While thinking about resolutions to increase good health, I wondered if a few brain exercises might be a good way to ensure brain health. Yoga for the brain seems like a good idea and there are simple ways to exercise your brain that help retain more brain cells.
A Yoga brain exercise sounds a little odd, but a few people are declaring it actually works and it only take a few minutes a day to show results. Claims have been made that it improves brain function in most people. To do this exercise you have to be willing to look foolish. Now, if anyone has watched a Yoga class you'll know that looking foolish is no deterrent to a determined Yoga practitioner.
To do the exercise to improve memory and intelligence you must first let go of your dignity.
Letting go of one's dignity is an exercise in itself. For those of you who have problems letting go of your dignity please stick out your tongue and repeat the following sentence, "I must eat chocolates after breakfast." For this exercise to truly injure your dignity it is best performed in front of any person you would normally wish to impress with your intelligence.
No dignity left? Good. Here follows the complete instructions for exercising your brain:
First, stick your tongue to your palate.
Second, face east. Trouble finding east? It's where the sun comes up.
Think this is too easy? You're not doing it yet.
Third, take your left arm and reach across your chest and grab your right ear placing your thumb on the front of your ear lobe, index finger on the back of the ear lobe.
Fourth, your right arm crosses your left arm so you can grab your left ear, placing your right thumb on the front of your left earlobe, index finger on the back of the lobe. Still with me?
Fifth, you inhale while you squat and exhale when you rise. Do this exercise twenty times a day, twice a day and you will be smarter soon and much less dignified. No joke, this exercise has claims built around it and many people are doing it and claiming good results. Want to see it on the Internet? Go to http://www.onlinebraingamesblog.com/brain-fitness/a-simple-yoga-exercise-to-build-your-brain-power
If you do go to the aforementioned Internet address you might want to read the entire page, since other brain exercises are listed there. I personally would rather play poker than stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth and do squats, but it can't hurt. At least I'm sure the squats would be good for me and I can always do the exercise alone in my room, with the door locked.
I noticed the exercise for the brain has several contradictory poses in it, and our brains being the way they are, would probably grow a cell or two to cope with the complicated instructions.
Want to fast track your brain to more awareness and faster processing? Yawn. It's claimed that yawning works on your brain and you don't really have to yawn. You can fake yawns and after several fake yawns your brain will produce a real yawn. The other way to encourage real yawns is to go to a boring lecture, movie or try to read some incredibly boring textbook, but fake yawns are the simpler, faster method. Fake yawns might be a good method to get through a long, boring lecture, but you might want to hold your purse or briefcase in front of your face in case the lecturer takes offence at your exercise technique.
Doing things you normally do, only differently, is supposed to help your brain too. You could try writing with the hand opposite the one you generally use or take a different route to the one you habitually use. Move your drain pan to the opposite side of the sink and see what happens to your routine.
Researchers claim that having a nap after learning something new provided the nap takers with better recall.
My all time favourite for improving my memory is the take-a-nap technique. I plan to continue this exercise and won't need to make resolutions around doing it on a daily basis.
Beefs or bouquets to margohannah@yahoo.com please.