Как лучше усваивать знания. (Learning Tips).

1. Your brain loves color. Use colored pens – good quality, not gel pens – or use colored paper. Color helps memory.

2. Your brain can effectively focus and concentrate for up to 25 minutes (adults). Take a 10-minute break after every 20-30 minutes of studying. Go do some chores: rake the lawn, iron a shirt, vacuum. Come back after 10 minutes and do another focused, intense session.

3. Your brain needs to be rested to learn fast and remember best. If you are tired take a 20-minute nap first otherwise you are wasting your study time.

4. Your brain is like a motor: it needs fuel. You wouldn’t put dirty fuel in your Lamborghini (if you had one) or you wouldn’t put low quality fuel in a rocket, would you? Well, your brain is a much more valuable machine than either of those so feed it properly. Junk food and imitation food and all the chemicals and preservatives weaken both your body and your mind. In fact, a recent study in England showed that your IQ is affected by your diet.

5. Your brain is like a sea of an electro-chemical activity. And both electricity and chemicals flow better in water. If you are dehydrated you just don’t focus as well. Drink enough water (colored liquids – pop, juice, coffee, etc. – are not the same). Often headaches are connected to dehydration, too.

6. Your brain loves questions. When you come up with questions in class or when reading a book, your brain automatically searches for answers, making the learning faster. A good question has more than one answer.

7. Your brain and body have their own rhythm cycles: there are times during the day when you are more alert than others. You will save time learning if you study during your peak periods.

8. Your brain and body communicate constantly. In any learning situation, sit up and lean forward to help keep your mind alert. Buy a good quality, adjustable office chair.

9. Your brain is affected by smells. Use aromatherapy to keep your brain alert. Peppermint, lemon and cinnamon are good ones to experiment with.

10. Your brain needs oxygen. Get out there and exercise.

11. Your brain needs space. Be sure that you are not trying to study in a small area.

12. Your brain needs your space to be organized. One recent study showed that kids who grow up in tidy, organized homes do better academically. Why? Because by being trained to organize the outside environment, the brain learns to organize the internal knowledge…which makes recall faster.

13. Your brain doesn’t know what you can’t do until you tell it. What are you telling it? Listen to your self-talk. Stop the negativity. Replace it with more positive, encouraging talk.

14. Your brain is like a muscle: it can be trained and strengthened, at any age. No excuses. Stop being a mental couch potato [домосед]. Professional athletes practice every day; you can practice homework everyday. If “you don’t have any”, make some up for yourself. Read ahead, review…do SOMETHING.

15. Your brain needs repetition. It is better to do short frequent reviews than one long review because what counts is how many times your brain sees something, not how long is sees it in one sitting.

16. Your brain can understand faster than you can read. Use a pencil or finger to “lead” your eyes. By doing so you help your eyes move more quickly.

17. Your brain needs movement. You might find your productivity go up if you have a standing desk. Buy one or make one by raising your desk/table on blocks. This allows you to move more easily and stay more alert.

18. Your brain seeks patterns and connections. When you are learning something, ask yourself, “What does this remind me of?” This will also help your memory because it connects the new knowledge to something you already know.

19. Your brain loves fun. We learn in direct proportion to how much fun we are having. Learning is life. Live it up! [Веселись!]

Graphology – Science or Fiction? (Графология: наука или вымысел?)

Graphology (графология, изучение почерка (учение о почерке, исследование его с точки зрения отражающихся в нем свойств и психических состояний пишущего. Тесты по графологии часто применяются при отборе персонала)) is a branch of a diverse group of sciences of «character reading». Since ancient times, man has been intrigued by human variability and uniqueness of the individual. Graphology in particular focuses on interpreting individual's character and personality traits by analyzing their handwriting. Using graphology to analyze personality and character is one thing; changing ones behavior by changing handwriting is another – this is referred to as graphotherapy.

Graphology is a now becoming a more widely accepted science. As most of you will agree that the human subconscious manifests itself one way or another, art, music etc. Graphology interprets this manifestation, using the most commonly used human subconscious-world interface, handwriting! Here is my first example, where this can be used. Long final strokes say a lot about individuals. We can use graphology to understand what one is conveying through long strokes? The long final strokes show how cautious one is. Using graphology we know that the writer is inclined to be cautious and careful. This reduces the tendency to be impulsive and minimizes risk in decision making.

Another example where we can use graphology to tap into one's subconscious (подсознательное). I am sure you have seen this somewhere, a consistent left ward slant. Do you know this person? Is this you? Using graphology, we know that writing with a leftward slant is a sign of an introvert. The writer rarely expresses feeling and makes logical unemotionally decisions. Would you have known that if it were not for graphology?

Trusting or not-trusting? Graphology differentiates one from another. Long narrow loops in y's and g's. The size of the loop (not the down stroke) reveals the amount of trust and imagination as it relates to people. Graphology tells us that the narrow loop reveals some trust, but these people are selective in who they let in their inner circle. Who does graphology tell us to be careful of? Using graphology I can tell you that the person with a hot temper is one where the t-bar crossed predominantly on the right of the stem. The more this is to the right the easier it will be to annoy this person. If this is combined with a rightward slant, they will lose temper even quicker.

So in summary graphology can be used to determine a complete personality and character profile of any individual. Besides the examples given above graphology can be also be used to determine aggressiveness, analytical thinking, attention to detail, curious, dual personality, emotionally responsive, extravagant, jealous, loyalty, perfectionist, controlling, stubborn nature among others. If the art of graphology is learned efficiently one can use it to their advantage and help them understand their friends, partners and family in-depth.