Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement https://www.anatbanielmethod.com Wake Up Your Brain for a Vibrant Life Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:15:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 From Harder to Smarter – Conquer and Surpass Your New Year’s Fitness Goals! By Neil Sharp* https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/from-harder-to-smarter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-harder-to-smarter Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:53:53 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40597

From Harder to Smarter – Conquer and Surpass Your New Year’s Fitness Goals!

By Neil Sharp*

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

It is January and, many thousands of people have made a New Year’s resolution to exercise regularly and get more fit in 2023. Perhaps you are you one of them. Perhaps you are also one of the many who have made the same resolution in the past just to keep it for a couple months, or perhaps a week or two, or maybe not at all?

How come so many people want to get fit and yet find themselves falling short of their goals? No need to berate yourself or think that you need more willpower. In this month’s article you can learn what you and your brain need to increase the likelihood that you will fulfill your desire for greater fitness and health. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln’s quote above, we will guide you in how you can spend the first four hours in enhancing your brain’s functioning. A more potent brain can lead to more efficient, elegant, safe, and pleasurable movement, all of which make your goals more attainable.

Let’s look at why it may be difficult for many people to follow through on their fitness resolutions.

One answer is that when it comes to becoming more fit — increasing our flexibility, strength, coordination, and stamina — there are certain commonly held beliefs that contradict what our bodies really require.

Acting on these beliefs often leads to frustration and the belief that we have failed; however, it is only because the way we have been going about it is not how we are built to do it. It is contrary to that which our system is biologically built to say yes to. We need to build our approach to fitness in a way that is harmonious with the way, biologically, we are built to operate. When we proceed from our idea of forcing and repetition, it’s actually a sign of health to renege on our, new Year’s Resolution! Does that sound a little crazy? Bear with me!

The thing that really determines our functioning, our capabilities, and possibilities is our brain, and yet it is one of the parts of our bodies most frequently ignored when it comes to “physical” fitness. However, the brain is central to all growth, learning and development.

So, instead of fighting our biology, let’s give the body what it needs – which is actually giving the brain what it needs. We need to create the conditions to feed our brain with what it requires to upgrade its functioning to generate the information necessary to create something new – perhaps closer to what we desire.

Michael Merzenich, the world-renowned neuroscientist and so called “father” of brain plasticity science claims that when learning occurs in a way consistent with the laws that govern brain plasticity, function can be gained that may have seemed impossible before. [1] He also states that, with the 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement® “Anat Baniel has defined these rules of brain plasticity in practical and understandable human terms.” [2]

Much conventional ‘wisdom’ tells you that if you want to improve your fitness, you must exercise more by carrying out more and more extreme stretches or lifting heavier and heavier weights. You’re told to turn all your attention to your muscles: stretching them, warming them up, pumping them and then doing tedious repetitions. Above all, you’re supposed to constantly try harder and go longer – push through the pain and go for the burn.

While many people may experience improved fitness with these commonly recommended regimens, so many others do not due to injury, pain, or because they simply find it too hard and get discouraged.

The critical ingredient missing from these fitness equations is the understanding of the role of the brain in making every movement of our body possible. Beginning in the womb, continuing during the infant’s early movements and through the increasingly more complex movements we learn, the body is getting mapped into the brain. Think about it: at birth the child doesn’t know she has arms, legs, back, or belly. It takes years before there is enough connectivity between the body and brain so that she can walk, skip, catch a ball, sing a song, or write a letter.

This realization – that the brain organizes all movement – has everything to do with your ability to become more fit, even into your nineties. It is the brain that needs to get new information and create new patterns of movement in order to move us past limitations to new levels of fitness. Exercising repeatedly without providing the brain with the opportunity to create the new, simply grooves in more deeply both what we do well, and that which limits us and brings about injury and pain.

The good news is that there are very direct, easy, and safe ways for us to communicate with our own brain, to wake it up and provide it with the new information it needs. Some of these ways, which I call the Nine Essentials, are counterintuitive, yet are fully supported by current neuroscience research.

Later in the article we will give you some tips for enhancing your fitness based on these Essentials.

One of the 9 Essentials is: Slow. Slowing down is an absolute requirement for the brain to change and learn something new.

Another Essential is Variation. Instead of “drilling” and doing endless repetitions, we ask people to be playful, do things in “wrong” ways. This provides the brain with a flow of new information

with which it can reconfigure the body to perform better. It also makes people smarter – learn faster.

Except for rare occasions, if you are unable to perform a movement, it is primarily because your brain does not yet know how to organize your body—which muscles to contract at which time—in order to get the outcome you are seeking. Your brain has not created a detailed enough map (a process called “differentiation”), so it cannot coordinate the different parts of your body to perform what you are trying to accomplish.

Without this mapping your brain is unable to communicate with all the muscles required to do the movement well, so you are stuck at the same skill level, improve very little, or even get injured. This is true whether your goal is to achieve greater strength, flexibility, stamina, ease, comfort, or well-being.

Here are some tips how to apply four of the Nine Essentials of NeuroMovement® and begin to enhance the fitness level of both your brain and your body. These can create amazing breakthroughs, whether you are a world class athlete, or have never done any fitness before in your life.

  1. SLOW: Next time you are at the gym, Yoga class, taking a walk, or simply about to roll out of bed in the morning, for 2 to 3 minutes slow your movement way down. If you are taking a class, such as a fitness class, let the instructor know that from time to time you will be moving very slowly, and not to worry. Or if you are using a treadmill, put it on a very slow speed.
  2. MOVEMENT WITH ATTENTION: Once you have slowed down, pay very close attention to what you feel in your body, in yourself, as you move. Research shows that when you pay attention to what you feel as you move, the brain immediately begins making millions of new connections per minute and can take this enormous amount of new information for mapping more complete and accurate connections.
  3. VARIATION: Whatever movement you are doing, for two to three minutes do the movement in a few different ways. Even do it “badly”, sloppily or “wrongly” (provided you do it safely!). You’d be surprised how your brain uses this information for greater differentiation and smoother, stronger, more accurate movement. So, if you are trying to do a Yoga pose in just the right way, intentionally experiment playfully with at least three different ways of doing it not the right way, and see what happens when you move back into the correct way of doing into the pose again.
  4. SUBTLETY: Take two to three minutes with whatever movement you are doing, and reduce the force with which you are doing it by half; then reduce the force by still another half.

I hope you will enjoy trying out these new ideas. You can explore them in this month’s movement lesson. Be playful. If your fitness regime is enjoyable, and you see progress, you will be much more likely continue into the coming year and beyond. Make the fitness shift from harder to smarter!

*This article is based on “Easing into Fitness” by Anat Baniel with Neil Sharp MD that appeared in the May 2016 publication of What Doctors Don’t Tell You

References:

[1] Doidge, N. The Brain the Changes Itself. Viking, New York. 2007. P47

[2] Merzenich, M. From the Foreword of Kids Beyond Limits by Anat Baniel, Penguin Perigee, New York. 2012

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Thanksgiving – Your Brain on Gratitude and Appreciation https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/thanksgiving-your-brain-on-gratitude-and-appreciation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thanksgiving-your-brain-on-gratitude-and-appreciation Tue, 22 Nov 2022 09:55:18 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40575

THANKSGIVING – YOUR BRAIN ON GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION

“Gratitude might be the ultimate spiritual practice.” Deepak Chopra

With Thanksgiving approaching many of us will be focusing on gratitude. Many may indeed be  searching for what they can be, or are already grateful for. 

Gratitude may be defined as the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for  and to return kindness.[1] Gratitude and appreciation may be expressed to a person, including  oneself, or a thing (for example nature, food, music, new ideas and possibilities) and gratitude  and appreciation may be received from others to the self. 

Most people are familiar with a sense of well-being when expressing gratitude to a friend or  loved one for an act of generosity, or when we ourselves are acknowledged by another for  something we have provided. You may also be aware of people increasingly writing or speaking  of the power of gratitude and appreciation to improve and enhance one’s life and the actual  felt experience of living.  

Spiritual practices often advocate gratitude as an important a principle. What people have  known intuitively and experienced practically for centuries has, however, only recently been a  topic of scientific research which demonstrates the importance of the practice of gratitude and  appreciation to our well-being and our health. Much of this growth of scientific interest in  gratitude can be traced to the early pioneering gratitude research of psychologist Robert  Emmons of UC Davis.

Emmons has been studying the effects of gratitude on physical and psychological health as well  as interpersonal relationships. The results of his studies and those of others show that people  who regularly practice gratitude experience benefits such as the following [2]: 

Physical 

  • Stronger immune systems 
  • Less bothered by aches and pains 
  • Lower blood pressure 
  • Exercise more and take better care of their health 
  • Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking

Psychological 

  • Higher levels of positive emotions 
  • More alert, alive, and awake 
  • More joy and pleasure 
  • More optimism and happiness 

Social 

  • More helpful, generous, and compassionate 
  • More forgiving 
  • More outgoing 
  • Feel less lonely and isolated. 

If we wish to feel happier and more contentment in our lives and see positive change in society,  fostering an attitude of gratitude is essential.  

If gratitude is so wonderful, positive, and healthy, we may wonder how come it is not practiced  by us or others more often? The absence of gratitude around us is often stark. For example, if  we watch the news, or go on social media, or simply listen to our co-worker’s gossip, frequently much of it is attacking, blaming, scaring, and expressing victimization and insufficiency. 

One reason for this is that the brain seeks first and foremost safety. The brain is attuned to the  perception of any kind of potential danger in order to prioritize survival. Fear is a powerful  primordial, automatic, and very fast reaction when danger is perceived that is governed by the  lower centers of the brain. As Rick Hanson writes “It’s the negative experiences, not the  positive ones, that have generally had the most impact on survival… When you’re awake and  not doing anything in particular, the baseline resting state of your brain activates a ‘default  network,’ and one of its functions seems to be tracking your environment and body for  possible… The amygdala—which is like an alarm bell—then pulses both a general warning  throughout your brain and a special fast-track signal to your fight-or-flight neural and hormonal  systems. [3] In his Polyvagal Theory, Stephen Porges describes the inter-relationship of concious  and unconscious aspects of the nervous system in response to, safety, danger and social  interaction. When the environment is perceived as safe bodily state is regulated in an efficient  manner to promote growth and restoration. The human nervous system retained two more  primitive neural circuits to regulate defensive strategies when danger is perceived (ie, “fight– flight” and death-feigning, or “freeze” behaviors). Some individuals experience a mismatch, and  the nervous system appraises the environment as being dangerous even when it is safe. This  mismatch results in chronic, long term physiological states that support fight, flight, or freeze  behaviors that impair our abilities to learn and thrive. [4] Connecting to oneself and others  through the intentional practice of gratitude can contribute to aligning these processes and  bring us back into balance. 

