The Fitness Quotient on your wrist

Fitness trackers are the new additions to accessories owned by people. What started as an exclusive expensive commodity that was initially purchased only in the western world has now come to the ease of procurement in India as well. You will notice little devices (like the ones in the picture from the Fitbit website here) adorning the wrists of several individuals in a reasonably age independent manner. An increase in awareness coupled with the ease of quantification of calories has led to a new spirit of measuring the number of calories spent, gained, efficiency of workout`s, number of steps, heart rates and what not. A walk in the park, a routine in the gym, or even climbing up and down the steps in work areas sees people peeking into their wrist belts to check on a digital output that either gets translated into a smile (yeah nailed the calories!!) or a grumpy frown (Man, I needed a higher heart rate from this cardio!!)

Personally, I am not very fascinated with this tracking of calories but I am nevertheless happy with the way people are getting more fitness conscious, and how seeing numbers on their wrist motivates them in some way or the other. Indeed we do so much to ensure that our bodies are getting their share of fitness activities; and that we are in the correct shape and size. When fitness activities result in an increase in our endurance and stamina, we feel good about ourselves.

The variety of fitness tracker devices available at http://www.fitbit.co.za/

Lots of efforts on measuring fitness of the body. But what about fitness of the mind?

What if we came up with an analogous tracker that measures how much positive and negative emotions and thoughts you accumulate throughout the day? How would this world be if we gave exactly equal importance to mental fitness tracking along with physical fitness tracking?

So, say every time you get angry with someone, yell and fuss, there goes a cling on your wrist. -1. Every time you smile, wave at someone with happiness, do something to help someone, you hear another click, a +1 count. So a digital output tells you how much happiness, anger, jealousy, and compassion you have had throughout your day. You program a minimum level of positive aspects into your mental workout regime and check if you achieved it at the end of the day! How does that sound?

Having been in science all this while, I am always tempted to imagine products that will utilize scientific research into creative everyday tools. And one such science fiction tool that I think about is something that measures your body temperature/hormonal changes when your emotions change; and displays them on a digital meter. And I call this a fitness tracker for your mind 🙂

Well, we can always leave the science fiction part aside for now and nevertheless keep our own track of mental pluses and minuses for everyday. Often we do it unknowingly. My point is do it intentionally. Keep as much track of your mental exercises and fitness as of your physical fitness. And make changes to improve your mental fitness, agility, flexibility, positivism just as you would manage workouts for your body. Charles Darwin has long ago taught us about the survival advantages of the fittest. And our net fitness a being is a sum total of both physical and mental health states.

I see this invisible mental fitness tracker on the wrist of every individual I meet. Is this what they say karma is doing all the while? Keeping a track of what positive and negative things happen in every person’s mind? I know not, and can only wonder.