New Mental Strings in Life! Keep Playing

The Destiny is in Your Fingertips!

Many don’t know the miracles and health benefits of keeping your fingers in good shape. Here are seven key facts that you need on your fingertip about your fingertips.

Direct Connect to your brain

Like your feet, the fingers have millions of nerve endings that connect to the brain providing it with six different type of sensations as heat, tactile pressure, vibrations, texture, pain, and the position of the body in relation to its surroundings. This direct connection to brain of the fingers leads to stimulating and improving the neural functions of the brain.

Detect Minutest of Objects

The touch receptors in the finger tips are so concentrated that even a thinnest of a pin of 0.2 mm can be felt. The fingertips are even more sensitive to dynamic (or in-motion) touch that you’ll find you have a whole new level of intuitive, precise control.

Feel Vibrations

Our fingertips can decipher tiny vibrations that are created when any surface meets them. Different structures create different vibrations based on the amount of friction and wrinkle width (which is how scientists gauge non-smooth textures) present on its surface. Fingertips interpret motion vibrations in order to assist touch.

Move Without Muscles

Our fingers have tiny arrector pili muscles, which can make the hair on the fingers stand up straight. The brain communicates directly to the fingers for movement

Move In Harmony With One Another

Because of this complex network of muscle, tendon, and bone, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to move one finger by itself. There are 29 major and minor bones, 29 major joints, at least 123 named ligaments, 34 muscles, and 48 named nerves in the hand—and they all work in conjunction with one another to make the fingers functional.

Communicate with Others

The fingers’ dexterity also supplies a vast well with possibilities for non-spoken language. Gestures and hand motions can also increase understanding among non-signing people

Our Aadhar (Identity)

It’s common knowledge at this point that no two fingerprints are alike, and because of this they’ve been used as personal identifiers for millennia—even our unique identification number (UID) uses our fingerprints.

Why the need now?

As I am getting older, I am seeing some of my friends and acquaintances parents suffer from Alzheimer’s, A type of brain disorder that causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. This is a gradually progressive condition. Some other mental degradation conditions include:

Dementia: A group of symptoms that affects memory, thinking and interferes with daily life.
Parkinson’s Disease: A chronic and progressive movement disorder.
Huntington’s Disease: A condition that leads to progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease: Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, also called early-onset Alzheimer’s, or early-onset AD, is Alzheimer’s disease hits people between the ages of 30 to 65 years
Vascular Dementia: A condition caused by the lack of blood that carries oxygen and nutrient to a part of the brain.
Lewy Body Dementia: A progressive dementia that results from protein deposits in nerve cells of brain.
Multiple Sclerosis: A disease that affects central nervous system.

Over 1 million new cases of Alzheimer’s in India are appearing every year. This is a huge issue not only for the person suffering but also for the family members and care takers. I was wondering if the onset can be delayed or avoided. During the pandemic, I was witnessing many people falling prey to mental illnesses and that could further degenerate to Alzheimer’s if not properly diagnosed and treated. I wondered on the need for some solution to combat this during the lockdown and pandemic. I looked towards music.

My Experience with Music

From my childhood I have been musically inclined. Apart from singing I was exposed to various musical instruments. As I grew up I started playing the guitar and learnt strumming and composing as a hobby. Somewhere in between my busy work life I gave up. However, I encouraged my kids to take up playing a musical instrument. As they grew up, I realised that playing a musical instrument was therapeutic and help them focus better. During pandemic I took up to walking to remain fit and during my walks I would listen to rock music. This did help me in reducing my weight and remain calm and sharp while working alone in my office during the lockdown.

Another issue that I realised is that I am typing more and writing less. This is another reason that my finger tips were not being adequately used. To balance all this, I acquired a Yamaha acoustic guitar to connect back to music. How does this help?

There are several research papers on internet that tells how using the fingertips while strumming the guitar helps. Here are a few that I have felt:

Playing guitar helped to lower blood pressure and reduce heart rate as it is mentally calming. A recent BMJ study suggests the same heart health benefits.
Relieves stress and anxiety and reduces cortisol levels in me
My brain was sharper and memory clear. A recent study states, playing a guitar or any string musical instrument is helping to stave off degenerative diseases that are common in older people, including Alzheimer’s and dementia. In fact, seniors who engage in the kind of engaging mental activities like playing an instrument can reduce their risk of developing these conditions by up to 75%.
My creativity increased. Enough studies state that
Mathematical and numerical dexterity increased. It’s not that I am now going to sit for some competitive exams like CAT. But I could focus back on numbers
My vibrational energy significantly improved
Lastly, my interpersonal communications and relationships took a huge 360 degrees turn for the better

So it’s upto you. What strings you would like to pick up? Towards mental degradation or mental upgradation?

The destiny is in your fingertips.