On 6 March, kinesiologist Maria Karakostanoglou, a former staff conference interpreter, led an interactive session for the UK & Ireland Region on ways to manage and combat stress.
Maria looked at the link between body and brain, showing what our body needs for our brain to work well and absorb information, briefly covering the three levels of the brain: reptilian, limbic and neocortex.
We each considered our individual stress-related goals (sleeping better, coping with difficult personal or family circumstances, etc.), identified one single and attainable goal (“something to shift”) and were shown how we could get closer to achieving it by using different exercises with shoulders, head, eyes, hands etc. We learnt how to do “brain buttons”, “cross crawl”, “thinking cap”, “owl” and more! The “thinking cap” was a clear favourite, perhaps unsurprisingly given that it involved stretching one’s ear and the whole group was made up of conference interpreters.
All participants left the meeting feeling quite relaxed and calmer – a welcome improvement. It was a stimulating and fun experience, led by a very warm and lively trainer!