When things go our way, or even better than we expected, we tend to feel safe and the “alarm,  alarm, alert, alert” messages in our brain are in a resting state in the background. At such times 

the more evolved, aware, and intentional aspects of ourselves can more easily come into play  and generate gratitude. It can seem obvious why gratitude is called for. However, the challenge  and a worthy goal when things don’t work the way we want them to, is described eloquently by Author Melodie Beattie: “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more… It turns  problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into  important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a  vision for tomorrow.”[5] 

Lynne Twist has coined the term “Enoughness” in her book The Soul of Money. [6] (This word  has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary and is entering our daily lexicon more and  more). The term Enoughness, is self-explanatory. How much more of what I already have do I  really need? How much of what I don’t have do I need, or will make me happier? The sense of  not being or having enough, when it can be enough, makes gratitude hard to attain. Lynne not  only looks at the power of enoughness in our personal journey, but the role it plays in the  future of our planet and humanity.  

From what is written above, it becomes clear that gratitude and appreciation are not automatic  reactions, but a skill to be developed. Gratitude as promoted by great spiritual teachers is a practice. Practice means an intentional, proactive learning process done over the span of life. It  means making a choice to explore and experiment in ways to generate gratitude, appreciation,  and enoughness and to learn to receive appreciation and gratitude when it comes to us.  

In the face of the power of perceived-danger, real, or habitual, to activate a fear reaction, we  are called to be aware of what is happening to us and have the opportunity to shift out of our  automatic reactions and have a wider vision of reality that can serve us and those around us  better. Gratitude is a choice. 

The intentional practice of gratitude calls upon us to upgrade and evolve the use of our brains. The good news is that upgrading the quality of the functioning of our brain is available and  possible for anyone at any age. Gratitude is not a trait that we are born with. It is a skill we can  nurture and develop. We can have the freedom to intentionally shift ourselves into a state of  gratitude, appreciation, and wellbeing. 

For all of us, and especially for those who suffered severe and/or repeated trauma and may  have the “alarm system” on all the time, there are a variety of methods and approaches that  specifically are geared to help with this condition. To mention a few: Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal  theory and intervention; Rick Hanson’s The Foundations of Well-being; EMDR therapy and  Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing to mention a few. 

Four Tools to begin using right away

Intention: If you have not yet begun developing a gratitude and enoughness practice, and if the  above appeals to you, or if you would like to get better at this practice, the first thing to 

generate is the intention to develop your gratitude “muscle”. It is important that you see value  in at least giving it a try. 

Gratitude journal: Creating a “gratitude journal” is often recommended as an easy and great means for developing gratitude as a practice. We suggest that you look for the “low hanging  fruits”, small simple things in your daily life that you can easily recognize their value. For  example, when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and traffic is light, or that your teenage  child said yes to your request. Dr. Emmons had participants keep a gratitude journal and  suggested that they do this as a daily or weekly practice of writing one or more things down  that you are grateful for. You quickly end up with a long list that you can read through on days  when you’re feeling down and be reminded of all the good in your life. This is also an activity  that could be done with children to help cultivate the habit of gratitude from an early age. 

Awareness: is one of the 9 Essentials of Anat Baniel Method®NeuroMovement® (ABMNM®)  Awareness is the opposite of automaticity and it’s the brain in its most potent state. Awareness  is noticing and recognizing what is, which opens the door to freedom and to new possibilities.  As Emmons states, Recognition is the quality that permits gratitude to be transformational. To  recognize is to cognize, or think, differently about something from the way we have thought  about it before. When this becomes a practice, a new perception, a sense of possibility and  wellbeing emerges from the darkness. Adversity is transformed into opportunity. Sorrow is  transformed into gratefulness. [7] 

Enthusiasm: is another ABMNM Essential that can be highly effective in generating  appreciation of oneself or others. The word Enthusiasm comes from the Greek enthousiasmos,  ‘be inspired or possessed by a god’. It is the willingness and ability to appreciate in the here and  now not only the manifestation of our big dreams, needs, and desires, but also have deep  appreciation to what one might consider as small, unimportant, or is normally taken for  granted. As such, Enthusiasm is generosity of spirit. It is an exercising of generosity to the self or  other. 

With love and appreciation this Holiday Season from Anat and everyone at Anat Baniel  Method® NeuroMovement® 

References: 

[1] Oxford English Dictionary https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

[2] Emmons, Robert. “Why gratitude is good.” Nov 16,  https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good. Accessed Oct 14,  2016. 

[3] Hanson, Rick. Buddha’s Brain New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition.

[4] Porges SW. The polyvagal theory: new insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic  nervous system. Cleve Clin J Med. 2009 Apr;76 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S86-90. 

[5] https://www.downtoearth.org/articles/2016-10/9351/gratitude-awakens-compassion-and wisdom

[6] Twist, Lynne. (2006) The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources W.  W. Norton & Company 

[7] Emmons, Robert . Thanks!: : How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier. HarperOne..  Kindle Edition.

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The Growing Mental Health Crisis in Teenage Girls (and Boys) https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/growing-mental-health-crisis-in-teenage-girls/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=growing-mental-health-crisis-in-teenage-girls Thu, 13 Oct 2022 18:39:02 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40565

The Growing Mental Health Crisis in Teenage Girls (and Boys)

A recent survey on CNN reported that 90% of people in the USA believe that there is a mental health crisis happening right now, and more than half identified mental health issues among children and teenagers as a crisis.

My friend, Donna Jackson Nakazawa’s recently published book, Girls on the Brink, inspired me and my colleague, Dr Neil Sharp, to write this article.

Awareness of adolescent mental health challenges is growing rapidly, and 

has become a topic of growing concern in recent years. [1]

Girls are of particular concern. In a US study, rates of depression in teen girls rose from 11.4% to 23.4% in the 10 years from 2009-2019 — more than triple the 3.7% rise seen in boys. The reasons for this disparity still aren’t clear. [2]

In a representative survey of 26,885 students aged 11–14 across the United Kingdom, as many as 1 in 3 reported significant depressive symptoms. [3]

Our daughters, students, and clients are more anxious and prone to depression and self-harm than ever before. But until recently we haven’t had the science to explain why this is happening—and why it is happening now.

Expectations for teenage girls to be brainy, athletic, nurturing, and look like supermodels – while juggling homework, social networking, and resumé-padding activities – are fueling a generational mental health crisis. [4]

Until the mid-1990s, the general consensus in psychiatry was that depression was a condition found only in adults, but it has since become clear that adolescence is a crucial period for mental health. Although children as young as three can be diagnosed with depression, typical onset is in the early teen years, which is a period of intense brain development. Half of all mental-health disorders begin by age 14, and 75% start by the mid-20s, research shows. [5] If a young person experiences depression or anxiety, that’s often a sign that they might face lifelong challenges with symptoms.

As mental-health concerns grow, scientists are looking to prevention as a strategy for addressing rising rates of depression among young people. Researchers say it is both possible and essential to ward off mental-health issues, which frequently begins in adolescence. But as programs that aim to build resilience proliferate in schools, research points to the complexity of the task. Some programs seem to be helpful and others not.[6]

In some places, researchers are only just starting to document rates of depression and related disorders in young people, and in others it is still unrecognized or acknowledged. [7] 60% of young people with depression in the United States, girls and boys, do not receive any mental-health treatment at all. [8]

New research and new road maps for hope

In the midst of this growing problem, and the growing awareness thereof, combined with the current limited understanding of why this is happening and how we can help, the book, Girls on the Brink, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa, the best-selling science writer, is a wonderful roadmap. [9] 

https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Brink-Daughters-Increased-Depression/dp/0593233077/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6CT2FK42KWW8&keywords=girls+on+the+brink+book&qid=1664577388&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=gorls+on+the+brink%2Caps%2C257&sr=8-1

In her book, Jackson Nakazawa unpacks the latest findings from the annals of neuroscience to offer us all surprising and valuable new insights as to how and why chronic stress during the critical neurodevelopmental window of puberty can ramp up girls’ stress machinery in body and brain in ways that derail mental health – and in ways that are different than in boys. This book also is filled with answers. The author unveils how the recent science that’s shown us the why has also shown us how we can solve this crisis. She also lays out 15 science-backed “antidote” strategies – including insights, tips, and scripts to use in all the difficult moments of girls’ lives – to help girls flourish in our increasingly stressful and troubled times.

Evolving awareness, recognition, and understanding

Girls on the Brink synthesizes research across many disciplines, including the groundbreaking research of Johns Hopkins University professor Christina Bethell, PhD, whose collective work over 3 decades has flipped the dialogue on youth mental health to focus on the social and relational context in which our children and youth live, learn, work and grow. In addition, very importantly it has focus to the critical importance of proactively promoting youth flourishing. 

This includes cultivating a sense of meaning, purpose, belonging, mattering and an “on purpose” focus on strengths and what is “already whole” in the child, especially during difficult times.

Dr. Bethell’s globally disseminated paper showed, for the first time at a population level, the power of positive relational experiences at home, school and the community to reduce by 72%  a person’s chances of having depression, even when they have experienced high levels of childhood trauma or adversity.  [10]

The Power of Being Seen and Believed

When a child reacts negatively, such as in crying, or expressing strong upset in other ways, it is easy to dismiss it as “childish”, or to say, “get over it”, “you are ok” etc. Very often such an experience is not life threatening and from the point of view of the adult, it is not very serious. The conclusion, in an attempt to have the child get over it, or feel better, of have the adult feel better is to ignore, or invalidate the experience.

When the child’s experience is objectively traumatic and damaging, often it is traumatizing and very uncomfortable for the adults that care for that child. A common reaction is to ignore the existence of that experience and distract the child from from what they are feeling.

