If anyone else doubts the existence of mirror neurons, pay attention to how infectious our yawn is. It is worth your interlocutor to yawn a couple of times, and your mouth begins to open itself. This does not mean that you are drawn to sleep, you just copy the visible image. And this is all they are, too – mirror neurons! By the way, the ability of other parrots (and not only) to repeat certain sounds and human words is also explained by the work of mirror neurons. If someone cries, and we see and hear it, our lips involuntarily tremble. Conversely – someone else’s fun boosts our mood, even if we have no idea – who laughs for what reason. We copy feelings and behavior, dance and sports movements, facial expressions and intonation – almost everything. And this is one of the most important natural components. A program that helps survival. We can confidently say that without mirror neurons, no personal development would be possible.
Of course, with age, along with the metabolic rate, the speed of building new neurochains also decreases, but on the other hand, there are already quite efficient neurochains, there is an invaluable experience in assimilating something new. This way we learn not from scratch, and this seriously facilitates our life path.
For example, knowing our native language, we are quite able to learn the second language, and the third and fourth (any polyglot will confirm this) will not give you an easier example. A child fond of drawing is able to succeed in serious painting, in descriptive geometry, and in spelling. A reading person loads almost all parts of the brain, and his mirror neurons perform uniform miracles during reading. Not seeing book characters, not hearing their voices, not feeling smells, earthly tremors, heat, wind and cold, an experienced reader reproduces all this with ease in his own imagination. It is mirror neurochips that allow us to turn into creators and virtual directors. Moreover, avid readers better understand their heroes, empathize with them, which turns the reading process into real art. Those who have reached this stage can safely call themselves established readers – Readers with a capital letter. By the way, the dreams of such Readers will not be as an example brighter, more interesting and more colorful.
But…
Paying tribute to Her Majesty the Book, I will still indicate one weak link. So, this is our vision with you, which, unfortunately, gets tired of books and screens. This is where juggling can come to the rescue. Why? Yes, because working with balls relieves the spasm of the eye muscles, giving the opportunity for full rest and high-quality training of our vision. Therefore, combining these two activities (reading and juggling), we find a new quality of life!
Both reading and juggling stimulate our mirror neurons – and in both hemispheres of the brain. But if multiple works have been written about the benefits of reading, then serious observations of juggling people began to be carried out relatively recently. The first researchers had to be content with logical tests and personal observations, but today theoretical assumptions are confirmed by the readings of all kinds of tomographs, clearly demonstrating that after 2—3 months of active juggling in volunteers from control groups, the amount of white matter in the parietal lobe of the brain increases by an average of 5%! A popular statement was also confirmed that the process is much more important than the final result, since the increase in white matter was observed in all students, regardless of their real success in juggling. At the same time, tests showed a confident increase in IQ by 3—5% or more. So the conclusion is unambiguous:
juggling and reading children (and adults too) are undoubtedly smarter!
It has been repeatedly proven that juggling people show better results of the mental rotation test of complex geometric objects (mental rotation test). It is also worth noting that research related to juggling is becoming more and more every year, and modern equipment only confirms the most optimistic conclusions. Actually, in the old days, craftsmanship and “handicraft” were directly correlated with the human mind. Recall the English “handyman” – which means master, skillful. And in Russia, many enthusiastic epithets were linked with hands: “manual work,” “golden hands,” “master of all trades,” etc.
Unfortunately, today we are seeing the opposite picture, since the dominance of keys and buttons is coming. This is called progress, but… Weaning children from manual labor, we do not protect their childhood at all, on the contrary, we mindlessly destroy them. Any hand work is in itself a semblance of a rebus for our brain. Trying to resolve it, the brain invariably improves and updates its “neuropark.” Old, non-viable neurons are actively replaced by new ones, and here we are talking not only about the development of intelligence, – already today scientists are seriously talking about the fact that by reviving neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons), a person not only smarts, but also significantly prolongs his life. It turns out that, among other things, juggling is also an elixir of youth.
Remember saying: “Nerve cells do not recover”? So – cross out this phrase with a bold cross; are being restored – and how! True, provided that we learn and continue to comprehend this world, if we strain the brain hemispheres.
As I said, if you combine reading with juggling, double winning is secured for you. New neurocheps created in the process of juggling further enrich the reader’s arsenal, simultaneously giving significant unloading to the eye muscles. In addition, fantasy and inner horizons receive an additional impetus, namely, according to scientists, this determines the success of children in school subjects that require spatial imagination – primarily in geometry. However, Academician Landau rightly believed geometry to be the science of sciences, and therefore certain breakthroughs in juggling can be expected in almost all subjects studied, from history to labor lessons.
Chapter 4 On Plans, Laziness and Great Goals
In the childhood besides animated films about Mowgli and the flying Carlson I liked to revise the animated film about “A brave portnyazhk” (the fairy tale by brothers Grimm). The main character in this fairy tale slammed time seven flies once then made an inscription on the belt: “I have a reputation for the athlete not without reason – seven with one blow”. The saying went to the people, and business here, of course, not in flies long ago, and that at competent approach it is possible to execute indeed at once several useful cases. I went to shop, in passing I took out garbage, I checked mail, I brought the receipt to the old woman to the neighbor, etc. Like nothing difficult, but similar tiny algorithms in life of any person hundreds and thousands over the years collect. As a result we receive saving of time, forces and own nerves.
And now I will make a confession: I am an idler. Not most, probably, malicious, but nevertheless I since early years regarded a saying about the laziness which is the progress engine with favor and gravity. How many various devices I invented to facilitate the life to what improbable amount of cunnings and tricks I resorted! I constructed the drafts helping from a fishing line and threads without getting out of a bed, to open a window leaf or doors, to turn on the light or radio. I studied temperature and composition of water most quicker washing ware. I tried to learn lessons in a dream from recorder tapes, and I made of the designer’s details again and again robots who instead of me could remove dust from