Brain Gym®

How it Works

Brain Gym® is a holistic system based on the principles of kinesiology and learning theory. It consists of 26 designed movement activities and related techniques that offer a proven approach that addresses and incorporates the often overlooked physical components of learning and behavior — visual, auditory, motor, and kinesthetic — to optimize performance, enjoyment, and success in life. It is one component of a broader discipline called Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K). Educational Kinesiology, which means to learn through movement, encompasses methods and techniques drawn from Touch for Health, the Meridian Systems of Chinese healing, Brain Organization Profiles (Learning Profiles), Visioncircles, the original ‘Brain Gym 26’ movements, Primitive Reflex Integration methods, and Repatterning techniques.

Edu-K and its related integrative movement techniques utilize simple, focused movement patterns to improve the way information is processed by the brain. These repetitive movements release the stress patterns that develop due to poor sensory processing. In this way, they calm over-active areas of the brain and activate under-functioning areas. Balancing the areas of the brain (whole brain integration) increases our ability to learn effectively, to manage our emotions, and to self-regulate our behavior. The simple movements duplicate the developmental movements naturally done during the first year of life when we were learning to move and coordinate the different parts of our bodies as we explored the world around us.

The techniques used are gentle, yet highly effective, and are natural, non-invasive, and drug-free. These very simple movements create new neural pathways in the brain, stimulate the flow of information between brain hemispheres, and increase the speed of neural processing. All of this changes the way we comprehend information, how we experience our emotions, how we think, and how we relate.

  • Our bodies and brains are designed to move – relying on movement for optimal development and functioning on every level: physical, emotional, and mental. Movement is what brings together, or integrates, the complex functions of the brain/body system. Movement is more than the physical coordination of our body in motion; it also includes the internal movement of our organs, blood, and lymph, and the neural activity of our mental, cognitive functions when we think. Each type of movement plays a role in our development, change, and growth.

    The central nervous system is constantly receiving information from multiple sensory channels in order to perform specific, goal-directed tasks. Sensory integration is when our central nervous system takes these external signals and makes sense of them – forming thoughts and feelings, and responding through physical movement, verbal or non-verbal expression, or emotional reactions.

    By using movement patterns therapeutically, we are initiating cortical and subcortical neural reorganization to re-train and re-educate the central nervous system and brain. Specific, targeted, integrative movements can:

    • Improve cooperation between the body and both brain hemispheres, allowing us to read and comprehend better as our eyes move more easily across the page; think more clearly as information is passed fluidly between the two brain hemispheres; and be more graceful and less awkward because we are better able to control gross and fine motor movements.

    • Improve our ability to interpret situations more accurately due to an enhanced flow of sensory information connecting the limbic system (our emotional mid-brain) with the neocortex (our rational brain).

    • Generate reasoned, more rational responses (rather than over-reactions), once the primitive, automatic survival reflexes of the brain stem have been switched off.

    By using specific movements to optimize how the central nervous system processes the continuous input from our five senses, we can achieve cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes through the re-education of our brain-body system.

 

Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation/Brain Gym International. For more information on the Brain Gym® and Edu-K processes please visit Breakthroughs International, formerly Brain Gym International.