While hiking one day, I saw a child, probably 3 years old, seated on the railing of a bridge with a stream gushing eight feet below. The dad was trying to engage the boy in observing the rocks and vegetation below. The boy was terrified. He told his dad “I’m scared, I want to get off”. The dad told him he was fine. The boy cowered and got very tense. The father was not holding the child, just standing nearby. After a few seconds the boy told the dad again, louder, of his fear. The dad repeated to the boy that he was fine, at which point the boy burst out crying. It was difficult to watch the child’s experience be ignored, with the best intentions on the father’s part. The boy looked so lonely and helpless. I walked away.

In our NeuroMovement work, the felt experience of a person, adult, or child, is the source of information both to the child and to the adult of what is needed and what can be done to provide information to the brain with which to create new possibilities and regain the sense of safety, well-being and agency. Any change, i.e. new learning, can only emerge from the here and now, and the here and now includes the felt experience. Lack of a sense of safety and trauma are known to drive changes in the brain that can have negative, lifelong impact. Denying, making wrong, ignoring, or any other way of attempting to sidestep the subjective experience of a person creates disconnection with others and within oneself, and often leads to a sense of isolation. 

As Dr Christina Bethell wrote, “when we peer deeply into the science of human flourishing, we find at its roots our fundamental interconnectedness. As children or adults, we experience our innate interconnectedness through a felt sense of belonging and mattering, which requires that we feel seen, valued and shown we are important to others and the web of life in which we exist. We come to know we belong and matter through moment-by-moment, attuned, safe, stable, and nurturing relationships in our first moments, early years, and all across life. 

These connected, affirming relationships are required for healthy brain development and give rise to the embodied and felt sense of mattering we need to create a life of meaning and purpose and awaken our capacity to nurture ourselves, others and the natural world that sustains us.”

What can you begin doing right now for your child in these stressful times?

In her book, Girls on the Brink, Donna lays out 15 science-backed “antidote” strategies – including insights, tips, and scripts to use in all the difficult moments of girls’ lives – to help girls flourish in our increasingly stressful and troubled times.

Below are a few suggestions from us that you can start following right away:

  • Creating a more nurturing environment for the child (and adult) is easier than it might sound. The first step is to know and feel withing yourself that the child’s experience is very real to them and how they react and what they learn from the experience depends on what they feel and perceive. In other words, take the child’s experience seriously while maintaining your adult perspective. 
  • The next step is to get interested in the child’s experience, unless the situation requires immediate intervention for the child’s safety, in which case take action right away. One of the easiest ways to get interested in the child’s experience is to ask questions. If we go back to the child seated on the railing of the Bridge, the dad could have believed and taken seriously the child’s experience, even if he estimated that the child was safe, and realize that when the child is terrified, he is not going to be interested in rocks and vegetation. If anything, he is learning that he is unsafe and alone in his experience. The alternative could be to simply have the dad put his arm around the child and ask him: “does that feel better?”  and keep going until the child felt safe. Then the child can feel that he is safe and that he matters. 
  • There is a paradox found in Dr. Bethell’s research that “it is through the portal to meeting what’s difficult with safety that we show children how to have resilience even in the face of life’s suffering. It’s when you don’t allow for your child’s (the so called) negative emotions that you risk diminishing their mental health.” [11] When the child is having a tough, or stress generating experience, naming, and acknowledging that experience, and choosing whether to do something about it or not, can go a long way to preventing it from having an extended negative impact and at the same time build resilience.

The importance of the subjective sense of safety for our biology to work to our advantage cannot be overstated and is still far from where we need it to be.

Girls on the Brink, the work of Dr Bethell, NeuroMovement®, and an ever-growing number of scientists, health practitioners, and teachers are bringing this important knowledge and these practices more widely to individuals and to systems. 

References:

  1. Sohn, E. Tackling the mental-health crisis in young people. Nature 608, S39-S41 (2022)
  2. Daly M. Prevalence of Depression Among Adolescents in the U.S. From 2009 to 2019: Analysis of Trends by Sex, Race/Ethnicity, and Income. J Adolesc Health. 2022 Mar;70(3):496-499.
  3. Ford T, et al. The Role of Schools in Early Adolescents’ Mental Health: Findings From the MYRIAD Study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 Dec;60(12):1467-1478.
  4. Hinshaw S., “The Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures” (Ballantine Books, 2009).
  5. Kessler RC et al. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;62(6):593-602.
  6. Kuyken W, Ball S, Crane C, et al Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial Evidence-Based Mental Health 2022;25:99-109
  7. Maalouf FT, Alrojolah L, Akoury-Dirani L ,et alPsychopathology in Children and Adolescents in Lebanon Study (PALS): a national household survey. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 Apr;57(4):761-774. 
  8. Tamar Mendelson, director of the Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland quoted in Tackling the mental-health crisis in young people. Nature 608, S39-S41 (2022)
  9. Jackson Nakazawa, D. Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media Harmony (September 13, 2022)
  10. Bethell C, Jones J, Gombojav N, et al Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences LevelsJAMA Pediatr. 2019;173(11)
  11. Jackson Nakazawa, D. Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media Harmony (September 13, 2022) P 142
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New paradigm in education leading to new possibilities https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/new-paradigm-in-education-leading-to-new-possibilities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-paradigm-in-education-leading-to-new-possibilities Fri, 26 Aug 2022 06:55:59 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40537

New Paradigm in Education Leading to New Possibilities

In 2019, the Anat Baniel Method®NeuroMovement® (ABMNM®) team were approached by Lloydminster Catholic Public School District in Alberta, Canada to explore the possibility of bringing ABMNM® to their six schools.

What brought them to us was the challenge posed by the continuously increasing number of children in their schools with learning, behavioral, social, and emotional challenges (what we will call children with special needs or CWSN).

They were looking to help their teachers, educational assistants (EAs or aides), and the administration team learn ways to interact with the children that would reduce their challenges, increase their ability to learn, and foster a classroom environment that was safer and less disruptive

After many fascinating discussions we all found a way to launch an innovative pilot program in two of LCSD’s schools.

This article features the remarkable results that were achieved during the program which ran across two school years in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, both of which were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The results

Each year, the LCSD schools collect third grade reading test results. These have the highest positive correlation to long term graduation. They also collect serious behavior incident data, and student injuries data.

We used the school year before the ABMNM® program was introduced (2018-2019) as the baseline year, and compared the results from the baseline with the results from the two subsequent years, both of which included the ABMNM® program.

Grade level reading results – 3rd grade reading competencies:
2018-2019 (the baseline year)         Below 90%
2019-2020 (first year of implementing ABMNM®)         91%
2020-2021 (second year of implementing ABMNM®)        95%
System-wide, there was a 4% increase in reading results.

Behavioral, serious incidents, and social services and police involvement over both years in the two schools that received ABMNM® coaching:
40% decrease in serious behavioral incidence in School A
66% decrease in serious behavioral incidence in School B
50% decrease in student injuries in both schools combined

The Educational Director at LCSD wrote:
“As Educational Assistants learn to move From Fixing to Connecting and employ the 9 Essentials of ABMNM® their expertise serves the school as a whole. Professional Development for the Educational Assistants was the primary goal of this program. It is clear that in growing their competency we decrease student time away from school and the learning readiness of the classroom environment has substantially increased. There is data to support this provincially as well. In a year when COVID impacted learning, LCSD did not see the learning loss that was so prevalent locally and across the United States and Canada. I offer as evidence of this claim the Grade 3 reading test results. Reading tests at this level have the highest positive correlation to long term graduation statistics. It is also related to other factors such as incarceration and earnings potential. In this case, our Grade Level Reading Results in 2020-2021 increased by 4% to 95%. Our baseline year was less than 90%. Again, there is evidence that the Anat Baniel Classroom program has had a positive impact system wide.”

Our Process

Open minds working in close collaboration
When the Educational Director, Deputy Director of Education, Deputy Director of Learning, and Chief Financial Officer met with us for a few days to learn about ABMNM®, they quickly realized that ABMNM® was very different from what they imagined it to be, and that it would require openness and the implementation of a new approach to learning. Thankfully, the leadership team got fully behind the project and embraced the opportunity to become students of ABMNM®. For us at ABMNM®, working with this school district and using the power of collaboration to bring remarkable transformations turned out to be a dream experience.

ABMNM® training for staff
The school administrators fully supported us in guiding their teaching staff, the principals, and the EAs through a multi-day workshop which offered an immersive, whole-person learning experience focused on the body, emotions, and mind. We introduced the fundamentals of the theory underlying ABMNM®, and demonstrated ways to apply what they learned to specific individuals and situations.

LCSD staff experienced the power of the brain to change for the better by harnessing the power of neuroplasticity through the practice of NeuroMovement® and the 9 Essentials. They felt those changes first in themselves, and were guided in the adoption of a “whole child approach.” Rather than focusing directly on problems, challenges, or limitations, they were invited to focus on connecting with the child through the 9 Essentials, all of which wake up the brain and drive powerful learning.

ABMNM® movement lessons in the classroom
We talked to the children about their brain and how powerful it is, before teaching them short NeuroMovement® lessons during which they were able to experience in themselves clear and, at times, dramatic changes.

Monthly online coaching of small groups of EAs and teaching staff
Each coaching session focused on one or two of the 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement®. The participants brought short videos showing a child who was challenging for them. They were asked to describe what they did, or tried to do with the child. Anat then guided the EA as to ways they could experiment interacting with the child the next time they were with her or him. The following meeting, or earlier through email, we got a report on how things went.

The main experience that the EAs reported back to us was a total surprise at the transformations they observed in the children and the immediacy of these changes. Often they expressed how these new ways of doing and understanding were very different from what they were taught previously.

Throughout the process, the Deputy Director of Education at LCSD was fully supportive of the program. She herself became a student of ABMNM® together with her staff which led them to feel safe, supported, and free to experiment with what they were learning.

Sample outcomes reported to us:

  1. At the end of every week, the six schools had Mass. One week, the Director of Education (DOE) happened to be standing next to Sammy, a child diagnosed with ASD who had a hard time following instructions. As a result, Sammy was considered behaviorally, as well as cognitively, challenged. When everyone began kneeling, Sammy stayed standing, oblivious to what was happening. First the DOE tried talking to Sammy asking him to kneel, holding his hand, and trying to direct him to the floor. None of it worked. The DOE then recalled the 9 Essentials and the concept of differentiation. He realized that perhaps Sammy had no awareness of the existence of his knees, and therefore couldn’t grasp what was asked of him. The DOE got up, faced Sammy, and with a kind touch he placed his hand on one of Sammy’s knees and said, with a clear voice: “you have this knee,” then placed his hand on Sammy’s other knee and said: ”and you have another knee.” He repeated this 2-3 times and then started kneeling slowly. To his amazement, Sammy knelt on his knees and stayed there with the whole congregation.

