The first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Yoga is probably "exercise for the body”, sequences of movements, stretches and breathing that will develop flexibility and focus on the different parts of your body. This is a practice you do for your own well-being.
Yoga for the Mind is similarly a whole brain activation, exercising and stretching your mental faculties of seeing, thinking and understanding to become open-minded and willing to consider different perspectives and solutions. This practice promotes inclusiveness and the experience of unity in diversity through colourful and creative Kaleidoscope Puzzles.
Like the turn of a kaleidoscope, every pattern created is different. The unique puzzle pieces show that there is not only one solution, but infinite ways, and all answers can be correct. If two people with the same puzzle pieces make a pattern each, the patterns will probably be different, but both solutions are correct. If they instead build a pattern together, they will create a third solution that is just as perfect, but again different. Kaleidoscope puzzles challenge our minds to become conscious of this and find harmony in the diversity.
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Kaleidoscope Puzzles are designed to offer moments of mindfulness and self-discovery. You will see patterns, colour combinations, layers, similarities, and differences in the puzzles. Regular engagement will naturally develop your concentration, mental agility, attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
Nothing can be taught Kaleidoscope puzzles are created as a teaching tool that allows you to construct your own knowledge and understanding. The physical puzzle is just there to reflect and stimulate a process happening inside your mind. To understand the concept, you can try for yourself. We challenge the concept of teaching, stating that for true learning, nothing can be taught… But what do we mean by that? You have probably noticed how easily learning happens when it’s your own curiosity that drives and motivates you. It is natural for humans to strive to see, know and understand. Through this ability of critical thinking and questioning, we open the mind to different solutions or answers with the help of the imagination. We learn from our experiences, by making mistakes, adjusting and adapting. Let’s imagine that “puzzle pieces” are equal to a pieces of information. These can be stacked and stored in our minds but won’t be very useful. Instead of stacking the puzzle pieces, we can mentally create patterns by observing similarities, differences, and connections. We need our curiosity, imagination, and a process of trial and error to arrange the parts in this way. Learning happens when new knowledge and understanding finds its place next to the already known, and we mentally reorganise and restructure to form a new pattern. This process cannot be taught, as it happens naturally inside your mind, and is what needs to be stimulated for true learning to happen. Through various ways of approaching the concept of puzzles, we target different mental functions. - Cooperative activities encourage people to learn in an atmosphere of equality, respect, and harmony. Working together brings connection and joy. All our different activities can be done alone, or together with others, be it our online or physical puzzles. - Problem-solving through puzzles starts by identifying and predicting images in a sequence, identifying key features in patterns and how they relate to the sequence. Next the player will come up with rules to manipulate this feature, and check whether this rule is consistent for the entire pattern. Puzzles support the ability to combine such information to form novel ideas and understanding. - Through the concept of layering we have to imagine that which is unknown, and not fully visible. What is visible on the surface is not necessarily what exists if we look deeper.
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Recognizing that no two people on our planet are the same, Kaleidoscope Puzzles are designed for multi-age, inter-generational, and pluricultural contexts. Taking you through progressive levels in the material, you can allow yourself the right challenge to push your ability to analyze and problem-solve forward.
