brain, but our performance is dependent on our physical and mental state, and to get the most out of us we have to discover the barriers that stop us and work on them to remove them and improve our capabilities.
When it comes to size, we insist on believing that bigger is better, but this is absolutely false when it comes to the brain - because brain size doesn’t determine level of intelligence. A very easy way to disprove this myth is simple by looking at the animal world; For example, a cow has a bigger brain than a chimp, but is it smarter? The same thing is true when comparing a whale or an elephant to humans, they may have bigger brains but that doesn’t mean they're smarter than we are.
Many neuroscientists today agree that it isn’t the size of the brain, but the complexity of the neural connections that determines our abilities and our own potential. In layman’s term: No matter how big the brain, what matters are its parts and their connection to each other. In order to train your brain, think about different ideas, activate your senses and make sure you learn every day.
Of all the myths so far, this happens to be the most harmful, since it leads to prejudices about how to behave towards others based on their sex. True, there may be some anatomical differences between male and female brains, but this difference has never been connected to differences in abilities, only as a product of cultural conditioning - so that if there is a difference or inequality between men and women it was created by society alone.
Another common misconception about the difference between the male and female brain is the thought that a woman acts on emotional intelligence and empathy when the anatomy of the brain works in complete contrast. The lesson learned from this myth is that your sex doesn’t determine how you think. So, get rid of prejudices about gender and avoid stereotyping.
If you thought until now that you usually know what makes you happy and what frustrates and discourages you, this will surprise you completely. Behavioral researchers around the world have found that even when it comes to money, there is a point where too much of it won’t make you happier. On the other hand, things you fear won’t make you as unhappy as you think.
In the opinion of many researchers, even the greatest tragedies such as separation or the loss of a loved one, which cause us grief, don’t last as long as we think they will. It turns out that things are never as bad or as good as they seem the first time, and you can’t predict how you will feel about them and how long this feeling will last.
When we’re young it is easy for us to take risks and try new things to a certain extent, but as we get older we want our comfort and routine. Unfortunately, this routine becomes hard to break away from. You should understand that your brain can improve with age at any time; You should be excited by this fact, and not feel unenthusiastic about your age.
It’s true that there are some skills that decrease with age and one will experience a slight decline in cognitive abilities as one gets older, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t improve and strengthen it. The older you are, the more experienced you are and the wiser you are. Take advantage of this, learn new languages, acquire new hobbies, and know that the more you learn, the more you will prevent your brain from being harmed by age and diseases like Alzheimer's. Invest 10-15 minutes each day solving problems, doing crosswords, playing memory games, putting together puzzles or playing strategy games.
The common belief is that humans have 5 senses and one type of intelligence. If you think this, know that it isn’t your fault, because that's what we were all taught in school. It turns out that there are actually 7-9 types of intelligence, and if you didn’t make the honor roll in school, know that those tests were probably not suited to assess your type of intelligence.
If you think you know the way your brain works, this fact my seriously shock you - what if we told you that your memories, as you have them, aren’t real and that whenever you "recall" them you only mess them up? If you don’t believe us, take a pen and paper and write about an accurate account of a recent experience, and in a few months try to recall and write about that experience again, without reading what you wrote. When you compare the two texts you’ll be amazed at how much you added or changed the story according to the mood you were in at the time of writing. In order to keep your memories clear or accurate, experts recommend that you keep a personal diary, making sure to write down experiences as close to the time as they happened, so you can go back and look at the case just as it was, for better or for worse.
