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Brain Gym

Brain Gym is one of the many different things I’ve explored to help my son. Brain Gym is a wonderful set of different motions that help stimulate the brain. I observed my son’s Brain Gym sessions, helped him practice at home and eventually got interested enough to take the 101 training. Nowadays I use it for myself before performing concerts, help my son out when he requests it, and I use it with my students when they feel really stuck. It’s simple, fun and for many effective.

How do you answer the age old question – which comes first the chicken or the egg? Here is a similar type of question regarding human development from infancy – which comes first the thought or the motion? It turns out that motion stimulates the brain, the brain develops further, more motion is now available to the baby and therefore more stimulation. Therefore – motion stimulates the brain! We all know the major milestones: wiggling, rolling over, scooting around, crawling, standing, walking, etc. Those who have studied infant development intensely have many more subtle movements documented and the order in which they come.

When I first inquired about Brain Gym lessons our instructor discussed how we could go back and redo all the developmental movements, in order, with extremely high numbers of repetition – or – we could do the specialized Brain Gym movements that shortcut the process. Well, it doesn’t take Brain Gym to make that decision!

With guidance from the Brain Gym instructor, my son and I practiced movements almost daily for 2 years. The movements we did took anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes. We enjoyed doing them because we felt clear headed and energetic when we were finished.

I can’t speak for my son’s internal experience but I could witness his actions. Homework time previously was giant meltdown time. He used to get overwhelmed and exhausted. That behavior is gone. His ability to focus dramatically improved. He also knows if his thinking is having an “off” day and requests doing Brain Gym with me. Of course he can do it on his own but he likes me to do it with him.

I can specifically outline the benefits I’ve gained! Everything having to do with visual focus dramatically improved: music reading, driving, finding items in a grocery store, you name it. My left hand/right hand coordination in violin playing felt like it snapped together. When playing incredibly fast passages of music my mind actually relaxes and gets into a certain mode. In performing concerts I’m able to easily focus without any interrupting extraneous thoughts. Any stage fright is gone as well.

It took 6 weeks for my son and I to notice any results from doing Brain Gym. Since then results have accumulated. Some of our results have been long lasting to the point where we take them for granted. Some need Brain Gym maintenance.

In this day and age there are so many resources! Anybody can overcome obstacles these days with the right therapy, diet, or movement. We have tried a number of things to help my son (Brain Gym, vision therapy, The Listening Program, occupational therapy, NAET acupuncture for allergies, chiropractic and pediatric massage). I only write this to encourage those who are satisfied with a label for their child like ADD and get out there and find help!

Brain Gym for us has become a way of life that supports clear alert focus which is! why I wanted to write about it! I wish you the best on your journey! We all deserve to be the best we can be!