A guide to identifying, nurturing and growing our insight and creativity for more effective thinking. We know that our minds are capable of great things because, every now and then, they come out with a very brilliant idea or two. However, our minds are also tantalisingly unpredictable, spending worryingly large stretches of time idling or distracting themselves. This is a book about how to optimise these beautiful yet fitful instruments so that they can more regularly and generously produce the sort of insights and ideas we need to fulfil our potential - and achieve the contentment we deserve. We learn - among other things - how to grasp fragile and flighty thoughts before they disappear through anxiety and fear, at what times of day to try to work and for how long, how to make use of our boredom and instincts - and how to overcome timid and predictable approaches to the largest problems.

This new series of self-help cards begins with advice on how to improve your idea generation. Need some practical starting points to get your brain working? Take a break, break the rules, throw it away and start again. The cards offer 50 pieces of bite-sized but practical advice by an expert in the field. Get the cards and get your ideas flowing!

What kind of world would you like to inhabit?
To imagine something different, better, or more interesting is to push the existing world into a state of change. Some of the greatest revolutionary acts of our time came to be because someone had the courage to imagine something new.
In "The Imaginary World of.".., Keri Smith asks readers to imagine something new: a unique world of their own making.
Readers start by creating a list of everything to which they're drawn: things they love and collect, colors, shapes, ideas, people, and creatures that fascinate them. The items in the list will become the building blocks for their imaginary worlds, used to create texture and establish a foundation for the new place they'll begin to inhabit. Readers will then be prompted to think about landscape, place names, maps, currency, residents, logos, foods, histories, and more for their world.
An indispensable guide for artists, dreamers, activists, and kids of all ages, "The Imaginary World of.".. will encourage readers to become revolutionaries of everyday life, chronicling the possibilities in the brave new worlds they envision.

This book takes a unique approach to 'learning medicine' in a manner that places primary emphasis on recall. Drawing upon well-established psychological principles, it uses a broad range of strategies to maximize the ability of the reader to recollect large swathes of information at a later date. The result is an original and refreshing book in which no two pages are quite alike, and where facts are presented in a hierarchical fashion so that essential features of each condition or symptom can be grasped immediately, while finer points are given in more detailed reading.

Easwaran takes the timeless teachings of the Buddha and other mystics and shows how we can train the mind not just during meditation but throughout the day. Feeling trapped by unwanted thoughts and emotions can seem an inevitable part of life. But Easwaran, who taught meditation for nearly forty years, shows a way to break free. Just as a fitness routine can create a strong, supple body, spiritual disciplines can shape a secure personality and a resilient, loving mind. Writing as an experienced, friendly coach, Easwaran takes the timeless teachings of the Buddha and other mystics and shows how we can train the mind not just during meditation but throughout the day. Working with difficult colleagues, choosing what to eat, and listening to a child's needs are all opportunities to try out different, wiser responses. Easwaran shows how training the mind is a glorious challenge - one that brings joy and purpose to life. --

Our memories are mysterious things. One moment we might remember a lengthy poem or the exact street address of a restaurant from our childhood. But the next moment we can struggle to recall where we've put our keys down or the name of the person we have just been introduced to. The human mind is not terribly good at remembering abstract data - but we can do it much more successfully if we create associations with more relatable bits of information, such as familiar people, places, colours, poems or jokes. The mnemonics that many of us learned as children are simply a shortcut to help locate information within your memory. For instance, rather than remember that the clockwise order of the points of the compass is North, East, South, West, we remember the mnemonic 'Never Eat Shredded Wheat', and the combination of humour and a visual reference provides an instant cue for our brains. This book is a cornucopia of mnemonics. Amusing as well as informative, it includes well-known examples that you might remember from school, some of which have been in use for centuries, as well as more recent ones and alternatives to the traditional versions. Ranging across history, science, language, numbers, business, art and much, much more, the mnemonics included here provide quick easy access to a vast amount of fascinating and useful information. In addition, there are sections on working out your own methods and systems to augment the existing mnemonics with your own aides-memoire, which can help you with everyday tasks such as avoiding common misspellings, or remembering names, faces and numbers.

Investing in brain health will cost you nothing but time and effort - the brain-healthy recommendations in this book can all be followed for free! The steps are simple to follow and within your control so can be integrated into daily life with ease for the next 100 days.

