Age-Proof Your Brain with Tony Buzan

Age Proof Your Brain

Bestselling author and inventor of Mind Mapping®,
Tony Buzan is once again speaking at the Mind Body Spirit Festival
with a brilliant workshop that offers simple and
effective techniques to boost your memory and maximise your brain power
and potential. Full of fun, practical exercises and information, this
workshop will change the way you think forever!

26th May,2010      12:00 - 2:00      £16.00

Click here to book

Unfortunately with some Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients they become easily disoriented and wander away from their residence. A nursing home in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Benrath Senior Center has come up with a creative solution. 

Staff noticed that when patients wandered away they often headed for public transport. By putting a fake bus stop at the front of the nursing home, the patients would stop there and wait for a bus. This stopped them from wandering too far.

"The seniors even tend to get lulled by the wait for a bus--they often
flash back from their imagined past and snap back into the present.
That single idea has since changed care at the senior center--the
nurses now lead patients back from "other worlds" by allowing them to
explore the conceit, rather than trying to convince them otherwise."

Listen to Radioblog's podcast where Richard Neureither and Regine Hauch explain what they’ve done in Düsseldorf. http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2010/03/23/the-bus-stop/

Also you may want to read Fast Company's interesting take on the fake Bus Stop - how the simple act of design can make a difference. http://www.fastcompany.com/1598472/uncommon-act-of-design-fake-bus-stop-...

Here is an interesting article from bbc news...

For middle-aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power.

A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the
web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and
complex reasoning.

The researchers say this might even help to counteract the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.

The study features in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

As the years roll on, memory rolls up, slopes off and tucks itself away in a cobwebby cerebral recess. It’s normally no fun growing old. As if it’s not bad enough that your knees creak and you can’t read the newspaper unless you hold it at arm’s length – then your memory starts to go.

Quite subtly at first, of course. You walk to another room for something and by the time you get there, you forget what you came for. Names become elusive; household objects are just never where you thought you left them; you peel vegetables for supper, keep the peelings and throw out the veg – and the peeler. Eventually, you resign yourself to life membership of the CRAFT club – ‘Can’t Remember a Flaming Thing’ – and blame every lapse in memory on your advancing years.

All is not lost. Lots of hints and tips on how to Age Proof Your Brain in our BLOG

In Tony Buzan’s breakthough book ‘Age-Proof Your Brain’ the vital issues of the ageing workforce and the important questions it raises are addressed directly.

This is not a book of theory or simple observation. In it Tony provides practical methods anyone can use to sharpen their mind. The book offers a 7 Day Get Sharp Plan, backed up with a 7 Week Stay Sharp Plan.

Tony shows that anyone can sharpen their mind, and significantly improve their level of creativity, problem solving abilities and contribute to the success of their organisation.
BUY BOOK NOW

Overview...

Peter Russell, author of the Brain Book and long time collaborator with Tony Buzan, has created a cool Life Expectancy Calculator.  http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/VirtualAge.php

My Biological age is 44 (though I prefer 40+gst)

The good news is that my virtual age is 31 and my life expectancy is 88 (I'm halfway there).

 The calculator gives you real clues on what impacts on life expectancy and how to Age-proof your brain and body.

Listen to compelling interviews on how to Age Proof Your Brain.

Tim Turner interviewing Tony Buzan prior to his visit to Australia. 1 hour

Neil Mitchell chats with Jennifer Goddard on Melbourne 3AW 10 mins.

Australia is facing a potential shortfall of 195,000 workers in five years' time as a result of the ageing workforce. Employers must address the challenges of Australia's ageing population and our declining birth rate now in order to stay competitive and economically viable in the future.

See more in our BLOG

In a report on the ageing workforce, the Queensland Department of Employment & Industrial Relations said..

"Over the next four decades in Australia, the number of people aged over 65 will almost double. Within just seven years, about 85 percent of labour market growth will come from people over the age of 45. Our ageing population is a reality.

In the lead up to a recent Australian Tour, Leo D’Angelo Fisher caught up with Tony Buzan.

What is a Mind Map?
A Mind Map® is a graphic thinking tool that mirrors the way the brain thinks. Mind Maps use the full range of cortical skills and can be applied to all aspects of thinking including memory, creativity, learning and general control of the cognitive processes.

You believe it’s important to understand how the human brain works. Why?
Far more important than managing knowledge is managing the manager of knowledge: the Human Brain. In this new age of the intelligence worker, the knowledge of the brain and its functions and how to apply them to personal, family and professional life, is going to be the [biggest] competitive advantage.

Explain the concept behind your new book, Age-Proof Your Brain.
It used to be thought that as the brain became older, all its mental skills declined. We now know the opposite is true: with appropriate training and conditioning, the brain gets better as it gets older. There is a growing, massive pool of workers with vast intelligence banks who will cost companies little and make them a fortune.

How does ‘age-proofing’ the brain deliver benefits?

Do you feel pressured by the ambition, creative energy, and demand for work-life balance of Gen Y employees?  Whether you are an employer or just a more chronologically challenged individual, there seems little doubt Gen Yers are challenging how you work. In Managing Generation Y Bruce Tulgan and Carolyn A. Martin reflect on the latest wave of workers, consumers, and global citizens -- the grown-up children of the late '70s and early '80s. Gen Yers are the most education-minded generation in history Influenced by Baby Boomer parents who value education and a workplace that demands it. Most Gen Yers recognize that the key to their success lies in advanced learning.

In the USA 90% of high school seniors expect to attend college, 70% of them expect to work in professional jobs, 70% of teens believe college is necessary to meet their career goals, 40% of college freshman expect to get their master's degrees. For the "education is cool" generation, the expectation of lifelong education is a fact of life. The good news for Gen Yers is that their talents are in great demand and starting salaries continue to rise.

Google ‘Tony Buzan’ and more than 700,000 pages of information appear. For ‘Mind Map’ the results are an astonishing 124 million pages. Search in Yahoo and the number of pages jump to over a Million on Tony and 190,000,000 on Mind Map. But this is still a mere hint of the popularity and global reach of the Mind Map concept - and the impact Tony Buzan has created around his inspirational learning tool, which has been seen by over two billion people worldwide, and which has already been used by hundreds of millions. It has been calculated that every second of every day, someone somewhere in the world is creating a Mind Map!

In schools, colleges, businesses and homes from Chile to China, people of all ages, backgrounds and ability now use Mind Maps to learn, memorise, plan, think and create. It is a mind-expanding technique that, once learned, has the capacity to change lives, Buzan says: “People can be successful using only 10% of the cognitive potential of their brains. Mind Mapping is capable of unleashing the power of the other 90% and tapping into latent genius. When people look back on how they were operating before they learned to Mind Map, they say it is as if they were working in the dark using the wrong tools.”
Tony Buzan’s Mind Map Book will do for the brain what Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time did for the universe. …Raymond Keene, O.B.E., Chess Grandmaster, The Times of London