Mind Gym designed to relieve stress

Mind Gym designed to relieve stress

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): Hard day at work and thirsty for a stiff drink? Why suffocate in smoke-filled bars when you can have some fresh air instead?

But before you rev up those country roads for a hilltop getaway, driving through two hours of traffic to breathe mountain air that's only 20 percent oxygen, why not visit a bar in town that offers four times that invisible goodness.

No, peanuts don't come with this particular refreshment. The oxygen bar at the Mind Gym in Hotel Kebayoran, South Jakarta, is, literally, a made-in-the-USA bar with two big white bowls in which you stick your head and breathe. That's 15 minutes of unpolluted nothing, both for your nose and eyes, all to soothe frayed nerves. Here's the trick (pending approval from the Clinton administration): You have to inhale.

The Mind Gym -- the, ahem, brainchild of hotel proprietor Api Surya Winata and the only one of its kind in Indonesia -- is more than a lounge full of air, as I discovered one stressful afternoon. Although the gym has been operational for over a year, it has not been widely promoted and is largely unknown to the general public. Other spas using similar techniques exist in Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States, but they are few and far between.

With cynicism in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, I offered to be a guinea pig and try one of these new remedies for the ultimate urban blight -- stress. The entrance to the gym was not promising. "The Brain Revolution", announced the red formica gate, decorated by a stained-glass wayang (shadow puppet) as well as a stuffed grizzly bear. The gym's interior was less aggressive, but by no means minimalist. A lot of colorful furniture stood against colorful floors and walls -- a zen temple this was not.

Interior decoration, however, can be altered. Dr. Api said that the equipment was so new that he didn't exactly know what to do with all of it, how to display it, or what to charge users (tentative prices have been set but may be altered according to the user's needs). He added that the equipment was not costly, but that import duties were.

The expense may be worth it. The gym is full of apparatus meant to comfort one's mind and body. Those hesitant to risk puffing on air can try other stress-relieving ploys. Most important to me was that the techniques are perfect for the aerobically-challenged; they involve no physical activity.

In one room is the inadequately named Vibrasound Table. First of all, it's not a table but a bed, more specifically, a water bed. There is pre-recorded music so that when you are lying down in bed counting the dots on the ceiling, you can hear the "soothing" sounds of waves crashing, wind blowing or birds chirping. The sounds are meant to penetrate your bones and tingle the spinal chord. Unfortunately, throughout the 10 minutes of tingling (and I was, to my own amazement, tingling), a man with a tofu-fed California accent kept reminding me to "let go" and "relax". What this therapy needs to do is let go of the chatty guru on the cassette and make the room more sound-proof.

Next up on the road to stress-free nirvana -- the Integrative Motion System. In layman's terms, this means a rotating chair and a tilting bed. I first tried the chair, a black leather variety which rocked me back and forth ever so gently. This lullaby lasted for 10 minutes. Then I was instructed to try the bed, which was a more intense form of gravity-testing. This I enjoyed. As blood rushed to my head every time the bed tilted back at a 45 degree angle, it gave the same head rush as hanging off a swing at the playground. Apparently, however, the benefits go beyond a mere sentimental journey and remembrance of childhood experiences. These techniques are designed to integrate the right and left hemispheres of the brain so that the brain can function more harmoniously.

Close to nature

Other gadgets and contraptions are available for the purposes of relaxation and mind stimulation. There's a Think Well, a room with a water bed and "nature" sounds designed to clear your mind. There are books, magazines, cassettes and videos, all dedicated to the science of mind stimulation and physical preservation. There's also the Mind Pyramid, which displays the user's Alfa and Theta brain waves, though I think I may need a couple more mind- enhancing sessions at the gym to understand this machine.

The creme de la creme of the Mind Gym is the flotation tank. Hardly new to the New Age scene, this invention of Dr. John Lilly has been described as "a return to the womb". The tank is a small sleeping chamber for one (honeymoon tanks have yet to roll off the assembly line) filled with 400 liters of water (30 centimeters deep) and 350 kilograms of salt. The salt ensures that everybody will float in the dark, sound-free tank. Flotation tanks are being hailed as the ultimate stress reliever, and thus as a modern-day fountain of youth. Need assurance? Michael Jackson owns one.

"The whole point is how to free the mind without the burden of balancing," said the gym's owner, Dr. Api Surya Winata. Dr. Api explained that gravity is humankind's biggest enemy, and that 85 percent of our mental activity is preoccupied with balancing our physical selves. In the flotation tank, there is no gravity, so one's mind is more free to concentrate, and it is reputed that a session in a flotation tank will enable anyone to break their performance levels at work. It is also referred to as instant yoga, as the tank immediately offers an altered mental state otherwise achievable only through years of yogic exercise.

Dr. Api makes parallels between yoga and the flotation tank because Dr. Api is a long-time practitioner of yoga. And it shows. This 78-year-old literature graduate does not look a day over 50 and has the energy of somebody at 40. Physical, spiritual and mental excellence are Dr. Api's passions. During our conversation, he repeatedly stressed that one's IQ may be exponentially improved by a mentally-stimulating environment. Having lived all over the world and spent time with geniuses Einstein, Picasso, and Charlie Chaplin, Dr. Api probably has a point.

But to the average breadwinner in need of an aspirin, the mind improvement promises may be mere icing on the cake. Dr. Api describes his gym as a "laboratory where you can find out how to teach yourself". After falling asleep not once, but twice, on those moving beds, I was content with just teaching myself how to relax.