The aim of living a brain healthy life is not just to reduce the risk of dementia and other serious health issues but also to improve the quality of your life and brain performance NOW. Sabina provides all the essential information you need to empower you to make informed choices everyday about your sleeping, eating and lifestyle habits that will benefit all aspects of your life from work to relationships and achieving your personal goals.

This motivating book proves that you don't need to understand complicated neuroscience in order to look after your brain, inspiring you to do at least one small thing every day to radically improve your brain health.

Enjoyable mental exercises to help boost performance on IQ tests

This engaging book offers readers the ultimate in calisthenics for the brain. Using the same fun, informative, and accessible style that have made his previous books so popular, Philip Carter helps people identify mental strengths and weaknesses, and provides methods for improving memory, boosting creativity, and tuning in to emotional intelligence. Featuring never-before-published tests designed specifically for this book, plus answers for all questions, this latest treasure trove from a MENSA puzzle editor outlines a fun, challenging program for significantly enhancing performance in all areas of intelligence.

Discusses reasoning and clear thinking, including such aspects as the nature of facts, language and reasoning, false analogies, and prejudice.

Challenge yourself with number puzzles Previously unpublished quality Su Doku grids from The Times, which help develop your skills to take on Extreme Su Doku. The 200 puzzles in this collection of treacherously difficult puzzles will stretch even the most advanced Su Doku enthusiast. You will need to use all of your best solving techniques to get to the end of this testing challenge. The puzzles in the collection are of the highest quality and are perfect for the advanced solver in need of a constant supply of ultra-difficult puzzles. Guaranteed to provide hours of mind-stretching entertainment.

A noted neuroscientist reveals groundbreaking research on how fitness and exercise can combat mental health conditions such as anxiety, dementia, ADHD, and depression, and offers a plan for improving focus, creativity, and sleep. Jennifer Heisz shares paradigm-shifting research on how exercise affects the brain, finding that intervals of intense workouts, or even leisurely walks, help stop depression and dementia, lessen anxiety and ADHD, and encourage better sleep, creativity, and resilience. Physical inactivity is the greatest risk factor contributing to dementia and anxiety-it's as much a factor as genetics. In addition, exercise's anti-inflammatory properties make it the most effective treatment strategy for those who are depressed and don't respond to anti-depressants. The book focuses on overcoming inertia; using exercise to help fight addictions; how we can improve our memory with fitness even as we age; and, importantly, how exercise can help us sleep better, improve focus, and be more creative. Included are easy to use plans for unique aerobic and resistance workouts designed to strengthen the brain.

How do you know when you've studied enough to pass an exam? Should you accept the testimony of an eyewitness? How do you know when to trust a doctor's orders? The answer is self awareness. Self awareness is humans' greatest superpower. Like the conductor of an orchestra, self awareness guides the musicians of the mind - memory, creativity, intelligence and skill - to perform at their best. So why do we so often get it wrong? Drawing on his own pioneering studies, as well as cutting-edge research in computer science, psychology and evolutionary biology, Stephen Fleming shows how we can learn from this groundbreaking new science, and gain the edge in a rapidly changing world.

If you're worried that you're losing the power to concentrate The Distraction Trap can help. Learn how you can easily release your life from the steely grip of modern technology where you're always available and always connected. Discover how you can radically boost your productivity by keeping your whole brain and both eyes on the task in hand. You may think you can do ten things at once, with a scattered thinking approach and expect to do everything well and on time. Well, you can't. The Distraction Trap will empower you to focus and prioritise, switch off your email, say 'no' to social media ruling your life and help you rediscover your lost powers of concentration. Your campaign to reclaim your life starts here and now!

Keep your brain young and healthy at any age with this practical workbook, taking you through the 12-week program from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Keep Sharp.

Chief CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta helped countless readers keep their brains sharp and effortlessly productive with Keep Sharp. In 12 Weeks to a Sharper You, he now provides a step-by-step 12-week program to help you put his transformational ideas into daily practice. As Dr Gupta writes, 'Change is a challenge, and changing long-established habits takes effort.' But this workbook makes it easy to apply Gupta's groundbreaking tips and research to establish healthy behaviours for life.

The 12-week program will help you feel less anxious, sleep better, improve energy, think more clearly, and become more resilient to daily stress.

Full of tips, quotations, and prompts, 12 Weeks to a Sharper You is the only guide you'll need to keep your brain young and healthy at any age.

