return to article list

Brain training diminishes overload

CREDIT: Ray Smith, Times Colonist

Patricia Chrisite and Guy Pilch with a diagram of the human brain they use in their Brainfit™ programs.

Business People: Guy Pilch and Patricia Christie

Darron Kloster
Victoria Times Colonist
June 25, 2005

The alarm clock clicks over to 6 a.m., and you pull yourself from the sheets to soft rock. Already, your brain is planning the busy day as you grab your chance at the bathroom.

There are lunches to pack, kids to rush off to school. Don't forget the dentist appointment at lunch.

Is that band concert tonight or next Thursday?

You remind yourself about starting a list, just as a crash of tins and glass outside reminds you that you've missed recycling day -- again.

The brain seems to throb.

This is even before greeting the high-speed world outside of home -- a blur of e-mails and timetables, interaction with other humans and complicated machines, news bites from Saanich to Sri Lanka, little setbacks, small successes, underlying fears.

We lead busy, complicated lives. Was it this way for our parents? Other generations down the line?

Not likely.

Richard Saul Wurman had a blunt perspective in the 1989 book Information Anxiety: “A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th-century England.”

Guy Pilch likes that one. It drives home the incredible capacity and ability of that amazing organ between our ears.

The self-described mental fitness coach says the brain loves to be challenged, continually stimulated, but is often prone to overload that results in stress.

Pilch operates Train the Brain Consulting in Victoria with his wife, Patricia Christie. They offer group workshops and individual sessions that take a holistic approach to sharpening the brain and preserving memory.

A combination of physical and mental fitness works wonders, says Pilch. Eat well, get lots of sleep and take your brain off “auto pilot” by doing something a little different each day. It could be as simple as brushing your teeth with your left hand, finding a new route to work or memorizing your grocery list.

Although a lot of their work is centred on memory retention with seniors -- including workshops through the University of Victoria's Centre on Aging, interest in Train the Brain's services has shifted dramatically to the business world.

Private companies and government organizations realize increasing workloads and busy personal lives are creating unprecedented pressures in the workforce, says Pilch. It shows on bottom lines.

“When people are stressed, creativity and flexibility are the first to go,” he says. “That's a huge cost to employers. Major auto manufacturers now pay more on health care than they do in steel.

“We have to look at the health of people in the workplace, not because of a bleeding-heart sensitivity but for the sheer common sense of it,” says Pilch. “Even a metal car can go only go so far without breaking.”

A former broadcast journalist from London, the energetic Pilch, 49, holds a master's degree in counselling psychology and previously worked in psychogeriatrics and mental-health fields. Patricia is a former social worker and 20-year employee of B.C. Tel who helped to develop the company's corporate training program.

The couple works with employees of local health authorities and with private companies and other government agencies in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta.

Train The Brain's next local workshop -- Brush Up On Your Brain Power -- is being offered through Saanich Parks and Recreation on July 9.

Born in Cyprus, Pilch was well-travelled by the age of 11. His father was a construction evaluator for the British government and took the family with him to Lebanon, Libya and Jamaica before settling near London for Pilch's teenage years.

After stints in various jobs, Pilch met Patricia while travelling in Turkey. They stayed in touch, married a few years later and settled in Vancouver where -- in his late 30s -- Pilch “scratched that itch” with studies in psychology at UBC.

The consulting business was born out of “;a self-realization” of his own memory brownouts. Research led him to the mental exercise theories that -- together with a healthy diet and lifestyle -- improved retention and increased overall motivation.

Employees today are required to do more with less, but people can help themselves.

“Don't sleep-walk your way through life,” says Pilch. “Take a fresh eye. Look around. Go for a walk. Develop your spiritual side and give yourself positive messages. We get stressed when we give ourselves negative messages. Are we still having fun in our lives? If you're serious, try being actively goofy for a change.”

Pilch says anyone can start mental flexing at work this coming Monday.

Instead of doing the easiest task of the day -- say, reading e-mails -- use this time when your brain is freshest to tackle your toughest task. The change will do you good.

“We all know about physical fitness, how to attain it, but people don't know how to do mental fitness and it's really about consciously making little changes.”

Pilch also stresses a “co-managing model” in the increasingly complex workplace. The sharing of professional and life experience between soon-to-retire and emerging workers is extremely valuable, as it allows everyone to contribute and builds a sense of team.

Pilch sees serious consequences from the technology bubble of 2000, where the industry produced young shakers who earned enormous amounts of wealth, only to have a lot of it slip away with the massive market correction.

“We have to keep in mind the Warren Buffetts of our world. He's old-hat, but he's still here. Age brings wisdom, which is always an ingredient in success.”

Pilch is researching a book he hopes to publish this fall. In it, he's chronicling research and feedback from people he's worked with over the past two years. The brain loves stimulation, novelty, says Pilch. “But it has a desire to cut corners. It's important people are aware of that. We need to tell ourselves that change is healthy.”

BRAIN ESSENTIALS

Guy Pilch's 12 tips to a healthy brain:

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005