Our brain requires just as much attention as your physical body requires. Therefore, mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness, and shouldn’t be neglected. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between success and high levels of intelligence in life. It’s actually one of the biggest predictors of success Here are six ways which would raise your intelligence.

1. Play chess

There’s a game of logic that is known as chess. Chess has been played for centuries, and by royalty. A complex and intricate game, it improves your concentration, develops your problem-solving skills, and neutralize both sides of the brain, which helps strengthen your corpus callosum. The corpus callosum connects the right side of the brain to the left side, each side is known as a hemisphere. According to a study, students who took chess classes for 10 weeks significantly increased their IQ.

2. Start meditating

Meditation is all about focused breathing. Countless studies find that meditating for as little as 15 minutes a day not only lowers your stress levels and boosts your mood, but also improves efficiency when it comes to deep cognitive processing. If you replaced 20 minutes of net surfing with 20 minutes of meditating using an app like HeadSpace or Calm, you’d become intelligent without losing any value in your life.

3. Anulom Vilom

It is also known as the alternate nostril breathing because only one nostril functions at a time. During breathing in, you inhale fresh oxygen through your nostril to oxygenate your blood which would circulate throughout the body to rectify the functioning of all inner body organs. During breathing out, carbon dioxide, as well as other body toxins, are thrown out of your body to encourage body detoxification. By practicing this pranayama, purification of the nerves of the brain and body are done.

4. Aerobic exercises

Aerobic exercises include activities like brisk walking, swimming, cycling or running. By definition, aerobic exercise means “with oxygen.” Your heart rate and breathing increase during aerobic activities. Aerobic exercise helps keep your brain,  heart, circulatory system and lungs healthy. The benefits of aerobic exercises come directly from its ability to reduce inflammation, insulin resistance and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.

5. Eat unprocessed food

Eat a diet rich in unprocessed food as much as you can If you want your mind to work its best. Some of the best foods for the brain include walnuts, berries, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, eggs, dark chocolate,  turmeric, and cold water fish. One huge study of one million students found that eating a diet free of preservatives and artificial dyes and flavorings resulted in an impressive 15% boost in IQ. Eating junk food has been shown to lower IQ.

6. Use Apps that Exercise Your Brain

There are many apps available which will let your brain work in a more different way. For example, Lumosity. This famous brain training app provides a series of challenging and fun games to help you work on your memory, problem-solving, attention, processing speed and flexibility of thinking.