The mind must be consulted in its own growth Take a moment to look around you to see how different we are as humans. Everyone is created to be unique, both on the outside as well as on the inside, through the genetic keys in combination with the social and cultural influences that form us. If each individual is consulted in their own growth, opportunities for growth can freely follow the learning styles and cognitive development of each person. In today’s world it seems easier to label those who can’t adjust and adapt to the one-size-fits-all as having learning difficulties, instead of bringing equity to education through diversity. When learning happens in progression with you, you will become more engaged and have higher levels of intrinsic motivation. You will find fulfilment in the growth you experience when mastering intellectual problems, thinking critically and exploring creativity. Progressive learning fosters your independence, self-assurance in your abilities, and connection to your own development. Kaleidoscope Puzzles for progressive education allow you to place your learning in the space between what you are able to do unsupported, and what you can only do with support. The flexibility of moving within this zone in the material will give just the right challenge to drive learning forward. Kaleidoscope puzzles are especially beneficial for those struggling to hold their attention. The progressive levels of this educational material support individualised development for people of all ages. This helps build patience and perseverance, as just the right challenge can be experienced to drive learning forward. Puzzles offer a natural positive reinforcement, as the part of the brain responsible for feelings of reward and well-being is triggered when the player manages to complete the puzzle. Exercising concentration through kaleidoscope puzzles supports you to: - silence your mind - develop abilities of focused attention and memory - train your spatial cognition - become mentally flexible - process information to build understanding - discover patterns and improve creativity - become conscious of your thoughts Naturally, when you are allowed to follow your own needs, and encourage others to follow theirs, emotional well-being will increase in the world. New social relations can form through a foundation in society that rests on qualities of equity and peace. As progressive learning cultivates enthusiasm, this is also the key to drive a life-long learning.
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To develop flexibility and open-mindedness, the Kaleidoscope Puzzles allow you to decompose, create and recreate infinite patterns. You get opportunities to think out of the box, by seeing different solutions and possibilities. You learn to let go, become open to change, and see the beauty you create in your own puzzles.
From the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be We all know that puzzles offer great exercise for the brain. They improve short term memory and visual-spatial reasoning, develop problem-solving skills and help you to pay attention to detail. While challenging you, they also make you feel good and relax. Yet traditional puzzles are limited to one solution. Have you ever tried to force two pieces of a jigsaw puzzles to fit, as they almost match? There is no flexibility here! With Kaleidoscope Puzzles we have taken concept of puzzles further. Our puzzles have all the amazing benefits of regular puzzles, but with some added magic. Like the turn of a kaleidoscope, our unique puzzle pieces can come together in infinite ways. You will see the beauty and harmony in each new constellation, recognising how every part is connected to create the whole. Building on the kaleidoscope effect, you practice open-mindedness and flexibility. By creating, deconstructing, and recreating, you work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be, starting from where you are and allowing for something new to emerge. Training your mind to let go teachers you to accept change and see different viewpoints and possibilities and become less attached.
Kaleidoscope puzzles activate both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, putting reasoning, imagination and emotions at work alongside each other. The plasticity of your brain will begin to form new structures, expanding your mental abilities to embrace unity in diversity, a quality presently dormant in humanity.
This kind of exercise is Yoga for the Mind.
Evolving the human mind to form new connections outside of what we see today is at the heart of education for peace and sustainability. To extend your mindset beyond your own well-being, to learn to value otherness, and recognize that there are as many realities as there are people on this planet. To each problem everyone may have a different solution, and there is no one universal truth. Therefor Kaleidoscope Puzzles are beneficial for people of all ages, from every culture. By educating the mind to navigate through different realities, become more accepting of other human beings, and develop a new awareness striving to realize peace and human unity for coming generations, to live as global citizens. This material is unique to address this aspect, moving beyond Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), to through puzzles unconsciously develop consciousness.
Auro.games is an educational initiative based in the international town of Auroville in South India. The idea of Auroville is to be a living experiment for sustainability and human unity, where people from all over the world, with different cultural backgrounds, can grow more conscious individually and collectively. Aurogames is a tool designed for Integral Education, the new educational model being researched in Auroville, that aims to serve a conscious and positive evolution of humanity. Such an education strives to build self-awareness, working on mental faculties such as openness, flexibility and attention to detail to widen and deepen our consciousness. To view life and learning as a kaleidoscope of systems, forms and natural hierarchies in evolution.
Funded through donations, the www.auro.games website was created. Here you can order our handprinted games, download pdf’s to create your own materials, as well as access free online puzzles and register for our Facilitator Training.
