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Brain, Language and Communication - Part II

  How do people get our ideas exactly the way we want them to? Imagine that someone has mistaken your smile to be your approval for something you don't like. It can be a comic situation and sometimes a difficult one too. Let me share a real-life incident that happened in my life. I have a friend from Maharashtra and her father has always been very kind to me. He has wished the best for me and has advised me like how a father would advise his own daughter. I have had to travel to Maharashtra for some work and whenever I was there I made it a point to meet my friend and her father. My friend's father was fond of Jalebis (An Indian Sweet dish). And once when I was there he asked me "would you want to have some Jalebis?". I at that time did not have a sweet tooth as I have now. Jalebis are quite popular and are liked by many. I was sitting with my friend and was having a casual chat when my friend's father offered me Jalebis. I knew that Jalebis were his favorite and ...

A Tribute to my Physical Education Teacher

Hi, they say time and tide waits for no man and this has absolutely happened in my case. This post is about my Physical Education Teacher Mr.Eden whose guidance on health and fitness has always motivated me to stay healthy.  He was very committed to his profession and he believed in discipline and hard work. Like every other teacher, he was impressed by his students doing well in his subject i.e. in physical education. He did not like if a teacher tried to substitute his class with other subjects like physics, chemistry, mathematics, or biology. He never would allow it, as he always believed in the saying "health is wealth". In school, it was compulsory to attend the Physical Training classes. The first 10 minutes were allotted for stretching and then the rest 35 minutes were allotted to indoor/outdoor games like table tennis or football. There were days when he would divide the students into groups. Some students were asked to practice high jump, some were put in the long ju...

Brain, Language and Communication

Hi, Today's topic is about language and communication. I would like to write about an incident that happened in my life. I was doing research in organic and inorganic food. I collected the required literature and I had to do a pre-survey before I could proceed further in my research. I spoke to few people around, discussed with my supervisor, and framed few questions. When I was working on my research I found that not many people included organic fruits or organic vegetables in their regular diet. There were a number of reasons for them not using organic food and we will not be discussing the reasons here. In the beginning of the survey, I did use the terms organic and inorganic but as I became more confident about my survey, I started using the term organic and normal food. I used normal because a large population consumed inorganic food and hence I termed inorganic food as "normal food". For example, when I asked people what they preferred, my question was framed as ...

Creative Thinking and Brain Activity - Part II

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As promised in the previous post, I am going to peek further into the parts of the brain that get activated during the creative thinking process.  Fig(i) - The Basal Ganglia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_ganglia  Lim S-J, Fiez JA and Holt LL (2014)  Front. Neurosci. 8:230. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00230  http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2014.00230/full Basal Ganglia - Basal Ganglia lies deep within the brain and is primarily involved in motor control. Motor control means to regulate the mechanisms of voluntary movement, basically, it means an ability to perform any action or movement like writing something or swaying your hand to someone. But today there is research that Basal Ganglia is also associated with the developmental aspects of human skills such as language, speech, memory, learning, etc. Habit learning is also reported to be a part of Basal Ganglia. All these features of Basal Ganglia point towards creativity. (Sou...

Creative Thinking and Brain Activity

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What is creativity? Creativity simply means the ability to create (According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) i.e. the ability to fill the gaps, connect the dots and produce something new or bring about a solution not thought before. Creativity is a flow that comes naturally to us all. We are all creative by birth and we learn to be uncreative over the years.  Young children are found to be more creative and it is also found that children start becoming less and less creative as they age. The  article  gives more information on this research. As we become older creativity is pushed aside due to commitments, jobs, and the day-to-day chores we perform. We forget that we are both social and creative animals not just social. Somehow the creative part gets buried somewhere. The good news is that anyone can be creative and at any age, we just have to focus on that area. We can take up a new skill and practice it, or just take a walk and try to observe something new. Proba...

Creative Planning and Creative Problem Solving is the need of the hour

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Our brain stores and processes information through a complex network of cells and transforms this information into experiences, perceptions, decisions, and actions. The architecture of the brain is quite complex and structured and you can read more about how our brain works here . It has been reported that our brain is capable of making predictions and storing the errors  associated with those predictions.  Errors can be failures, a different reality, or even doubts about oneself. Predictions, on the other hand, can mean a future plan, projections, expectations, or just being creative. Our blunders and mistakes cost us dearly and we start becoming less and less predictive and creative. People might become more selective and look for certainty in everything and anything, it could be education, career, jobs, skills, or any aspect of growth and improvement. A sure-shot formula to succeed is what people start chasing. Our judgemental approach in all aspects of life hampers our cre...

It is all in the mind. Control your mind and you control your life. It is the mind that matters.

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This is a fictitious story and the character Rina does not have any resemblance to any person living or dead. I have tried to explain the process of mind control that we all do unconsciously. As it is an unconscious activity we might forget to practice it during the most difficult of times. I am just trying to make the process a conscious one so that we can have one more weapon against adversity. Life is beautiful friends just keep attending the tests. Failure or success doesn't matter, what matters is how you continue to row your boat against the stream. Just be there that's the secret. 😊😊    Rina was happy and content with her life. She had a good job, good friends, cooperative colleagues, a good boss who always thought about the growth of the business, good friendly neighbors, and a beautiful house in the heart of the city. She did not have to worry about anything. And everything looked so perfect until December 2019. "I read this news about some virus infecting eve...