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[G-Flex]

How to improve your mind: Use it, and also take care of yourself. Eat well, sleep well, and get exercise and all that, but most importantly, use it. Learn about things you're interested in (real in-depth learning, not just looking stuff up on Wikipedia when you're curious), learn a language or something, develop new skills, work on old ones, that sort of thing.

[GlyphGryph]

Honestly, the above. You just need to keep yourself going, putting yourself in situations where you are operating just beyond your limits. Fail a lot, but not so badly you don't learn from it, and make sure to fail in the right way. Methodology is important - the key to sharpening your mind is to push yourself, but how you push yourself determines how sharp it gets.

For memory and focus - practice. Practicing denying your brain the joy of going on a tangent. Meditation might be useful for you there, yes. Set up a system of rewards and failures for your self - behavioral conditioning can be effective even when you yourself set it up. You don't need to do this sitting down alone in a room either - some people focus better while moving, and play to your strengths until you get better at it. I know people who swear by treadmill desks to help them stay focused and on task.

And I'd reccomend practicing self-awareness. Think about how you are thinking, notice when your thoughts change, and keep track of them. That's a hard one, and can take a lot of practice to master (I've improved, but still haven't gotten it down).

[Shiney]

Are you sure you're over it? There's always the risk of a relapse.
Have you tried seeking professional help?

Should it really be resolved it should get better on its own, albeit slowly.
You probably won't be able to reach full capacity on your own.
So getting diagnosed and finding proefessional help would probably be a good idea.

1. Are you sure you're over it?

 I spent much time when I was depressed torn between killing myself or hunting down and killing those who I considered evil (in the hopes of one of them being able to kill me). My greatest fear however is death, so I was never able to do more then stare at my knife and contemplate how great it would be to be freed by true madness. All I felt was despair, rage, and hatred. All I remembered was all the fucked up things that happened to me throughout my life, fueling these horrible emotions. I couldn't even recall some of those eventually, I was just left with the feeling of being wronged and forsaken. None of my family seemed to do anything to really help me unfortunatly. The signs were there but they just didn't think it was that serious, probably because I never did any half-assed suicide attempts or something. I never held it against them though. I should note that I wasn't like that constantly, maybe only 50% of the time. I spent the rest to the time borderline emotionless or less crazy depressed.

 Ah yes, you wanted to know if I was over it. First, I would have never been so open about this before, something about being open about it seems to allow me to deal with it. Second, and most importantly, I was actually genuinely happy and content for no reason in particular last night. You have no idea how amazing that is to me, I'm actually crying about it right now . Not very manly but its a fricken miracle for someone who was as bad off as I was. So yes, I'm over it. Atleast the worst parts of it. Now I just need to keep moving foward.

I used to be the exact same. That was three years ago though.

Things to sharpen your brain.
1: Get a hobby, Cooking was suggested, could be anything though.
2: Read Books, Forget about TV. It's simple, but works wonders.
3: Impossible fucking Puzzles. The kind that make you trow the thing against the wall in frustration, only to have you come back a day later and run through it like cake.

[G-Flex]

"Read books, don't watch TV" reminded me of something: Maybe you should also stretch your artistic understanding as well. Try to get into genres or themes that you normally wouldn't, watch interesting films and read interesting books, engage in art that involves you emotionally and intellectually, and that sort of thing. I know that's not what people usually think of when they talk about improving their mental faculties, but in a more abstract sense, it's still meaningful.

[Mindmaker]

Before I post anything, I just wan't to let you know that I'm speaking about personal experiences and it may not apply to your situation.

I too had those episodes of feeling content, often during the timespan when I was engaged with a good book/game/series or sometimes for no reason at all.
However they were only a symptom of my condition, rarely lasting longer than a few days and then everything came crashing down again.

It finally changed when I finally managed to find a competent doctor, got diagnosed and medicated.
While it was obvious to me that I was depressed, I would have never thought that I could have social anxiety. I was aware of all the symptoms, but I simply wouldn't draw the conclusion.

I spent a lot of my time overthinking everyday events, or planning out for every eventuality of an embarassing situation. It was quite the obsession and interfered with my everyday life.
I would get easily lost in thought mid-sentence while reading a book, only to realize that I just read a whole page without picking up any content.
Every kind of social interaction was being hindered by crippling fear of doing something wrong.

The only thing I can say is that medication worked for me and those two issues are gone for now. An appointment tomorrow will decide further course of action.

Of course, none of this might be of any relevance for you.
You may indeed be ok now and be able to recover on your own, in which case I congratulate you for being a stronger person than I am.

Just don't hesitate of getting professional help, should you fail to pick yourself up this time.
It can really work.

This isn't everything I wanted to say right now, but I'm posting using my mobile, which makes structuring difficult.

[Patchouli]

Eat well and take long walks.  Four hours long, if you can.  Allow yourself to get lost.

I envy people that live in areas where they can do this like they do in the movies.

It is hot as hell here. The nights are warm enough that I can't imagine taking long walks like that. So I mostly bum around and sleep in the heat, because it feels nice.

[Grakelin]

Eat well and take long walks.  Four hours long, if you can.  Allow yourself to get lost.

I envy people that live in areas where they can do this like they do in the movies.

It is cold as hell here. The nights are frigid enough that I can't imagine taking long walks like that. So I mostly huddle in the chilled basement and pray for the sweet, warm embrace of death, because I know once it takes me it will feel nice.

[Max White]

Dear god, what has happened here? Why has a wave of despair washed over my friends here? What has become of b12? Or was it always there, just waiting for a single tear to fall and release such morbid thoughts.

Wouldn't be b12 if we weren't all a little effed up.

[optimumtact]

I don't know if it's plausible for you, but I like to go on walks out into the countryside, just me, a dirt track and a long long stretch of nature. There are these amazing moments of oneness, where everything else just seems to fade away and you just exist in one spot for a several hours. Really helps me when I'm thinking about something or mulling over a decision.

[Vector]

I envy people that live in areas where they can do this like they do in the movies.

I walk slowly and have a very, very, very bad sense of direction.

[anzki4]

Walk? Four hours?... 

I take a bit under hour walk (almost) everyday. Unfortunately I do not live in countryside, but as long as I take my walk late at night, I can be pretty much alone.

[FoiledFencer]

Eat well and take long walks.  Four hours long, if you can.  Allow yourself to get lost.

Kierkegaard recommended this as well. It's good advice. Going somewhere you haven't gone before forces your brain to relate to new information and all that walking will get you in better shape (you'll be surprised - I got such a mental boost when I started dropping some kilos).

[Nivim]

#1 sounds a lot like me TBH

Yes, that's about where I was a year ago.  I also had literally zero concentration span.  Couldn't read.  Couldn't watch TV.  Couldn't do anything.  I let go of my anger rather slowly.  Don't really know if I can talk about it anymore... it seems so long ago.

I wonder if normal people go through this intense hate phase as well. I'm still kinda muddling through it.

[GlyphGryph]

I like long walks. The problem is they eventually fill me with so many awesome ideas that I cant stand walking any more so my "four hour walk" turns into a "one hour walk three hours sitting in the middle of the woods scribbling furiously in a notebook"

[rhesusmacabre]

One of the biggest obstacles to focus is clutter. Whether in your home or lifestyle, you need to expunge the unnecessary. Ruthlessly.

As said above, cooking is good for the mind too. It doesn't have to be complex meals, just simple food is enough. My favourite is homemade bread and soup.