Online Puzzles - You can make Yoga for the Mind a daily routine, exercising with our online kaleidoscope puzzles. This tool can be used by anyone, anywhere. Regular creative play will offer you a moment of mindfulness, and support the development of mental agility, open-mindedness and focused attention. Try free exercise here, and get PREMIUM access to over 500 puzzles in progressive levels, play on time challenge, use the amazing tool to colour and create your own kaleidoscope patterns, and the possibility to challenge a friend with your own puzzles.
Facilitator Training - We work with teachers to develop the faculties of their consciousness, and learn to use Kaleidoscope Puzzles as a tool for SEL through joyful, holistic, and experiential learning. Kaleidoscope Puzzles can be integrated as a part of their curricular practices in any educational setting. By gaining insight and hands on experience through this tool, we hope teachers will take their new knowledge and skills into other areas of their teaching. Transitioning into NEP2020 needs many such seeds of best practices to be planted, to empower teachers to transform the educational system in India towards what it strives to become. Read more.
Puzzles and activities - The Family Puzzle is a cooperative kaleidoscope puzzle and is timeless, and for every culture. It can be built cross-generationally, together with grandparents, parents, siblings or friends. The box containing 101 unique puzzle pieces comes with 101 ready patterns in progressive levels, but the possibilities to create novel puzzles is infinite. The Auro.game Puzzles come in the form of pdf's, through which you can create your own complete set of Kaleidoscope Puzzles in progressive levels for use with children ages 4-14, or with elderly. This material has been developed for educational settings. Our colour and create Activities are printable worksheets through which children age 4-14 create their own kaleidoscope puzzles. Buy here.
Play Sessions - Although the vision is to "share Aurogames with the children of the world" (AuroCulture), we also want to reach as many children as possible locally. We especially want children who would not otherwise have the opportunity for such play to benefit from Aurogames, and offer game session to children in Auroville and its bioregion, a service fully supported through donations.
Maya Shakti - Auro.games management and project coordination
Auro.games development, design and facilitator training. Maya has worked in the field of education for more than 25 years and is presently doing research on education for human unity and sustainable development in Auroville. She has a B.Ed. in Science of Education, a B.Ed. in Pedagogy and an M.S. in Education for Sustainable Development (Integral Education) - University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ishay Botbol - Creative director
Project management and development of Auro.games from the physical puzzle prototypes into the revolution of the digital world. Ishay has a B.Ed. F.A. in Digital Media and Photography - WIZO Haifa Academy of Design and Education in Israel.
The original Aurogame prototypes were created by a woman called AuroCulture (Helga Ahy). Her adventure in puzzle creation began in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry in the 1970's and continued in Auroville where she moved in the 1990's. She worked on inspiration until a puzzle materialized, and created over 40 beautiful handmade educational material prototypes and sketches. AuroCulture's wish was for these materials to be shared with the children of the world and of the future. She expressed that her role had been to create the seeds for this work through the prototypes, but did not have the knowledge or ability of how to take it forward beyond that. For many years she stored the game prototypes, waiting for "the people who will be a part of realizing this project to come together at the right time".
In 2015 she put the game prototypes in the care of Maya Shakti, who built a team to start to explore how to take the project forward. After an initial few years of experimenting with the games and trying to understand how to sustain the project, Ishay Botbol joined Aurogames as creative director, to build the strategy needed to share Aurogames with the world. During the past years Maya and Ishay have taken the games far beyond the original prototypes, through facilitator training, learning materials, and into the digital world, creating over 600 puzzles and a variety of different functionalities to reach people of all ages, everywhere, as well as schools in India and beyond. AuroCulture followed the work and development with enthusiasm until her passing in 2020.
Playauro.games is an independent initiative dedicated to serve as an international channel to generate funds to continue to further develop and offer sustainability to the Auro.games project and for Auroville.
Do you want to help contribute towards this work? Donations are welcome! (90% of all donations go toward project implementation, 10% goes to cover transaction fees, platform fees and administrative costs).