    Now, what you just read may seem implausible since Sammy could move fine, had two knees, and should have been able to kneel with everyone else. However, Sammy’s brain didn’t recognize his knees – they hadn’t been mapped into his brain as two felt, distinct parts of himself. The short interaction that the DOE had with Sammy helped him make sense of what was asked of him and as a result he was able to join everyone in the keeling. Later, the DOE approached Anat and her colleague Neil Sharp and told them the story with great excitement. Even though he was the one that brought the Anat Baniel Classroom Program (ABC program) to his schools, experiencing firsthand the power of using the Essentials to bring positive and immediate change was exhilarating.

  2. Rufus, a 12 year old boy also diagnosed with ASD, had been demonstrating the same challenging behavior every day at school. Usually, when asked to go into the classroom, he would cry, throw things, and refuse to enter the class. It would take much work to finally get him to go inside. The EA brought this up in one of our coaching sessions, at which time Anat suggested for her to “go with the system.” Rather than try to force and attempt to exert control over Rufus’s well grooved behavior, Anat advised the EA to meet Rufus outside at his drop off location where he didn’t cry. Once there, she suggested that the EA say, “I’m meeting you today before you go inside. Do you want to be upset now? Or shall we go inside to the classroom door where I usually greet you and there you can get upset?” Taking this approach invited Rufus to notice and become aware, perhaps for the first time, of his habitual behavior. Even though his behavior seemed pretty extreme from our perspective, he was unaware of it, he had no idea what he was doing. By asking him the question and introducing to him two options for intentionally crying and getting upset, Rufus, for the first time, had the opportunity to become aware of what he was doing.

    During our next coaching session, the EA shared: “you should have seen the look on his face, my question caught him so off guard. He said, ‘I don’t wanna throw a fit Ms. Mason.’ He totally de-escalated, and was ready to participate in class. And we had a super successful class. So that was pretty cool.”

The Educational Director also wrote: “It is important that we spend time to study this evidence further. The system-wide impact of undertaking the Anat Baniel Classroom Program is clear anecdotally, but further work supported by granting agencies would enable us to clear attribution errors and tie impacts of Professional Development of Educational Assistants as well as the direct interventions for high needs students to the success of the entire school.”

Things you can do at home

Realize that the process starts with you
It is understandable that when we see a child suffering, or having challenges, we want to “fix” them. However, unlike inanimate objects that we can impose our will on, and often get the outcomes we want, the child is a living, feeling being, and the changes have to occur within themselves. We need to create conditions that tap into the great potential of the child’s brain to learn and change. With ABM®NeuroMovement® we do it by shifting from trying to fix the child to connecting with the child by using the 9 Essentials.

Get interested and wonder what your child is feeling
Get interested and wonder: what is my child seeing, or not seeing? Hearing or not hearing? What are they actually trying to accomplish with their actions and behavior? That’s your starting point (unless their actions pose a danger to them or others, in which case appropriate actions are needed to protect all involved should take place). You can be quite certain that what they are seeing, feeling and understanding is not what you are seeing, feeling, and understanding. Be interested in their experience. This will help you to pull back from the fixing mode so you can shift into the connecting mode.

Know that your child is having a felt experience all the time
Make sure that as you or someone else are trying to help your child learn and change, the felt experience the child has is one that you want them to have; that you would like them to associate with what they are learning. Fear, shame, and/or a sense of failure hamper successful learning. It is not about coddling the child, or giving them everything they ask for – rather it is about finding ways to do what we do with the child that wakes up their brain for positive brain change, i.e., learning.

How to wake up the brain and ready your child for learning

Each of the 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement® shows you ways to wake up the brain and potentiate it for learning. The Essentials can also work in tandem to deliver even more potent results.

The following three Essentials help the brain in perceiving differences, providing it with the information it needs to create new connections and networks, which translates to new possibilities:

  • Slow
    Try to slow way down to learn new skills and overcome limitations. When you go fast, you and your child can only do what you already know. Slow stimulates the formation of rich, new neural connections.

  • Flexible Goals
    Stay focused on your goals while also embracing all the unexpected steps, mis-steps, and re-routes along the way as they are a rich source of valuable information (unintended Variations – another Essential) for the brain. Knowing the goal and detaching from the need to achieve it is an incredible way for you to connect with your child and get creative with the Essentials. We hear so often from parents we work with that with Flexible Goals they see their child and appreciate them more, and are freer to simply love them.

  • Awareness
    First become aware of what you are doing, sensing, thinking, and experiencing at any given moment. Are you connecting with your child, or trying to force on him or her something that they’re obviously not capable of doing at this moment? Be the leader in this conversation by upping your awareness quotient and bring the child’s awareness into the fold. It can be done through simple, sincere, non-manipulative questions that give the child an opportunity to notice what they are doing and eventually also what is around them. When you, or your child are awaring, both your brains are working at their highest level and opening opportunities for transformation.

The Essentials are not therapy

They are a way of applying oneself in relation to the self and to others. We suggest that you choose one Essential that appeals most to you and practice it for a day or two anywhere you can by yourself, and NOT with your child at first. Once you are familiar with it, you can start experimenting with that Essential with your child for a week or so. Then do the same with the next Essential. Eventually you will find yourself using a number of the Essentials together, since each Essential enhances the rest.

To learn more about all 9 Essentials, please see our free eBook and Anat’s books Kids Beyond Limits and Move Into Life.

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Breathing for life https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/breathing-for-life/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=breathing-for-life Mon, 11 Jul 2022 21:22:26 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40299

Breathing is a BIG topic that scientists, researchers, physicians, therapists, athletes, meditators, and, well, anyone interested in the functioning of the amazing human body have been paying attention to and looking for ways to improve for millennia. A lot is known about the importance of how we breathe – recent studies show that different breathing patterns can activate our brain networks related to mood, attention, and body awareness (1) and that different emotions are associated with different forms of breathing (2), so changing how we breathe can change how we feel and perform.

Various approaches and methods such as yoga, meditation, qigong, and martial arts, as well as techniques such as Buteyko breathing, NeuroMovement®, and those taught by Carl Stough and Wim Hof, all provide exercises and processes meant to enhance and improve our breathing so that we feel better, think clearer, are stronger and healthier, and elevate our functioning and sense of self in the world.

In this article, we share five aspects of the NeuroMovement® approach to understanding and improving breathing that are not commonly addressed, yet can contribute significantly to better and freer breathing.

1. There is no one “right” or “correct” way to breathe. (Phew, you can exhale and relax!)
Put very simply, breathing is the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that is accomplished by air flowing into and out of the lungs. The lungs themselves do not have muscles, so from the point of view of the lungs, both the entry of the air into the lungs and the exit of the air out of the lungs is done through movement that changes the relative volume of the chest cavity. When the volume expands, air will be sucked in. When the volume decreases, air will be pushed out. What increases and decreases that volume is the movement of the diaphragm coupled with the movement of the bones and muscles of the chest, belly, back, and neck. The way any position or movement is performed will determine how well one can breathe at that moment. If the movement of the ribcage, spine, sternum, and, of course, the diaphragm is limited, that will limit the quality of breathing.

2. Breathing can be greatly improved without necessarily practicing breathing in and out directly. Given that inhalation and exhalation is dependent on the movement of the chest, back, and diaphragm, focusing on creating greater freedom of many different movements in the rib cage, spine, clavicles, shoulder blades, sternum and also the neck, spontaneously will improve breathing, and facilitate the diaphragm to do its job better. With this increased freedom of movement, many additional improvements are often experienced, such as reduced pain, better sleep, clearer thinking, and increased well-being.

3. The brain controls breathing, and for improved breathing, the changes need to occur in the brain. As discussed in #2, movement is an integral and necessary part of breathing. To get free and well-organized movement that allows for the freedom to breathe well, we need to communicate with the brain and wake it up to form new connections and map the areas that need to move more fully as we breathe.

NeuroMovement® defines 9 Essentials that, when incorporated into the way you move, either during exercise or while performing your daily activities, will spontaneously begin to create new connections and possibilities in the brain, through a process called neuroplasticity, brain change, or simply, learning. This process is accessible and available to anyone, no matter their age or condition. (For more on the 9 Essentials, see our free 17-page eBook here.)

4. Breathing is an automatic brain function, not a voluntary, intentional function. Yes, we can, for a period of time, intentionally direct and control our breathing to some extent. However, whenever we get into action, or during sleep, breathing reverts to its automatic nature. Enhancing the mobility of our whole body combined with breathing exercises can make a huge difference in the quality of our automatic breathing by giving the brain access to greater freedom and variability in organizing our breath.

5. One way to take advantage of the brain’s automatic control of breathing is shifting the focus to exhalation rather than inhalation as a powerful way to improve breathing. Often when we are tense or stressed we are told to take in a couple of deep breaths. This can be helpful. However, a potent way to regulate our breath and increase the amount of oxygen that we take in, is shifting our attention to our exhalation. On each exhalation we exhale very slowly as long as we can do so comfortably. Then we let the inhalation take care of itself, i.e. allow the air to come in spontaneously. Dr. Carl Stough based his method on this principle, ancient techniques have taught it for millenia, and it is one of the breathing variations we focus on in NeuroMovement®.

How do we define healthy breathing?
There is no one way but rather a multitude of ways to breathe. The way we breathe should change and adapt to what we do at any given moment. Running fast to catch a bus requires a very different way of breathing compared to lying on a sofa watching TV. Therefore, healthy breathing cannot be defined by any specific way or style of breathing.

Instead, when we breathe well, our breath changes spontaneously to meet the flow of the ongoing demands and challenges. With healthy breathing we are available to respond to the “here and now,” to what is, at any given moment.

Healthy breathing also means freeing ourselves from the idea that there’s a “right way to breathe.” Instead, as we increase the repertoire and freedom of movement in the areas of our body that participate in breathing, and experiment with many different ways to breathe, we spontaneously breathe better and greatly enhance our vitality and well-being.

