Brain Rules Book Summary

 Brain Rules Book Summary

Here, you find Brain Rules Book Summary that is written by John Medina. In this book, the author illustrated 12 effective principles about how the brain functions. It is an important book that helps you to use the brain effectively.

John Medina is a molecular biologist who has experience in understanding the functioning or working of the brain.

In his book, he gives an insight into brain functioning and how you can take advantage of using your brain to work better.

The author says the base of all problems is our brain. The reason is that we don’t know how our brain works.

To use our brain effectively, we have to learn the basic rules and the author calls them ‘brain rules’.

By following these rules you can improve the power of your reading, learning, and doing something in life.

You are a businessman, student, professional, or even a teacher these rules can take your performance to next level. They can bring a positive change in your life.

 

Also read: The Miracle Morning Book Summary

Here, I summarised these rules:

Rule # 1: Exercise

According to the author, exercise is important for a good brain. It boosts our brainpower.

People who do exercise on daily basis live an active life, and their cognitive score is high than the people who don’t do it.

Exercise increases the energy of the brain that increases the power of learning. It supplies blood into the brain and that blood energy with the help of glucose eliminates toxic cells.

By eliminating toxic cells, it increases the supply of oxygen to our brain that helps in making the brain sharp and creative.

Physical exercise is not only important for your physical body, but it is more important for your brain.

It reduces the risk of Dementia and Alzheimer's disease by 60 percent.

Exercise is a physical movement that affects your brain as well. If you want to improve your thinking skills then you have to move means exercise, according to the author.

 

Rule # 2: Survival

The author says, the brain is a survival organ and it evolved too with time. To know the present state of our mind you will have to understand the evolution.

Thousands of years before, our ancestors used to live in jungles. And survival was the biggest challenge for them. Early humans were not strong species. They had a threat from other animals.

To keep themselves safe from animals they became smarter rather than stronger. The way we think and survival techniques also evolved with time.

Human beings may not be the strongest species on earth, but it developed the strongest brain. And that is the reason for our survival either it is our history or today.

Communicating and cooperating with other people has been our survival strategy for a long time.

It helps to survive and live a good life. If the people around you support your goals, then it increases productivity.

On the other hand, if understanding and connection is not good with the people around you, then the environment makes your brain useless. And that may cause death.

 

Rule # 3: Wiring

It is a wrong perception that the brains of all human beings are similar. Research shows that everyone’s brain is wiring differently.

We can develop our brains, but they can’t be similar to other brains. Even the brains of two twins can’t be the same.

With time the physical structure of your brain changes and new connections of neurons come into existence.

Each brain is unique and you can’t compare the brain of one person with another.

Everyone’s intellect and personality are different because the brain of every person is wired differently.

Even the brains of two people function differently. They don’t store the same information in the same place in the same manner.

In schools, we teach all students in the same way. And that is not correct, because every student is different.

 

Rule # 4: Attention

The author says human beings don’t pay attention to boring things.

We heard many times the phrase ‘pay attention’, but no one tells us how to pay or bring attention.

In general, we don’t want to pay attention to boring things. Human beings can pay attention to any topic for 10 minutes, and then it goes away.

The things or events that are important and interesting for us, we pay attention to them. And particularly we emotionally attach to them.

Multitasking is a myth. It is almost impossible to perform more than one task at a time. Our brain can focus on one thing at a time. And the author calls it the brain’s spotlight.

Our mind is not for multitasking, but still, offices, schools, colleges, and universities encourage doing multitasking.

 

Rule # 5: Short-term Memory

The author says we become human beings because of memory. If we would not have memory, we were not being able to keep our identity.

There are two types of memories, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

To learn or remember anything we have to repeat the information. The brain can remember the most important information for a long-time. It erases the short-term or unimportant information.

Therefore, written goals or information is important to remind our mind that this information is important.

If you want to learn something or to become a master then you will have to repeat that thing remember for a long-time. It will help you to keep the focus on a particular thing.

 

Rule # 6: Long-term Memory

According to the author, for long-term memory, you will have to remember to repeat. It will help you to remember something for a long-time.

The brain doesn’t work like computers. It doesn’t store information in an organised way.

Repetition of information can help us to consolidate and keep it for a long-time.

The emotions such as happiness, anger, depression, or any excitement can easily be stored because of emotional attachment.

Remember, repetition of information is important for long-term memory. It indicates that the information is important.

The author mentions that there is a way for making long-term memory reliable. And that is incorporating new information gradually and repeating it in timely intervals.

 

Rule # 7: Sleep

Sleep is essential for a good brain. Good sleep makes our brain and thoughts more productive.

Lack of sleep affects our brain focus, body, brain functions, and mood negatively. And even logical thinking can be affected by lack of sleep.

A study showed that just 26 minutes of nap sleep by NASA workers increased the performance by 34%.

Another study showed nap sleep of 45 minutes boosts cognitive performance that lasts more than 6 six hours.

The author says, even a small amount of sleep can prevent loss of performance.

It is quite important to take sleep naps during day time for a productive mind.

 

Rule # 8: Stress

Stress affects the learning power of the brain. A stressed brain can’t learn things in the same way.

The author says, our mind is made for stress that lasts just for 30 seconds, not for stress that lasts for a long time.

Too much stress affects the brain that may cause a heart attack. It can also affect the whole life.

If you experience a lot of stress at work or home, that can minimize the chances of success in your life.

If the stress comes from your personal life or home, it affects your professional life as well. And it will affect your performance because the ability to think will be minimized.

For having a good brain you don’t have to be stressed. Forget about the things that give you stress.

 

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Rule # 9: Sensory Integration

Sensory integration means our senses work together. For that purpose, it is important to stimulate them together.

Our brain always collects data from our senses such as from the nose, ear, tongue, or skin. The electrical signals go to our minds.

The mind uses those signals to give you feelings about a smell, or taste. As compared to other senses smell is the most important that triggers our mind.

The author says, smells are powerful and they have unusual power to bring memories back.

The author says the senses use at the time of learning anything; we remember information or knowledge in a better way.

A multi-sensory way is the best way to learn or remember information.

 

Rule # 10:  Vision

Our sense of vision is much more than the other senses. Our brain gives importance to what we see with our eyes as compared to other senses.

According to the author, vision is a dominant sense it takes major resources of our brain.

The visual-based information is easy to remember as compared to information written or spoken.

Information in the form of pictures or videos can easily be remembered by the brain.

 

Rule # 11:  Gender

The author says male and female brains are completely different. These two brains work in different ways.

Males and females use their different parts of the brain in different situations. Even when males communicate they use one part of their brain. And females use both parts of their brains.

The brains of females and males handle stress differently. Mental health professionals did a lot of studies and they saw females become easily depressed and nervous.

On the other hand, males have more chances to have Schizophrenia. And they have more tendencies to become anti-social.

 

Rule # 12: Exploration

Human beings are natural explorers. We have always desire for exploring something new.

Human beings have to explore new things but they are stuck or confined to their jobs or works.

In childhood, everyone is very curious about things and s/he grows the curiosity declines.

Creativity is important and exploration is important for creativity. If we want to be creative, then we have to try new things like children.

Google uses the power of exploration by giving 20 percent time to its employees to create something. Gmail and Google News are the products of explorations.

 

Conclusion

John Medina’s brain rules are extremely important to understand how the brain works.

They will help you to use your brain in a useful manner. They will also lead you to a successful life.

 

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