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per-spi-cac-i-ty

noun ::Acuteness of sight or of intelligence; acute discernment.

"The surgeon spoke with the fluency due to long practice and with the admirable perspicacity which distinguished him." --Maugham, W. Somerset

As the brain ages and deteriorates, there are certain functions that are affected more than others. In particular, processing speed, short-term memory, semantic memory, attention to details, and the ability to multitask are more vulnerable to natural age related decline.

Fortunately, there are certain brain functions that are not affected much by age. These are attention, language, procedural memory, and creativity. In addition, wisdom naturally improves with age. These unaffected skills often compensate for the functions that deteriorate.

The mind is very receptive to suggestions. If you repeat to yourself that you feel stressed out and uncreative, then you are going to be stressed out and uncreative. If you tell yourself that you are calm, creative and full of energy, then you will feel and perform better in your daily life.

An affirmation is a carefully crafted statement that you repeat over and over to yourself as a form of auto-suggestion. Affirmations can be a powerful way to reprogram the subconscious and become self-fulfilling. The key to crafting an effective affirmation is to make it appeal to your imagination. Imagination usually trumps intellect and common sense. For example, you probably don't have any problem walking in a straight line without falling down, but if you place a plank of wood over a pit of hungry alligators, you might think twice about walking across. Your imagination takes over and prevents you from performing the simple task.

To make an effective affirmation, choose words that are simple, positive and to the point. Avoid statements of fact that your intellect might reject. For example, a bad affirmation might be, "I am the most creative person in my company." A better affirmation would be, "I am confident in my ability to think creatively."

One technique for becoming lucid in a dream is to ask yourself if you are dreaming. If you are awake, the answer will clearly be "no". But if you are sleeping, the answer is not so certain. There is a high likelihood that this question will cause you to realize that you are dreaming.

To take advantage of this you should get into the habit of asking yourself on a regular basis if you are dreaming. If it becomes habit, then it is likely that you will ask yourself when you are actually asleep. We have already discussed how you should ask this question whenever you see a dreamsign. Unfortunately, dreams don't always have easily identifiable dreamsigns, so you should try to ask yourself this question at other times of the day. It's difficult to remember to ask yourself this question without any sort of cue, so pick something that you encounter on a regular basis and ask the question whenever you see it. For example, you may ask yourself if you are dreaming every time you walk through a door.

The more you ask yourself this question during the day, the more likely it will be that you do it while asleep.