SOURCES:[1] Herrero, J. L., Khuvis, S., Yeagle, E., Cerf, M., and Mehta, A. D. (2018). Breathing above the brain stem: volitional control and attentional modulation in humans. Journal of Neurophysiology, 119:1, 145-159.[2] Jerath, R. and Beveridge, C. (2020). Respiratory Rhythm, Autonomic Modulation, and the Spectrum of Emotions: The Future of Emotion Recognition and Modulation. Front. Psychol., 11:1980.

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Reverse aging with better balance https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/reverse-aging-with-better-balance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reverse-aging-with-better-balance Mon, 06 Jun 2022 13:52:33 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=40184

Anyone over 50 (and even some younger people) will know that the aging process can rob us of abilities that we took for granted earlier on in our lives. One of the most common and prominent changes is in our ability to balance. Every 15 seconds, an older adult is admitted to the emergency room as the result of a fall, making it the leading cause of injury among the elderly.

But you don’t have to be “elderly” to experience precariousness with your balance, or find yourself avoiding activities because you feel unsafe in doing them.

You might feel challenged standing on one leg putting on your pants. Or if you go hiking, negotiating different kinds of terrain may have become more difficult than it used to be. You might even have made a conscious decision to go down stairs a little slower just so as you can feel safer.

Balance is a complex skill that builds over many years. It takes a child six years before she can balance on one leg for up to 10 seconds, or hop on one foot, even if clumsily, or learn to ride a bike without training wheels. It takes a lot longer for her to master standing on one leg with the other leg lifted behind her high up in the air (what’s called “Arabesque” in ballet), or to be able to twist and swivel pitching a baseball.

Often, the deterioration in balance skills is attributed to loss of muscle strength and flexibility. No doubt that has something to do with it. However, the main cause of loss in balancing abilities is deterioration in the functioning of the brain.

To have (good) balance, which the Merriam Webster dictionary defines as: “the ability to move or to remain in a position without losing control or falling.” requires a lengthy process in which the brain learns to control the different parts of the body, the relationships between the moving parts, and the timing of each of the movements. In other words, balance is not a “thing”; it is the outcome of how we move.

What we call ‘balance’ is the successful ‘here and now’ outcome of continuous, highly dynamic and complex brain activity. The loss of balance skills are almost always associated with a decrease in the quality of brain functioning.

The VERY good news is that our brain is built to change and can change for the better at any age. More about that later.

Robynne Boyd of Scientific American (1) made an interesting summary of brain activity in her interview with John Henley, a neurologist from Mayo Clinic: “In walking toward the coffeepot, reaching for it, pouring the brew into the mug, even leaving extra room for cream, the occipital and parietal lobes, motor sensory and sensory motor cortices, basal ganglia, cerebellum and frontal lobes all activate. (And, of course, the visual cortex with all of its complex relationships to other parts of the brain). A lightning storm of neuronal activity occurs almost across the entire brain in the time span of a few seconds.”

We’ve all had to learn how to move our bodies, and how to maintain balance throughout the trajectory of any movement we perform, in order to successfully fulfil what we set out to do. That is true for seemingly simple actions such as reaching for a glass of water, to more challenging actions, such as walking along a steep narrow trail, roller blading, or carrying a tray loaded with Champagne-filled flutes.

Our physical structure is such that our body is built to almost fall at all times when we are upright. We have a narrow base, a high center of gravity and a heavy head at the top. The immense advantage of this structure is that it makes initiating movement in all possible directions very easy and allows us great freedom to move with a remarkable number of variations. At the same time, this creates an enormous task for the brain to continously make sure we don’t lose balance as we move. As the brain differentiates and creates increasingly more complex neural networks, the more it can ensure continued balance as we move. In turn, the more freedom we have to learn and perform more challenging activities, the more vibrant and youthful we feel.

[At the end of this article, you’re invited to experience a NeuroMovement® lesson where you will create new differentiations in your brain and your movements that can make immediate, significant changes to your balancing skills.]

It’s not only older adults for whom the ability to generate and maintain balance begins to deteriorate. Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., former Chief Life Scientist at NASA points out that people in their twenties begin to show signs of diminished balance! (2)

Children move constantly and their brains have to negotiate the gravitational field continuously. That leads to a vibrant process of differentiation (i.e. the creation of new connections in the brain), and integration through the formation of new, increasingly more complex and more refined skills.

Adults, on the other hand, tend to sit for long hours. Fitness program activities often have a greatly diminished demand on the brain to negotiate the pull of gravity and lack ways of activating the brain to increase balancing skills (for example, exercise bikes are stationary, and weights are often lifted while sitting in a chair).

Over time, as people age, their stance tends to get wider. They shuffle their feet when walking and their whole body becomes progressively more rigid, indicating loss of differentiation in the brain (what we will consider as aging). They move as one block, trying to get stability and safety by actually inhibiting movement, mimicking the kind of stability a table or a chair has.

With younger people, the gradual deterioration of balance, or insufficient development of balancing skills, can reduce the motivation to move or try new things. This tends to stifle continued learning, vitality and joy, and may even limit life unnecessarily. For older adults, fear sets in because they feel that they cannot manage unexpected changes effectively. This sets a vicious cycle where reduced movement and reduced brain activity begets further reduced mobility, leading to loss of neural connections and further loss of ability to balance and control movement.

Part and parcel of what is necessary in order to have good balance is for the brain to sense and feel where the body is in space and how it relates to its environment. Research shows that peripheral sensation seems to be the single most important factor in maintenance of static postural stability (3).

For example, one of the reasons that older adults begin falling is because they are no longer able to quickly and clearly feel the sensations coming from the soles of their feet. These sensations inform the brain about changes in the angle and texture of the surface they are stepping on. Without this information, the brain can’t adjust the body’s organization to ensure balance is maintained.

The wonderful news is that the common deterioration described above is reversible. And even those who are athletic and have good balance can get even better. (4) At any age, under the right conditions, the brain can restructure itself and change for the better through the process of neuroplasticity.

Etienne de Villers-Sidani and colleagues describe more than 20 age-related cortical processing deficits in old versus young rats. Following training using an oddball discrimination task (activating the process of differentiation in the brain), they found a near complete reversal of the majority of previously observed functional and structural cortical impairments, including deteriorated balance. The findings suggest that most of these age-related changes are, by their fundamental nature, reversible. (5)

The following NeuroMovement® Lesson is from our featured product NeuroMovement®: Better Balance from the Whole Brain Body Fitness program.

Feel your brain wake up to immediate improvement in balance with just a few movements, irrespective of your age or level of balance skills.

This lesson is done entirely standing. If you need to sit and rest during the lesson at any time, please do so. You will need a sturdy chair with a solid back that you can lean on with both hands comfortably spread.

Do small movements, move slowly and only in the range that is comfortable. And most importantly, pay attention to what you feel throughout your body as you move. Remember, we are not looking to build your muscles in a few minutes, rather we are looking to wake up your brain to activate the muscles you have in a skillful way to enhance your balance.

First, stand on both feet, then slowly lift the right foot just a bit off the floor and notice what happens. Then lift the left foot slowly just a bit off the floor and notice what happens. Now follow the steps below:

1) Stand behind the chair, feet comfortably spread. Feel how you are standing. Slowly shift your weight delicately from one side to the other and pay attention to what you feel as your weight shifts from one foot to the other.

2) Put your hands on the back of the chair and lean. Shift your weight onto your left leg and lift the right leg, bending the right knee and crossing it in front of the left leg. Put the right foot down on the outside of the left foot, put weight on it and then bring it back to place. Repeat this movement four to five times.

As you do the movement, allow your ribs and pelvis to move.

Rest in a standing position and then walk once around your chair. Pay attention to any change you feel as you walk.

3) Stand behind the chair. Put your hands on the back of the chair and lean. Now cross your right leg behind your left leg. Put your right foot down, put weight on it and bring it back to place. Repeat this movement four to five times.

4) Now, cross your right foot once more in front of the left leg, put your foot down and, in one movement, pick up your right foot, bring it around behind the left leg and place your foot on the floor. Then, in one movement, bring it back in front, remembering to include your pelvis and ribs in the movement. Repeat four to five times. Rest.

5) Repeat instructions 3 and 4, but on the other side, crossing the left leg in front of the right leg and then behind it. Rest.

6) Stand behind the chair. Put your right hand on the middle of the back of the chair and lean on it, and place your left hand on your right shoulder. Lift your left leg and cross it in front of the right and return it to the original position. Repeat this movement four to five times.

 

7) Continue crossing your left leg in front of the right and bringing it back to the starting position. Each time you do the movement, turn your head to look to the right. Repeat this four to five times.

8) Each time you take the left leg in front, take your head to the left and look left. Repeat four to five times. Rest.

9) Repeat variations 6, 7, and 8, but this time put your left hand on the middle of the back of the chair and lean on it. Place your right hand on your left shoulder, then lift the right leg and cross it in front of the left. Then rest as you continue to stand.

10) Again, lean with your left hand in the middle of the back of the chair, lift your right arm forward, lifting it slightly, and look at it.

11) Cross your left leg behind your right leg and put your foot down. Then cross it in front, as you continue to look at your outstretched arm. Repeat this four to five times.

12) Now change legs and cross the right leg behind and in front of the left leg looking at your outstretched hand the whole time. See if you can exaggerate the movement of your pelvis. Repeat this four to five times. Rest.

13) Now repeat 10, 11 and 12 but, this time, lean on the back of the chair with your right hand, lift the left arm in front of you, raising it slightly, and look at it as you carry out the movements with your legs. Rest.

14) Once more, lean on the back of the chair with both hands. Repeat the initial movements of this lesson, crossing your right leg in front and behind your left, and then left leg in front and behind your right leg. Have these movements become any clearer?

15) Stand and slowly and shift your weight onto one foot while you lift the other off the ground with the knee bent. Has your balance improved?

16) Go for a walk around your room.

After doing these movements, go back to slowly first lifting one leg, then the other and notice if anything changed. What changed? Your brain.

To experience further improvement in your balance you can experience the full lesson as part of the featured product of the month: NeuroMovement®: Better Balance.

This article is based on “A Fine Balance – Exercise to Regain Your Balance” by Anat Baniel which originally appeared in What Doctors Don’t Tell You – August 2016 (Vol. 27 Issue 5)

References

[1] Boyd, R. Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains?
Scientific American. February 7, 2008.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/

[2] Vernikos, J. 2011. Sitting Kills, Moving Heals: How Everyday Movement Will Prevent Pain, Illness, and Early Death — and Exercise Alone Won’t. Fresno: Quill Driver Books.

