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While exercise and a balanced diet are crucial for a healthy lifestyle, they often don’t meet the immediate results people crave in today’s fast-paced world. To bridge this gap, here are 10 unconventional tips and insights to help you gain an edge—even if it means viewing life through the lens of a video game.
10. Treat Life Like a Video Game
Many believe video games are a pointless pastime, but research from Michigan State University suggests they can serve as powerful tools for strengthening and maintaining social connections.
Research has demonstrated that video games can be more effective than traditional medications in addressing depression and anxiety. Inspired by this, a game designer, during her recovery from a concussion, theorized that these benefits stem from the unique mindset video games foster.
She developed a game named SuperBetter, where real-life challenges were framed as video game scenarios. Each step of her physical therapy became a quest, positive progress was treated as power-ups, and setbacks were portrayed as enemies to overcome. Forbes reported that this approach delivers real results.
9. Posture
In any group of two or more people, social dynamics naturally create dominant and submissive roles. While not always obvious, individuals instinctively respond to the body language of others. Displaying shyness can lead others to assume dominance, and the opposite is also true. Moreover, your own body language influences your mental state as well.
A Harvard study revealed that individuals adopting dominant postures exhibited increased testosterone levels and reduced cortisol (higher cortisol correlates with heightened stress). Conversely, those in submissive postures showed the opposite hormonal patterns. Simply altering their stance made submissive participants feel more self-assured and better equipped to handle stress.
8. Stop Eating
Food significantly influences our sleep patterns. While the body typically follows a circadian rhythm aligned with day and night, research by Clifford Saper highlights a secondary internal clock—the food clock—that can override the primary one. When food is scarce, animals adapt to a new rhythm to optimize foraging. Saper discovered this mechanism is applicable to humans too.
To adapt to a new sleep schedule, cease eating 16 hours before your desired wake-up time. For instance, if you need to wake at 9:00 PM for a night shift, stop eating by 5:00 AM that day. The body can adjust to this new rhythm in just one day.
7. Stop Striving for Success
Many believe that working harder leads to success, and success brings happiness. However, psychologist Shawn Achor argues the opposite is true. Each time you reach a goal, your brain redefines success, setting higher benchmarks. Success becomes an endless cycle of pursuing better jobs or higher grades, with the bar constantly rising.
Achor discovered that happiness stems from focusing on positive environmental factors rather than negative ones. He found that a positive mindset boosts brain efficiency by 31 percent compared to a neutral or stressed state. Doctors, for instance, are 19 percent more accurate in diagnoses when they approach tasks positively. While it may sound cliché, studies confirm that gratitude enhances overall well-being. Simply adopting a positive outlook can lead to greater happiness.
6. Switch to Your Non-Dominant Hand
Most people rely heavily on their dominant hand, leaving the other underutilized for daily activities. Interestingly, many struggle with managing anger, and some might even feel irritated just reading this. However, Dr. Thomas Denson’s research suggests an unconventional solution: using your less dominant hand can help reduce aggression.
Denson found that individuals who consistently used their non-dominant hand for routine tasks experienced a significant decrease in anger over several weeks. Participants underwent brain scans while being repeatedly insulted by Denson. After two weeks of using their non-dominant hand, follow-up scans revealed reduced activity in aggression-related brain regions and increased activity in areas linked to self-control. This indicates that practicing self-control in one aspect, like hand usage, can enhance overall self-regulation.
5. Reduce Your Options
In a study conducted by Sheena Iyengar, grocery store shoppers were offered free samples from a table displaying six varieties of jam. On a different day, the same table showcased 24 flavors. Although the larger selection attracted more attention, only three percent of those visitors purchased a jar. In contrast, 30 percent of those who sampled from the six-jam table made a purchase.
When faced with choices, we often believe that a broader selection increases the likelihood of finding something we prefer. However, an overwhelming number of options can lead to decision paralysis, making people less likely to make a decision at all.
4. Music
Despite our love for music, the reasons behind its universal appeal remain a mystery. Researchers at Japan’s Institute of Medical Science found that music not only affects us emotionally but also has a physiological impact. It enhances dopaminergic neurotransmission, a technical term for the release of dopamine in the brain.
Dopamine is typically linked to pleasure and reward systems, as well as drug addiction. In a way, music provides a natural high, making it enjoyable. Additionally, research shows that music increases the production of a specific calcium type in the brain, which plays a crucial role in reducing blood pressure. For instance, rats exposed to Mozart for just 30 minutes experienced a 20 mmHg drop in blood pressure, effectively shifting from high to normal levels.
3. Elaborative Encoding
The USA Memory Championship is a yearly event where participants strive to memorize vast amounts of information quickly. In one challenge, competitors have five minutes to remember 500 numbers in sequence. The record holder successfully recalled 303 digits.
How do these individuals store so much information? They often claim their memory isn’t exceptional. Anyone can achieve similar results using elaborative encoding, a technique that leverages the brain’s superior ability to remember images. By associating abstract concepts, like numbers, with visual imagery, recall becomes easier. For example, while you might memorize a phone number like 475-6732, could you still recall it a week later without this technique?
Here’s a technique: Close your eyes and visualize your living room. Everything appears normal, except for four purple tigers lounging on the chair next to you. To your left, a baker holds seven loaves of bread, while five fish swim through the air above him. By linking each number to a unique, vivid image, you create a “memory journey.” The more unusual the imagery, the easier it becomes to recall the information.
We’re not sure how you managed to close your eyes, imagine that scene, and still keep reading—you’ll have to share that trick with us.
2. Vibrant Colors
Duncan Smith and his team at the University of Essex studied how colors influence mood and discovered that bright hues significantly enhance reaction times and memory. Participants exposed to “sunny” colors performed cognitive tests far better than those shown dull, gray images. The group viewing vibrant sunflower images scored 25 percent higher on mental acuity tests and even showed a nine percent boost in physical strength. The researchers concluded that bright colors heighten alertness, with red specifically boosting confidence.
The color red has peculiar effects on human perception in various contexts. Diana Widermann discovered that red not only enhances athletic performance but also influences others to perceive you as performing better. In her experiment, she altered the uniform colors of martial arts fighters in a video and showed both versions to different judges. Both groups consistently favored the fighter in red as the winner. If you aim to succeed, incorporating red into your attire is a strategic move.
1. Favor Your Right Ear
When struggling to hear someone, what’s your instinct? Most people tilt their head toward the speaker. Interestingly, this is the correct approach, though not for the reason you might assume. The brain’s two hemispheres specialize in different functions, with the left hemisphere primarily handling spoken language.
Interestingly, our ears also have specialized roles. The right ear is more adept at processing speech than the left, as signals from the right side of the body are processed by the left brain hemisphere. So, the next time you’re straining to hear, turn your right ear toward the speaker.
