Jogging the brain
One of the most innovative ways to make our brains effective is to do brain gymnastics, which are basically movements that trigger different parts of the brain and form new connections, experts tell Asha Chowdary
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
THE body can be fit, but what about the mind? Today, sharpening the intellect is of prime concern amongst many professionals and youngsters and brain workouts have become extremely popular across the country.
So, what does a typical brain workout do? Most experts say it stimulates the grey cells and allows free flow of information through various networks of brain. Any mental workout is believed to bring dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organising, listening and physical co-ordination, eventually leading to using the brain cells to its optimum potential.
The Brain Gym route enhances the kinesthetic ability of a person – an ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. Says Giri Balasubramaniam, CEO, Grey Caps, a Bangalore-based quizzing and knowledge services company, “We believe in mental workouts through quizzing and hence we are using it as a forum to make the mind think. These days, it is not so much about recall of facts. It’s more about the application of mind. Today, access to information is easy compared to the past. We believe that learning in the current scenario is more about mind movement than fact collection. If you close the mind, you disable learning.”
According to Balasubramaniam, brain workouts teach you coordination of the left and right brain, the importance of concentration, the power of listening and improving performance. He elaborates, “The thrill of working out the brain lies in experiencing knowledge through the movement of the mind. We hold programmes where the focus is to teach the mind how to map information and help people learn.”
Dr A Abraham, a Kerala-based life coach, who used to be a practising dermatologist in Leeds, moved into the ‘mind and people’ area of expertise some time ago. “I wanted to create an awareness about the importance of brain gymnastics in our day-to-day life. We don’t use even one hundredth of what our brain is capable of. So, the only way to make our brains effective is to do brain gymnastics, which are movements that trigger different parts of the brain and form new connections,” he emphasises.
Abraham explains, “If you want to make the non-dominant part of the brain develop, you need to make new connections between nerve cells there. I encourage people to learn juggling as it is one of the most effective forms of brain exercises.”
Brain gymming has obvious health advantages as Chennai-based M S Neelakantan, who suffered a brain haemmorrhage in 1994, discovered “When I heard about the Brain Gym concept, I was quite sceptical about it, but when I started going through the exercises, I found that it has facilitated in my remaining mentally alert and focused.”
The other mental workout programme that has gained immense popularity is Brain Gym. Indian medium-pacer S Sreesanth was one among the youngsters who received Brain Gym training from the SIP (Sociable, Intellectual, Progressive) Academy experts at the MRF Pace Foundation prior to his maiden overseas tour. He has vouched that Brain Gym has done wonders for him in terms of improving his concentration, planning, thinking and more importantly his performance.
Says Dinesh Victor, MD of SIP Academy India Pvt. Ltd, Chennai, “We carry out a set of physical exercises to energise the brain and improve information flow to different parts of it. Basically, the programme is about movement that helps the brain perform better. It helps unclog a stressed brain and restore the ability to learn and function with renewed vigour.”
Dr C J Jeychander from Bangalore, who is also a Brain Gym practitioner opines, “It’s an exercise-oriented programme where we work on the movements of the body. We have 24 exercises and prescribe them to each person depending on their challenges. I have done the programme with IT professionals and with corporate people as well. The exercises can completely change your thought pattern and you can get charged with new and creative ideas and become more productive.”
“The mind gym is becoming very popular and is almost miraculous,” says Mumbai-based Sujeet Arekar, a licensed Brain Gym instructor and consultant. If there are emotional problems, they get cleared. It can improve memory and performance and energy levels. The exercises, if done regularly, can improve brain functioning to a vast extent.”
Courtesy :: Sunday Times (6th May 2007)
One of the most innovative ways to make our brains effective is to do brain gymnastics, which are basically movements that trigger different parts of the brain and form new connections, experts tell Asha Chowdary
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
THE body can be fit, but what about the mind? Today, sharpening the intellect is of prime concern amongst many professionals and youngsters and brain workouts have become extremely popular across the country.
So, what does a typical brain workout do? Most experts say it stimulates the grey cells and allows free flow of information through various networks of brain. Any mental workout is believed to bring dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organising, listening and physical co-ordination, eventually leading to using the brain cells to its optimum potential.
The Brain Gym route enhances the kinesthetic ability of a person – an ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. Says Giri Balasubramaniam, CEO, Grey Caps, a Bangalore-based quizzing and knowledge services company, “We believe in mental workouts through quizzing and hence we are using it as a forum to make the mind think. These days, it is not so much about recall of facts. It’s more about the application of mind. Today, access to information is easy compared to the past. We believe that learning in the current scenario is more about mind movement than fact collection. If you close the mind, you disable learning.”
According to Balasubramaniam, brain workouts teach you coordination of the left and right brain, the importance of concentration, the power of listening and improving performance. He elaborates, “The thrill of working out the brain lies in experiencing knowledge through the movement of the mind. We hold programmes where the focus is to teach the mind how to map information and help people learn.”
Dr A Abraham, a Kerala-based life coach, who used to be a practising dermatologist in Leeds, moved into the ‘mind and people’ area of expertise some time ago. “I wanted to create an awareness about the importance of brain gymnastics in our day-to-day life. We don’t use even one hundredth of what our brain is capable of. So, the only way to make our brains effective is to do brain gymnastics, which are movements that trigger different parts of the brain and form new connections,” he emphasises.
Abraham explains, “If you want to make the non-dominant part of the brain develop, you need to make new connections between nerve cells there. I encourage people to learn juggling as it is one of the most effective forms of brain exercises.”
Brain gymming has obvious health advantages as Chennai-based M S Neelakantan, who suffered a brain haemmorrhage in 1994, discovered “When I heard about the Brain Gym concept, I was quite sceptical about it, but when I started going through the exercises, I found that it has facilitated in my remaining mentally alert and focused.”
The other mental workout programme that has gained immense popularity is Brain Gym. Indian medium-pacer S Sreesanth was one among the youngsters who received Brain Gym training from the SIP (Sociable, Intellectual, Progressive) Academy experts at the MRF Pace Foundation prior to his maiden overseas tour. He has vouched that Brain Gym has done wonders for him in terms of improving his concentration, planning, thinking and more importantly his performance.
Says Dinesh Victor, MD of SIP Academy India Pvt. Ltd, Chennai, “We carry out a set of physical exercises to energise the brain and improve information flow to different parts of it. Basically, the programme is about movement that helps the brain perform better. It helps unclog a stressed brain and restore the ability to learn and function with renewed vigour.”
Dr C J Jeychander from Bangalore, who is also a Brain Gym practitioner opines, “It’s an exercise-oriented programme where we work on the movements of the body. We have 24 exercises and prescribe them to each person depending on their challenges. I have done the programme with IT professionals and with corporate people as well. The exercises can completely change your thought pattern and you can get charged with new and creative ideas and become more productive.”
“The mind gym is becoming very popular and is almost miraculous,” says Mumbai-based Sujeet Arekar, a licensed Brain Gym instructor and consultant. If there are emotional problems, they get cleared. It can improve memory and performance and energy levels. The exercises, if done regularly, can improve brain functioning to a vast extent.”
Courtesy :: Sunday Times (6th May 2007)