[3] Wickremaratchi, M.M., and Llewelyn, J.G. (2006 ) Effects of aging on touch.
Postgrad Med J. 2006 May; 82(967): 301–304.

[4] Hrysomallis C. (2011) Balance Ability and Athletic Performance. Sports Medicine 41(3):221-32 · March 2011

[5] de Villers-Sidani, E., Alzghoul, L., Zhou, X., Simpson, K.L., Lin, R.C.S., Merzenich, M.M. (2010) Recovery of functional and structural age-related changes in the rat primary auditory cortex with operant training Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 3; 107(31): 13900–13905.

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The Brilliant Brain of the ASD Child https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/the-brilliant-brain-of-the-asd-child/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-brilliant-brain-of-the-asd-child Wed, 06 Apr 2022 17:38:06 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=39898

Autism was first recognized as a disorder in the 1960s. Very little was understood about the condition at the time. Conventional thinking categorized it primarily as simply “bad behavior” that would yield to punitive interventions or in more extreme cases, to electroconvulsive therapy (shock therapy).

Twenty years later, a shift toward behavioral therapy using positive reinforcement instead of punishment began to emerge. Fast-forward to today, and while a few places still use an admittedly less extreme version of shock therapy to treat autism (a treatment the United Nations has designated as torture), there are also many new therapies being introduced for children diagnosed with ASD. It’s clear, however, that the underlying assumption and approach with most current therapies is that autism is a brain-based behavioral, psychological, and cognitive disorder that should yield positive change through repetitive and insistent attempts to “correct” behavior.

One of the most prevalent but unrecognized elements in this approach to children on the spectrum is that their felt experience as well as their understanding of what is going on for them and the beliefs they form about themselves through the interventions, are mostly ignored and overlooked as being central to the child’s learning. At ABMNM, we believe that it’s absolutely vital to remember that no matter how the child on the spectrum presents themselves, they are having a felt experience 100% of the time. ASD kids have genuine and often higher-than-average intelligence. They feel a range of emotions as they work on gaining new skills and new ways of being, and they are particularly sensitive and averse to interventions that involve direct control.

In this article, we challenge current ASD treatment practices and introduce a novel way to understand autism while acknowledging the reality, and often the severity, of the limiting challenges that a child with ASD faces. And we offer a new approach that takes advantage of the intelligence of the child and awakens their brain to new possibilities in a way that enables them to acquire more and more agency and skill generated from within themselves. It’s an approach that helps the child realize their own potential, as they develop self-awareness and self-knowledge, and learn to better understand their environment.

ASD and Movement

Over 20 years ago, as more children on the spectrum were showing up in my practice, I began to recognize that the dramatic behavioral indicators of ASD were not where the underlying challenge was. Instead, I observed that the majority of my clients had serious movement issues. These motor issues were usually dismissed by others as “clumsiness” or “roughness” or simply ignored. As I focused on movement skills and helping my clients differentiate and integrate more complex and refined neural patterns and motor skills, many of their behavioral, cognitive, and psychological issues started to dissipate, and even disappear! As time passed, it became crystal clear to me that, long before the behavioral, cognitive, and psychological challenges manifest in a child with ASD, their ability to organize movement is disrupted in significant ways. Internally, I had labeled ASD as a “movement disorder” but was hesitant at first to speak openly about my emerging understanding since it was so far from what everyone else was thinking, believing, and doing.

That all changed when I met the brilliant researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Torres of Rutgers University. On our first walk together she emphatically stated that “everyone treats autism as a psychological disorder but it’s not – it’s a movement disorder!!!” (Anat and Elizabeth discuss the subjective experience of a child with ASD and what Anat refers to as the “One Brain Principle” in working with a child on the spectrum in this highly informative webinar hosted by the NJ Autism Center of Excellence.)

In 2020, the Simon’s Foundation Spark study, the largest ASD sample in the United States, showed that: “At least 86.9% of the children with ASD are at risk for Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) throughout childhood and adolescence, whereas only 15.1% of this sample held a dual diagnosis of DCD/motor delay. Children with ASD never outgrew their motor difficulties. Motor impairments are clearly under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and under-treated in children with ASD.” (Bhat, 2020)

Understanding the brain’s challenge with ASD

As I got deeper into my work with clients with ASD, I came to realize that the movement challenges they faced resulted from a neurological disorder in the fundamental, underlying brain process that is at the heart of all learning and skill formation. It became clear that I needed to focus on helping the brain do its job better so the client could grow and evolve. Then, as motor development occurred, cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, and ideational abilities would have the space to evolve as well.

To fully understand the challenge with ASD and how to address it, we need to understand a few basic things about the brain:

  • The brain has a job to do like any system in our body, such as the heart and liver.
  • The better the brain can do its job, the more we can successfully learn and overcome challenges.
  • The job of the brain is to put order in disorder and to make sense out of nonsense.
  • The brain is an information system rather than a mechanical system, and it’s governed by informational system principles. For example, when we try moving a heavy object, using more force typically leads to a better outcome (mechanical system). However, if we use force to get the brain to learn something new, this is likely to distort the learning process and create unnecessary limitations in the brain.
  • For learning to occur the brain needs new information.
  • The source of new information is the perception of differences in the flow of stimulation coming from the outside and inside. This is what is referred to in neuroscience as “signal to noise ratio.”
  • When a difference in the flow of stimulation is not perceived, it does not exist, and the brain lacks information with which to learn.
  • The chain of learning is: stimulation (perception of a difference) to evoking differentiation, creating new connections in the brain -à providing the opportunity and possibility for spontaneous integration, (i.e. learning).

ASD Visualization: The Blender

I had been trying to imagine and embody what a client with ASD might be experiencing and feeling, when one day, an image spontaneously popped into my head. I saw a very large blender (the size of an adult), filled with yogurt, blueberries, raspberries, and almonds that had been blended. Then, I was lifted and gently placed in the blender, my face covered with a mask and snorkel allowing me to breathe. There were people standing outside the blender, moving and talking. I put my hands on the glass in front of me and wiped the smoothie to the sides. For a few seconds, before the mixture slid back to place, I could see outside, but the image was blurry and unclear. I could hear the sounds of people trying to talk to me (it was very muffled and sounded like “wooow, wooow….”) so I couldn’t decipher what they were saying. They were reaching out to me, but all I could feel was the contact with the smoothie and confusion. *At this moment it dawned on me:

The brain of the child with ASD is challenged in its ability to perceive differences in the flow of stimulation coming in!!!!!

The “Noisy Brain”

As stated before, the brain is an information system, and it generates new information through the perception of differences in the flow of stimulation. If a difference is not perceived, it does not exist. For example, if you stand in a room filled with people speaking very loudly and I stand behind you and talk to you in a normal voice, you won’t hear me. My speaking will not exist for you, even though it will for me. This is very important to understand when working with a child with ASD. We tend to assume that they hear, see, smell, taste, and sense what we do and thus we expect them to figure things out and to make sense of something in the same way that we would. If they don’t, we tend to assume that multiple repetitions will “get through” to them. But this is rarely the experience for the child or their caregiver.

All babies are born with “noisy brains.” The brain has to progressively grow lots of connections, then organize and integrate them into functional neural networks. As this takes place, the brain gets less and less “noisy” as it organizes and makes sense of the flow of stimulation. During the past decade, researchers have theorized that certain areas in the brain of children with ASD remain “noisy” and this theory is now supported by a growing number of neuroscientists. The challenge for the child with ASD is in perceiving differences in the flow of information, thus interrupting the process of learning and the brain’s ability to organize and build itself.

A Fundamental Paradigm Shift in Understanding and Approach

Thousands of parents, therapists, and caregivers of children with ASD are continually frustrated by disappointing outcomes, oftentimes despite hours, months, and even years of committed and loving attempts to help the child overcome their challenges and limitations. A key finding in the Simon’s Foundation study is that: Children with ASD never outgrew their motor difficulties.

As mentioned earlier, attempts to help children with ASD usually involve trying to get the child to do what they can’t do, or to stop doing what they cannot stop. However, if they do not perceive differences in the flow of stimulation coming from you to them, they cannot make sense of what you are trying to teach, no matter how many times you try and how many hours you invest. Their brain is not generating the new information it needs – it essentially has nothing to work with. The net result is that the desired learning does not occur, and since we all learn from our actual experiences, the child ends up learning about their limitations more than anything else.

On the other hand, if we create conditions that potentiate the ASD brain’s ability to perceive differences, the brain will be able to put order in the disorder in the flow of raw stimulation being received. It will start to do its job, making sense out of “nonsense” so a child or adult with ASD can become brilliant at learning and changing for the better. This shift IS possible – it’s one that we witness time and time again with our clients – and it’s an outcome that’s within reach for anyone.

The Bad News

Focusing on desired outcomes usually presents limited or no results, or negative outcomes. Trying to get a child who is having a hard time speaking, reading, walking, riding a bike, or interacting with others to speak, read, walk, ride a bike, or interact with others by leaning on repetition leaves the child and their brain at a loss because it’s lacking the new information it needs to learn. This can create undue anxiety, agitation, and/or frustration for the child, and over time it can rob them of their own agency. They know that they are failing. If they could learn, they would. But they can’t, at least not in this way.

The Good News

“Waking up” the brain of the child with ASD, and potentiating it to perceive differences and generate new information, leads to potent learning and positive change. We have found that creating the necessary conditions for the ASD brain to learn requires two things: 1) a shift in approach from trying to fix the child to instead connecting with the child, and 2) the use of the 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement®, which are conditions that enhance the brain’s ability to perceive differences.

From Fixing to Connecting

Shifting from trying to “fix” a child with ASD by attempting to make them do what they can’t do to instead focusing on connection and understanding requires a fundamental emotional and cognitive change within us as adults. We need to become aware of when we move into “fixing mode” as that actually causes us to disconnect from the child and their experience. That does not mean to suggest that we are passive in relation to the child, or more likely to ignore dangers to them or others. What it means is that we need to be willing to change what we do with our child, and how we do it.

The “how” is the 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement® which focus on enhancing the brain’s ability to perceive differences. Utilizing the 9 Essentials requires us to shift our focus from what I call “content,” such as trying to get the child to learn a specific skill or reach a developmental milestone, to “approach” where we focus on improving the underlying functioning of the brain itself. For that we need to start where the child is presently at, so they can learn like typically developing children. An additional bonus is that, when engaging with the 9 Essentials, you and your child both learn new and wonderful ways to connect with each other..

