How to Keep Your Brain Fit, Healthy and Focused With Noreen Kolesar

Meet Our Guest:

Noreen Kolesar

Noreen Kolesar specializes in brain health and fitness. Through her company, Mindstage, she raises awareness on this important topic and offers fun, interactive sessions to help people develop clearer thinking, increase creativity and strengthen their memory.

Noreen is a certified Brain Gym instructor and the creator of the W.I.S.E.R. Brain Program. She spreads the message that a fit brain is just as important as a fit body through live presentations, workshops and, soon to be released, online programs.

How fit is your brain?

Do you work it out on a regular basis and take pains to ensure it is in tip top shape?

According to this week’s guest on the Vibrant, Powerful Moms Show, Noreen Kolesar, having a fit brain is every bit as important as having a fit body and she came on the show to share simple tips to help us all do exactly that.

In case you’re thinking this is about mental health, Noreen wants you to understand that brain health and mental health are two different conversations.  

“What I talk about is keeping our brains fit so we can think clearly, have great focus, be more creative and ward off the potential early signs of dementia.”

Brain fog has become such a common problem for so many people and has certainly been an ongoing issue throughout my life. Noreen shed some light on why the cause can be such a tough thing to identify and shared some of the common reasons it comes up for so many people.

“It would be nice if there was one answer [to brain fog], but each of us has our own answer. After my first son was born, I didn’t know it at the time, but I had post partum depression. I thought I was just tired and that’s why I was crying all the time, and it was only after I had my second son when I realized, hey, I don’t feel like I did the first time. Of course, post partum was not in the news like it is now, so I really didn’t know what had caused it. So hormones can be one of the causes.”

Despite being on the radio/podcast, I asked Noreen if she could share a tool that listeners could use right away for themselves or their children to help their brain stay active and engaged. Noreen shared a wonderful technique from Brain Gym called Cross Crawl that she loves to use with groups and has adapted to make into a game (which I think would make an awesome Simon Says for kids!).

“Really, movement is one of the most important things that we can do to keep our brains fit. This particular activity is engaging an interesting concept about our brain in that the left-brain hemisphere is in charge of the right side of our body and our right-brain hemisphere is in charge of the left side of our body.”

Listen to the show to enjoy Noreen guiding your through the Cross Crawl exercise.

Since video playtime is such a big thing for so many kids, Noreen shared a story about her son having a friend over to play and how she helped him get rid of a headache by doing a few brain exercises to relax neck and eye strain.

She shared why dancing is a great way to keep your brain in tip top shape and why quiet time for your brain is every bit as important as a variety of stimulation.

Listen to the podcast to hear all the wonderful ideas Noreen shared on the show, including how to use the Cross Crawl to awaken your brain, as well as Noreen’s 5 categories of care you can do to keep your brain healthy and fit. Then head over to Noreen’s website at www.mindstage.ca and click on the picture of Fuk, Luk and Sau, (the Three Chinese Wise Men in the top right corner of the welcome page) to take her complimentary brain self-assessment quiz.