Training the Brain

Training the Brain
1.1 On a recent holiday I picked up a book called “training the brain” while I was at the airport. It was a reasonably pricey book for what it was, a bunch of worksheets filled with simple math problems. I bought it anyway, thinking that somehow it might be worth it to help exercise my brain. I was remembering the feeling I used to get when I solved math problems as a kid. Perhaps this would help me get it back again.
The “Brain Training” involved solving very simple math problems as quickly as possible. That was the goal, to solve them as quickly as possible. After each timed session we could then check our answers to see how many we got right. Then after every five sessions we had a special quiz to test our brain’s prowess.
1.2 Doing my brain training every morning I noticed that sometimes I was into it and sometimes not. Sometimes I’d do miserably and on other times I’d be in the flow and steadily and slowly my times began to improve.
1.3 One day it occurred to me that I needed a better way practice and the thing that I needed to practice wasn’t getting the numbers right but flowing. The problems were pretty simple. I knew most if not all of the answers because I’d learned as a kid. So instead of worrying about correct answers started to practice trying to write with a smooth flow, doing each test over and over again but focusing on writing something, whether right or wrong. It’s a challenge when you want to make sure everything is right. Actually, just writing fast was a challenge. You really do have to be on the ball. There is not time for thinking, at least not if you want to get the “Gold” level time standard.
1.4 So that I could flow and maximize my chance of getting the answer right I started to preview the next question. I’d look at the next question while writing the answer to the previous question and the flow was making myself move my eyes the moment I’d finished the previous question. I had my eyes lead my hands by one question.
1.5 Doing those math equations, once I’ve looked at a question and finished the previous question, even if it is one that I am finding difficult at the time, I moved on anyway, and let my brain take care of figuring it out, and sure enough it did. It’s like my brain and hands already knew the answers I just have to let them know what we were doing so that they can get on and do it.
1.6 That was the answer for flowing. Leading with my mind and letting another part of me take care of the details. In a way it is very much like looking to the horizon while riding a bike. There I was looking for the furthest point ahead that I could see so that I could go there. Here I was looking at the next question so that I could answer it. It’s not so much looking ahead in time as it is looking ahead in space to see the immediate future.