MIND & BODY

: “Govt. has decided to provide buses with a playlist of songs while transporting passengers from 1 January 2020

Exercise has plenty of benefits if it’s approached the right way. It rejuvenates the body, and uplifts the mind, attitude and mood. And what’s fantastic is that you can enjoy a workout outdoors, at the gym or even in the comfort of your home. Bhagya Mendis offers a few tips to keep in mind while working out.

Do you suffer from loud snoring and sudden gasps for air in your sleep, and daytime sleepiness? If so, it is likely that you have obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Consult-ant respiratory physician and senior lecturer Dr. Chandimani Undugodage tells us everything we need to know about this common sleep disorder that many of us suffer from… without knowing we do.

Valentine’s Day is usually for exchanging roses, chocolates, and all things warm and wonderful. And while you pull your hair thinking about gift ideas for that special someone, why not focus on fitness?

We’re not talking about a gym membership or paying for Zumba classes. It’s more along the line of pledging to work out with your partner at home or outside. Working out can become monotonous and more like a chore than a fun activity. So why not keep yourself motivated to ensure that your part-ner and you keep fit by exercising together?

Although you are reading this in February, aren’t you so glad that Christmas comes but once a year? No prejudice to the seasonal holiday; in fact, I mark it – well, reli-giously. But it’s all that commercial stuff, which prises open your jaw, and crams your mouth full of food, drink and other consumables until you’ve had it up to here.

And before you regurgitate that sentiment, let me confess that if there’s one thing more barf inducing than crass commercialism at Christmastime, it’s the pious hypo-crites who lament the passing of reason.

Dance is much more than mere entertainment. It interweaves the cerebral, physical and emotional, and is a means of thinking and en-gaging with complex ideas. While entertainment is the primary motive in the commercial world of dance, as an intellectual kinaesthetic it dives into the unknown us-ing inherent connections to delve deeper into new ways of reflecting on the world.

This goes beyond physical capacity, and enables us to think critically as well as take action with our bodies. Dance engages both the per-formers and audience at an intellectual level while also providing entertainment.

And one of the best places to seek some solace would be on Sri Lanka’s widening railway system: for travel is therapeutic. Quite a lot has been essayed of late about the iconic Nine Arch Bridge in Demodara. So I won’t waste any ink here that’s been spilled over that and there already. But suffice it to say that this ingenious viaduct in the vicinity of touristy Ella – a veritable ‘bridge across the sky’ with nothing to suspend it but the engineering genius of colonial era Ceylonese constructors – stands testament to creativity with ce-ment, stone and brinks; but not steel, which was evidently in short supply in the time of a Great War (1914-1918).