As the famed neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich wrote about the 9 Essentials: “Scientists have defined the ‘rules’ governing brain plasticity. Anat Baniel, working in parallel along a completely different path, has defined almost exactly the same rules and interprets them in practical and understandable human terms as the 9 Essentials that should contribute richly to clinical intervention.”

Embodying the 9 Essentials in Daily Life

The 9 Essentials of NeuroMovement are a way of being and a way of doing. Each Essential is a way of action. They sound simple and may intuitively make sense to you. Or they may feel quite foreign to what you are used to thinking and believing. Adopting them and using them with your child requires that you use the Essentials within yourself. That takes intention, attention, and the desire to learn on your part.

We have taught over 1000 parents and caregivers how to use the 9 Essentials in daily life and many of them report immediate and significant changes in their child, in themselves, and in their relationships with their child/ren and spouses. You can learn more about the Essentials and read a case study in New Understanding and Hope for Children on the Autism Spectrum – a chapter co-written by Anat Baniel and Dr. Neil Sharp and featured in Autism Essentials (McCabe, 2020).

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Why children with Down syndrome can be brilliant learners https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/why-children-with-down-syndrome-can-be-brilliant-learners/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-children-with-down-syndrome-can-be-brilliant-learners Tue, 01 Mar 2022 07:51:42 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=39569

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD), a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. The date for this important event (3rd month, 21st day) has been selected to reflect the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome.

The theme for WDSD 2022 is – “what does inclusion mean for people with Down syndrome?” – the goal being to empower people around the world to advocate for full inclusion in society for people with Down syndrome. This is very important, because it was shocking to discover while researching for this article that in the USA until as recently as the early 1990s, the way people with Down syndrome were treated represents a shameful chapter of ignorance, inhumanity and discrimination. Many affected children were refused medical procedures they needed. Some were institutionalized, others denied the education that every child needs in order to have a chance at a successful and satisfying life.

Thankfully, perceptions have changed greatly in the past 20 years. Science has shown that children with Down syndrome are feeling, experiencing children who, given the right conditions, can learn and thrive. This is supported by my own work and that of my NeuroMovement® colleagues, which has revealed time and time again that the brain of a child with down syndrome is like any other brain – it is built to learn.

It was through my first experience of working with a child with Down syndrome that I learned that, no matter the child’s diagnosis or how dramatic their symptoms, they have a brain that is ready to learn as soon as we provide the necessary conditions for this learning to take place.

The human brain is built to grow, change, and organize itself. The brain brings order to our movements, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It makes sense out of the flood of stimulation that constantly comes to it from the inside and outside. And at no time does the brain grow faster than in infancy and childhood. It’s miraculous to watch how a child just a few months old is able to do things and understand the world around him/her in ways that were unthinkable earlier. You may be asking yourself: but what about the brain of the child with Down syndrome?

The Brain of a Child with Down syndrome

Every child with Down syndrome that I and my colleagues have worked with has, after going through the processes we take them through, showed themselves to be a delightful, alert, and capable learner. And they consistently showed remarkable improvement in their ability to move, think, and interact with others.

Yes, children with Down syndrome face motor and cognitive challenges but they are still fabulous learners. If we focus on specific desired outcomes for the child to be achieved at certain times, dictated by the expected “developmental stages,” then we are setting ourselves and these children up for failure. However, when we connect with the child and provide the right conditions, we can help them become more potent learners, both in terms of motor and cognitive performance, and in terms of accelerating their speed of learning.

Like every child, a child with Down syndrome needs to develop their motor, cognitive, and social skills over time. The process they need to go through is identical to the process every child needs to go through. It’s just that children with Down syndrome start the journey with a built-in challenge but that doesn’t change the fact that the brain of the child with Down syndrome can do the job that everyone’s brain needs to do: bring order into disorder and make sense out of nonsense. Our challenge is to help facilitate a child’s brain to do its job better. And this is completely within reach!

We all have six senses

The first five we are all familiar with, but it’s the sixth sense – the kinesthetic sense – which is the sense of movement. It is the sensory input that comes to the brain from our muscles, tendons, joints, internal organs, and pressure. It is the most fundamental sense we’re born with that provides the brain with the opportunity to organize and learn voluntary movement and associate it with all the other senses and to cognition. The kinesthetic sense, combined with neuroplasticity, is the foundation and primary focus of NeuroMovement®.

Using movement as a mechanism for learning

Movement is the language of the brain, and it’s through movement that the brain learns and forms itself. NeuroMovement® focuses on the brain’s remarkable ability for positive change and the brain’s ability to get better at changing and forming itself, i.e. learning to learn, through movement and the 9 Essentials.

The underlying neural processes of learning are identical for everyone when learning occurs:

DISCRIMINATION – noticing that we notice something. We perceive that something has occurred We may sense it, see it, hear it, smell it, taste it and/or feel it in our body through movement. For every newborn and baby, the primary source of those perceptions is movement.

DIFFERENTIATION – the perception of differences in the flow of stimulation coming in through the senses wakes up the brain to rapidly create a multitude of new neural connections.

INTEGRATION – these new connections are spontaneously integrated into new patterns and skills – i.e., learning.

Down syndrome can interrupt this process. But by creating conditions that enhance the child’s ability to perceive differences, these children become highly potent learners. The conditions we apply are the Nine Essentials of NeuroMovement®.

Moving from fixing to connecting

When interacting with a child (or adult) with Down syndrome, it’s important we relate to them as the intelligent, feeling, and experiencing being they are, despite the way they may present themselves. We need to know that they have the same needs, feelings, and potential to become ever better learners.

Creating the necessary conditions for a child’s brain to become a more potent learning “machine”

Anyone can learn how to use the 9 Essentials and apply them in ways that enhance and vitalize not only a child’s learning, but at the same time, wake up their own brains and vitalize their own learning and life.

What we have found through NeuroMovement® is that the very first thing to do with any child is to shift our own attitude from trying to fix the child to connecting with the child. This may sound easier in theory than in practice. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to immediately shift to connecting with a child is to become interested and curious as to what the child’s experience is. Consider how they are perceiving their world at that moment, and what kind of sense, if any, they are making of their own experience. At the same time, we need to detach from trying to get them to be, or do, anything in a prescribed specific way that we think would be better for them, (the exception to that is when there is a risk to them or others which requires that we take immediate action).

Each of the 9 Essentials, when applied, shifts us from the “fixing mode” to the “connecting mode.” NeuroMovement® and the 9 Essentials focus not on trying to make a child do what they can’t do, but instead on connecting with the child where they are. Starting from this point, we can employ the Essentials to bring about the perception of differences, so that their brain can start differentiating and subsequently integrating new possibilities in all aspects of their experience.

Following are three of the 9 Essentials. We encourage you to experiment with applying them in different daily situations, not just in formal learning contexts. You can apply the Essentials in any aspect of your child’s life. Often, it is easiest to focus on one Essential at a time for a few days, perhaps even a week, then shift to the next Essential.

Essential: SLOW
The adult – you – interacting with any child, including a child with Down syndrome, needs to slow way down. Really slow down your speaking, your movements, and everything else so your child has a better chance of noticing what is going on. If we go fast, we can only do what we already know. When you go fast with your child, they can only do what they know, and often times what they know best are their failures. The Slow Essential calls on your own awareness of yourself, while you truly take interest in what your child is doing and experiencing. This creates safety for the child which by itself is a big enhancement to learning. Once you do that , the next Essential can be the perfect next step.

Essential: VARIATION
Variations, by their nature, are differences. When used in the context of going slow, the brain has a much better chance of actually perceiving those differences. Once that happens, the new connections occur and make it possible for the brain to learn.

Variations can also be thought of as “mistakes,” or playfulness. For many adults it is hard to shift from trying to force a child to do the “right” thing and to trust in the inherent intelligence in that little being that can be awakened. If you want a child to figure something out, present a task to them in different ways. Have them do it “wrong” on purpose. Notice if you feel anxious when you do that. Over time, as you experience how powerful intentional variations are, you will grow to love and enjoy taking the risk both in your own life and in your life with your child.

Essential: Movement With Attention to the Feeling of Self
The core, most fundamental Essential is movement, or action, with attention to the feeling of self. Without it, the brain is greatly diminished in getting the new information from which to create new connections and new learning. So often, when we attempt to get the child to understand something, or change what they do or how they do it, we focus on the “right” way and try to get them to “get it.” We then tend to overlook what the child’s felt experience is at that moment, which is of course incredibly important in terms of whether they will learn and what it is that they will learn. With this Essential we take it even further. We look to find ways to direct the child’s attention based on what and how they feel. Their growing ability to feel themselves as they perceive, move, and act, turns them into powerful learners that develop self agency from an early age.

When you are going slow and introducing variations, you can ask the child if they like or don’t like what’s going on. Do one thing and then the other without expressing a preference between the two, but rather get your child to express their feelings, experience, and preferences. You can incorporate this curiosity while getting the child dressed, or at mealtimes, or while watching TV, etc. Do this several times per day for just a few minutes and observe your child becoming a more potent learner, and your relationship with your child becoming more joyful and loving.

Testimonials from parents of children with Down syndrome.

Here are the stories of just two of the children with Down syndrome that have benefited from NeuroMovement® :

“Betty Ann is doing wonderfully well. Last time you saw her, I think she was three and beginning to walk with a sturdy gait. Now, she is jumping and she is beginning to run. She is growing so quickly, it’s amazing. She is still quite a peanut, but you know what it is when they start to look like little people. She goes to a regular nursery school, and the teachers are just so impressed with her. She knows the routines better than a lot of the children, and she is really keeping pace with all of the skills they are practicing. Her speech is coming along more quickly now as well. In short, we are really proud of her and are enjoying every minute of watching her grow. I can’t wait for her to work with you again.”
—Betty Ann’s Mother

“My son is 11 years old and he has Down syndrome, sensory processing disorder, verbal apraxia, hypotonia, dysarthria, and feeding difficulties. Overall, he is nonverbal.
He has been receiving Anat Baniel Method (ABM)®NeuroMovement lessons once a week. Before receiving ABM, he was not able to detect his need to empty his bladder and he was put on a schedule to go to the restroom. Now he is communicating his need to go to the restroom and initiating his trips to the restroom. Also, he significantly decreased the number of his accidents (once in two months, compared to several times a week). He has become more interactive with family members (he has begun to play with his little sister and “to visit” us in our bedroom to snuggle with us, etc.) He has expanded his range of communication with other people using his device and is experimenting with new sounds. He has been able to progress better with his feeding/chewing therapy and improving his tongue movement. His posture has improved as well, as a result of his legs narrowing from a wider base to a more typical base. His physical therapist also noticed that he has become more coordinated and improved his balance. He is also more active and curious about his environment and more engaged with other people during social contacts. Thank you so much for your help!!
-Larissa, Parent

Discover more

Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® is a revolutionary, scientifically-based Method that focuses on helping your child get a better, stronger brain. In our work, we have often seen the “impossible” become possible for children diagnosed with Down syndrome and other genetic disorders. To find out more, go to https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/children/structural-genetic-birth-defects/genetic-disorders/.