Logical thinking allows you to make effective decisions, even when faced with stressful situations. Everyone can improve their logical-thinking abilities - it just takes an understanding of a few basic principles and practice. These brain-training puzzles will boost your ability to think things through and come up with the right solutions, no matter what the problem. Includes an extended introduction with pointers on how to think logically, as well as How to Think tips to improve your analytical skills as you work through 50 rigorously challenging puzzles.

Improve your powers of memory and recall and unlock your full potential with this brand-new title in Mensa's brain-training series. This full-colour book guides you through eight chapters, each focussed on your memory, how it works, and how you can both maintain and improve it. From tricks of visualisation and linking to mnemonics and mind palaces, as you progress your memorization skills will improve in both the short and long-term. The book will take you through the science behind memory, give instruction on how to improve yourself, and provide you with a series of puzzles and exercises to get you started on your memory-improving journey!

Challenge yourself with number puzzles The latest volume in the hugely popular Killer Su Doku series from The Times, featuring the highest-quality puzzles with an extra element of arithmetic. These puzzles will test your skills to the limit, adding the challenge of arithmetic and taking Su Doku to a new and even deadlier level of difficulty. The puzzles use the same 9x9 grid as Su Doku but with an added mathematical challenge. The aim is not only to complete every row, column and cube so that it contains the numbers 1-9, it is also necessary to ensure that the outlined cubes add up to the same number as well. With 200 new Moderate, Tricky, Tough and Deadly Killer Su Doku puzzles, there is no chance to ease yourself in with simple puzzles. These puzzles are for those who like to live dangerously and push beyond their mental comfort zone.

Move over, Man Ray, there are new collage artists in town! Match the contemporary works of 30 different artists and be inspired by the colourful and comprehensive card deck. The Collage Memory Game provides you with an insight into the broad art movement. Collage is a technique of art production, primarily used in the visual arts, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. It allowed artists to engage with existing materials, to which they could assign new contexts in order to create a brand new artwork. Ranging from newspapers and magazines to maps, tickets, propaganda, photographs, ribbons, postage stamps, paint, text and found objects, the elements of collage participate in a handy creative process of putting artworks together and even breaking them apart, in an artistic exploration into the unknown. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.

Completely practical and easy to use, the book advises in 24 chapters on how to recall names and faces; remember appointments; find keys, glasses, valuables; give speeches without notes; learn foreign words and phrases; memorise lists of items, quotations, facts and figures; and regain (or maintain!) the confidence that comes with having a sharp, active mind.

Whilst most people are aware of the importance of keeping their bodies in good shape, it is only in recent years that there has been a widespread acceptance that the brain is stimulated by originality, thrives on challenge and needs to be exercised and trained just as much as other parts of the body. The Brain Fitness Workout includes a wide range of puzzles, tests and workouts designed to provide original and stimulating mental challenges with the aim of improving readers' brain fitness. Several of the exercises are speed tests against the clock, and this is indicated where appropriate. In some cases an assessment rating is provided to enable you to monitor your performance.

Challenge yourself with word and number puzzles 200 brand new compelling and addictive word and number puzzles from The Times. Appearing daily in the newspaper, Codeword is the cracking alternative to Su Doku and Crosswords. The concept is simple: each number represents a letter, so, starting with the solved letters, use your logic and vocabulary to reveal more letters, form words, and then crack the code! The most difficult puzzles for top solvers contain no solved letters so you need to employ all your logical strategies to crack those. The Codeword series is so popular because you don’t need any prior knowledge, unlike a crossword. You can just pick up a pen and get puzzling. It steadily increases your vocabulary, as the difficulty slowly grows as you progress through the book, and even though you’ll be working your brain, it’s the perfect way to unwind.

Life is far too short to be bored. It’s time we start taking play seriously. Playful people have more fun. Play can help us to forget our worries for a while. And adopting a more playful attitude means we’re better able to cope with life’s ups and downs. Play has been scientifically proven to make you less stressed. It is hugely beneficial, beyond simply the pleasure it brings. It can teach you new skills, allow you to think more creatively and imaginatively, it can help you problem solve and strengthen your social connections. So why don’t we dedicate more time to playtime? Coralie Sleap is here to help you harness your imaginative instincts and live a life that’s a little less serious. Each chapter in this book focuses on one of the key aspects of play: Create, Connect, Imagine, Think and Move. Filled with over 100 unique activities and ideas, top tips from experts and fascinating explorations of the science behind it all, this book will inspire you to forget the rat race for a while and re-learn how to have fun. Grab some friends or go solo, embrace your inner child and get creative with no agenda.