Humor requires what the laugh doctors call conceptual blending – that is, the ability to relate the expected to the unexpected. We laugh when something surprising happens. Having a sense of humor is a sign of intelligence.

Telling a joke is another way to challenge our brain.
We have to be able to play the mental game from one word to another to make sure that the story, the joke, riddle, or pun combines a set of expected circumstances and unexpected ones.
And surely, by telling it right, we increase our social intelligence as well – the ability to maximize the tension and mystery of the joke until the very last second.

Memory works along the same lines. There are many ways to keep your brain operating at maximum efficiency, maximum power and maximum quality.

All your brain wants is attention: feed it, challenge it, care for it – constantly stretch it. 

Progress, never settle for maintenance.

Progressing means that we advance and add to our satisfaction and purpose.

Progress is an energy booster. Maintaining the status quo is an energy bandit.

Often we spend too much time “getting things back into order”: clear the desk, arrange the files, clean up the mailbox. Feeling unsettled when surrounded by clutter or incompletion?

Our to-do lists are never going to end, there will always be more, enough to exhaust ourselves. So get everything back in order as quickly as possible – then you have time for new projects.

To experience forward momentum: Don’t think “Done”, think “Get back to normal” and then “NEXT!”

Because "NEXT" gives the thrill of anticipation.

Let your inspiration pour into your action and create …. progress.

Stretch.

Stretching is so simple and yet studies show it is one of the best ways to relieve pain, improve well-being and boost our vitality overall.

Across the board, work hours are increasing and so is the number of hours we spend at computers. Chances are high that you spend a significant portion of your day at a desk.

The problem with sitting at a desk is that it is not a natural position of the human body. It can put us at risk of back pain, poor posture, leg cramps, tense muscles, wrist trouble and more.

Our body can only tolerate being in one position for about 20 minutes before it starts to feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, there's a simple solution to the discomfort that comes with desk work: stretching. This is one of the simplest, yet most effective, tools to keep our body and mind in top condition.

For instance, regular stretching can:

• Increase your flexibility, improving your daily performance.

• Improve your range of motion in your joints, giving you better balance.

• Improve your circulation by increasing blood flow to your muscles.

• Promote better posture by keeping your muscles loose and minimizing aches and pains.

• Improve your strength and endurance …. e.g. during long meetings.

Best of all stretching takes just minutes and can be done in your office, even while you're sitting at your desk … and you feel immediate relief.

Recover fully.

What is ‘good sleep’? To function well physically, mentally and emotionally we need 3-4 periods of deep sleep lasting 30 minutes, usually reached during 8 hours sleep. Not enough time to get 8 hours of sleep?

You can also reach this state of complete mind / body relaxation during the day. Activate your ‘deep sleep reflex’ for recovery in between demanding tasks. Apply a mental technique to regenerate fully in a matter of minutes.

Energetic people who can only get a few hours of sleep per night apply this. They have trained themselves to turn off their mental dialogue, e.g. by deep breathing and repeating an artificial word – that is any sound combination … that does not make sense to you. No meaningful associations, simply to calm you down.

This is a helpful method for all with demanding daytime tasks and little nighttime rest.

Cherish pleasant memories.

Choose a recent vacation or an experience that induces your inner smile. For example, the smell of Piemonte hazelnuts bringing you back to that sunny morning on an Italian market. The photograph you took of your loved ones capturing the joy and love you feel. Take along that new CD you bought because you loved the local music.

Treasures of your mind - to be cherished. Indulge in those treasures.

Why? Because they provide a shortcut to feeling good. A specific and special form of feeling good, a personalized one – Yours.

Prolong and re-activate your positive memories all the time. Make sure you have little reminders that instantaneously trigger that great feeling. Regularly, frequently and continuously releasing your personal ‘activation button’ for an inner smile.

Enough to free your brain power to create a solution for strain and hassle more elegantly.

Feel great – perform great. Consistently and without being exhausted.

'Prepare' to fall asleep.

Is it hard for you to fall asleep? As frequent flyer suffering from jetlag or returning from vacation?

Get glasses to block blue light before bedtime. Our pineal gland regulates whether we feel awake or tired. It produces melatonin, also called "the hormone of darkness" because production is light sensitive.

Besides its primary function as synchronizer of the biological clock, melatonin may exert a powerful antioxidant activity. Reduced melatonin levels are also associated with aging.

Exposure to artificial lighting reduces darkness exposure and inhibits melatonin production. Since it is principally blue light that suppresses melatonin, wearing glasses that block blue light in the hours before bedtime may avoid melatonin loss.

Take the natural avenue to increase your melatonin level: reduce illumination, e.g. when working late at your computer.

You will more easily adjust to an earlier bedtime, as melatonin promotes sleepiness. 

Choose how you ‘talk to yourself”.

Nothing wrong with self-talk as long as it is supportive for your energy management.

Emile Coué employed the power of imagination to support his patients’ healing processes, simply by suggesting that they say the words “Day by day in every way I’m getting better and better.”

And they did recover more rapidly than others who let their thoughts and feelings dwell on their anxiety, resentment and worry. Nowadays, the body of research confirming that the mind has great healing power is overwhelming.

We can use the mind-body connection to support our daily performance. Focusing our thoughts and feelings on the positive outcome of our endeavors mobilizes more of our analytical and creative capacity to get things done as we wish.

We still have to make it happen, yet by facilitating and enjoying the process we end up with less exhaustion.

Train yourself to get better and better day by day in every way …. and save your energy.

Recognize humorous situations.

Laughter …. is very beneficial for our immune system.

Researchers noticed that volunteers watching funny videos showed significant improvements in several immune-system functions, such as natural killer cell activity. In another study, the same researchers found that merely anticipating watching a funny video improved moods such as anger, tension, and depression up to 2 days before actually watching the video.

It really seems true when they say “laughter is the best medicine.” Next time you feel ‘a bit down in the dumps’, ‘under the weather’, angry, or otherwise ‘out of tune’ rent a funny movie and sit back and laugh!

Your mood will be elevated and so will your immune system.

Eating for mental and emotional balance.

For example, make sure you eat enough of the right fats: OMEGA 3.

It has been recognized to protect many physical functions as well as mental and emotional well-being. Our cell membranes keep their flexibility thanks to OMEGA 3.

This is especially important for our brain, 60% of it consisting of fats and 20% of this being OMEGA 3. Mentally and emotionally less stable persons have lower OMEGA 3 levels in their blood.

What is enough? To function well physically, mentally and emotionally we need at least 500 mg OMEGA 3 daily. Lots of OMEGA 3 are found in wild fish and game. If you choose a supplement, get solely OMEGA 3, not a combination of OMEGA 3-6-9. Our diets contain a surplus of OMEGA 6-9, 10-20 times outbalancing OMEGA 3.

Drink plenty of water.

With 70% of our bodies consisting of water,
we can substantially influence our vitality by simply drinking more of it.

Water is the mother of life, while also being the energy of life. This is possible because of the unique characteristics of water.

Water is not only necessary for all bodily functions & tissues. Water is the easiest & cheapest elixir.

Whenever our body gets enough water we feel more satisfied, less hungry and more flexible.
To consume water is easy when we make it a habit.