Mar 09 2008
Dahn Yoga on For your Brain
Dahn Yoga’s suggestion:
Pay attention to detail
Look closer at the subtleties in things and people - the shadings and brushwork in two paintings, the fruit flavors in fine wine, or the body language of two people speaking on the other side of the room. Paying attention to minute detail is a spectacular workout for the brain.
Travel
Unfamiliar places and situations may make you uncomfortable, but that is the point. Dealing with unfamiliar customs, trying to speak the local dialect, and learning about new cultural wonders all earn you major brownie points from your cortex.
Break your routine
Stop doing things by rote. If you have been following a daily schedule for twenty years, break it. This can be as easy as changing the order of the body parts you wash while you are in the shower.
Meet smart folks
Talk to smart people - really talk to them. Engage in conversation that challenges your political or religious views and forces you to see other people’s points of view. Ask questions, debate issues. Trading ideas forces your mind to ask questions, and that is always good.
Get shifty
No joke. University of Toledo researchers found that if you move your eyes back and forth for twenty seconds, like a pickpocket looking for his next victim, you stimulate the frontal lobes of your brain, which are responsible for memory. The researchers call it visual ping-pong. We call it effective.
by Ilchi Lee