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When Janis Grummitt, of Matakana, suffered brain damage following the removal of a tumour 11 years ago, she was told that she would never be the same again.
Damage to her frontal lobe meant Janis struggled to collect her thoughts, switch between different tasks or control her emotions – finding she would get upset at the slightest thing.
The former Fletcher Challenge executive and general manager of a consulting company was forced to give up work and faced the dismal prospect of further mental deterioration.
That wasn’t a position Janis was prepared to put up with, so she embarked on a crusade to heal her own brain.
As part of her quest, she came across a book, The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge.
Janis was inspired by Doidge’s stories of patients with far worse brain damage than herself who made spectacular recoveries.
Using the book as a starting point, she began researching all the ways she might repair her own brain.
She discovered that recent research has highlighted two important factors about the brain: 1. You can regrow brain cells throughout your life (neurogenesis). 2. You can “re-wire” your brain to overcome damage because the brain is malleable (neuroplasticity).
Janis, 66, was so successful in applying re-wiring techniques to overcome her brain damage that she considers herself mentally sharper now than she was in her forties.
Along the way, she founded Wiring Warriors, which runs workshops and provides mentoring to help others improve their brain function.
In her workshops, Janis highlights five principles for good brain function using the mnemonic SPECS – Social, Physical, Emotional, Cognitive, Spiritual.
Social: A person wanting a healthy brain requires close relationships with at least one or two people.
Physical: Healthy food and regular exercise benefit the brain as well as the body.
Emotional: Stress and anxiety create harmful chemicals in the brain. Learning to think positively and getting plenty of good sleep restores the brain.
Cognitive: Exercises that test your verbal skills, memory and numerical skills enhance brain function.
Spiritual: This could include being part of a church or engaging in other spiritual activity. A sense that there is purpose and meaning to life is important for a healthy brain.
Recently, Janis teamed up with old friend and novelist Lindsey Dawson to run a “Rewrite your Life” workshop in Matakana, which encouraged participants to write down unhappy memories then rewrite them as positive experiences as a means of addressing the emotional aspect of healthy brain function.
“Brains are notoriously unreliable and biased. Over time we embellish, revise and expand our stories,” Janis says.
“By identifying negative memories and addressing old beliefs that are not serving us well, we can eventually rewrite those experiences into more positive stories.”
Janis says after the age of 40 people’s brains, like their bodies, naturally start to “go downhill”, but the good news is that by taking action early, individuals can reverse the decline.
“What I want to do is encourage people to act when they are in their forties so they don’t reach gaga land when they are in their eighties,” she says.