Learn more about ways to participate in World Down Syndrome Day at https://www.worlddownsyndromeday.org/.

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Be careful what you wish for https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/be-careful-what-you-wish-for/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=be-careful-what-you-wish-for Fri, 31 Dec 2021 08:18:19 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=39264

Be careful what you wish for

The concept of making new year’s resolutions can be traced back to the Babylonians some 4,000 years ago. In those days, promises were made to Gods. Nowadays, resolutions are made in an attempt to improve our own lives in some way. It’s common to draw up a list of things we resolve to do in the year ahead, maybe to eat less or exercise more. It’s also just as common for these resolutions to have been broken or forgotten about come January 2nd.

If you’re one of the many who makes resolutions that fail to last, how can you ensure your 2022 resolutions buck the trend and become resolutions you stick to?

The end of a year is a great time to take stock at what’s passed during the previous twelve months. An opportunity to reflect on those things you’ve done well, but also to consider those situations in which you wish you’d acted or said something differently. It’s a chance to generate awareness of your actions. To stop and take stock. It’s also a chance to spend time considering what you want to happen in the coming year.

These moments spent reflecting and looking forward reveal remarkable human qualities that set us apart from the rest of life on earth. Hopefully, all of us will have the chance to reflect on things we’re proud of, satisfied with, encouraged by. Inevitably, it will also be a time to learn from our mistakes, develop as human beings, and vow to do better next year.

However, as mentioned earlier, the problem with many new year’s resolutions is not making them but keeping them. While it may be easy to say the problem lies with us as human beings, in many cases, the problem actually lies with the types of resolutions we’re making.

Looking at the most common resolutions people tend to make, it’s clear that many are wishes. “I wish I was in a loving relationship.” “I wish I could win the lottery.” When you wish for something, you surrender a large degree of power to invisible forces beyond your control. After all, who is going to grant these wishes, assuming you don’t have a genie in a bottle to call on?

If you’re motivated to make resolutions that stick, try to focus on tangible goals rather than far-fetched fantasies. Ask yourself exactly how your life will be better if what you’re wishing for comes true (most resolutions center around achieving greater satisfaction in our lives). The following tips can help you to ensure the resolutions you make aren’t wild wishes, but rather
ones you are more likely to keep:

Take time to think about what you want.

Don’t just make resolutions in the heat of the moment – give real consideration to what you can do in the new year to enhance your wellbeing in a sustainable way. For example, if you want to meet someone, joining a dance club or taking cookery lessons is a great way to engage in a hobby or learn a new skill while also meeting new people. And, of course, you can join a dating
app.

Turn your wish into an intention

Wishes are flimsy, ethereal, and intangible, whereas intentions are more definite. If your new year’s resolution is something like: “I want to meet someone new this year,” that doesn’t give you anything specific to work toward to meet that goal. However, if you were to make a resolution that says something like, “I want to meet someone who shares my love for dancing”
that’s much more specific and actionable.

Get creative

Don’t just default to standard resolutions like giving up a bad habit or wanting to start a relationship, even though they are important ones. Fire-up your creativity with your choices. Consider what is important to you, what matters to you and turn it into an intention. Then think about something specific you can do that’s new and will open up possibilities that will increase the likelihood that you will manifest your intention.

Taking the dance example – ask yourself what kind of dancing suits you best? It could be salsa, ballroom, disco. Then imagine what it would take to find the right dance class for you. Try to picture yourself participating in lessons each week, encountering a variety of people, and what it will feel like to dance with the person that you will connect with. If the prospect stirs feelings of excitement, you’re likely on the right track to choosing a resolution you’ll keep.

Take action

Resolutions don’t happen by themselves – you need to make them happen. And choosing resolutions that are easy to act on needn’t be hard. How about you sign up for those dance or cookery lessons now? Or perhaps a hiking group, choir, or language class. You can even connect with people in a Zoom class where you can chat or meet in smaller, breakout rooms. It’s possible to action our intentions even during a pandemic. You’ll feel real empowerment and enthusiasm knowing you’ve taken action to improve your life.

Manage your inner critic

Most of us are sure to have doubts about doing anything new. A voice in your head saying “what’s the point, how is going to a class going to help me reach my ultimate goal of bringing greater satisfaction into my life?” In these situations, it’s helpful to remind our inner critic that NOT doing these things isn’t going to get us anywhere at all. Staying passive and in a state of quiet despair isn’t going to get us any closer to where we want to be. So, calm down the critic. You can even say “thanks for sharing” and know that the critic is not real, it’s just a habitual voice in our head. You needn’t take it seriously. Book those lessons, and if you find it’s not what you want, refocus, and arrange to do something else.

Make your intentions manageable

Following the steps so far gives us the opportunity to get better at defining our intentions and taking action. Try to resist the urge to draw up a long list of every resolution you’ve ever considered. That’s just too daunting and is bound to lead to disappointment. A slow, measured, more focused approach is more likely to result in success, so limit your intentions to two or three at most for starters. You can have a secondary list of three more that you can hold in reserve, either for when your first resolutions have materialized, or for consideration if you decide to change your focus.

Flexible goals

One of the Nine Essentials of NeuroMovement(®) is flexibility. This essential focuses on the importance of holding our goals loosely, approaching them with lots of flexibility, and not setting anything in stone. If a goal seems unattainable or turns out to be unsuitable, consider a pivot, or focus on another goal. If a new goal emerges, be open to exploring this new direction. Resolutions don’t have to happen at the start of the year – they can be made anytime.

“The human brain has extraordinary powers for discovering what is needed and for innovating solutions to meet those needs. And it is often these unexpected solutions that make our lives so interesting and dynamic.”
Move Into Life, Anat Baniel

Imagination and dreams

Humans have the potential to imagine and dream in a way that, as far as we know, no other life on Earth does. As Einstein points out:

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

Deciding on your new year’s resolutions provides a chance to dream and imagine. Engaging in these activities lights up the brain, creating billions of new neurological connections. It’s the ultimate human gift (and the eighth essential of NeuroMovement(®)). Creating the time and space to imagine and dream gives us a chance to move beyond our rigid old habits so that we may create new possibilities and realities. Now that’s something to aspire to.

We invite you to try our NeuroMovement® lesson of the month.

Do this lesson to begin practicing and developing your imagination skills. Once you have done the lesson, take one of your new year’s resolutions, preferably the easiest ones, or make one up, lie on your back, close your eyes and begin imagining your resolution as if already manifesting, then imagine as many different possible steps and paths you can come up with on your way to the resolution/intention becoming reality.

You can come back to this lesson as often as you want and take the intentional practice of imagination into simple things in your daily life. Gradually move into more complex and bigger things. Every few days revisit the resolution you are working on in your imagination, and just as you did in the movement lesson, when you feel ready, bring into action what you have imagined and begin experiencing your life, vitality and mental clarity becoming more vibrant as you are moving towards your heart’s desires.

Happy new year!

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How to lay the ghosts of traumas past to rest this festive season https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/how-to-lay-the-ghosts-of-traumas-past-to-rest-this-festive-season/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-lay-the-ghosts-of-traumas-past-to-rest-this-festive-season Thu, 02 Dec 2021 11:00:52 +0000 https://www.anatbanielmethod.com/?p=39242

How to lay the ghosts of traumas past to rest this festive season

Hannukah. Christmas. Kwanza. New Year. There’s plenty to celebrate in December. For many, it’s a chance to congregate and connect. But for others, this isn’t the season to be jolly. They have good reason to dread visiting relatives or returning to places they associate with traumatic experiences. Yet more face loneliness. No one to see, nowhere to go.

But for everyone who dreads December, there is hope. Luckily, in recent years, there has been a growing awareness and recognition of the lifelong impact trauma can have on anyone, and the many ways in which trauma can happen. Different approaches to overcoming the negative impact of traumas have and continue to be developed.

In this article, we present a way to mitigate the stresses of the season and find ways to begin transforming traumatic memories and reduce feelings of loneliness.

Most people feel a little pressure to enjoy themselves at this time of year, and for many, that’s exactly what they do. But, for others, the season brings trepidation, anxiety, even fear. During most of the year, we can avoid returning to scenes of traumatic experiences in our past. But the holiday season brings invites to visit people and places from our past that are harder to turn down.

Upon returning to a relative’s home for the first time in a long time, it’s easy for the sight of an old house, the smell of a room, the way relatives talk to us to instantly transport us back to days gone by. Great, if those old times were enjoyable and give us fond memories to recall. Not so, if those sensations trigger traumatic memories.

When we return to these places, we regress. Even the most highly successful individuals are susceptible. Take, for example, the CEO of a successful business who returns home. Maybe she is cajoled into wearing a festive sweater, gets treated like a child by well-meaning relatives, sleeps in her old bedroom with posters on the walls of pop stars she stopped listening to years ago. At the dinner table, she is reminded of the time she mistook parsnip for potato during a celebratory dinner. She hears aunts and uncles recollect days gone by when she was “knee-high to a grasshopper.” She has to sit there and grin and bear it as tales of her mishaps as a child are retold for the umpteenth time. All fine, if the tales bring back happy memories, but not so if these recollections are the cue for thinking back to more disturbing, sinister, and traumatic events from the past that she’d rather forget.

Anyone who has experienced trauma, whether it’s physical, sexual, emotional, or associated with neglect, perhaps the loss of a parent, sibling or another loved one, is not going to find returning to the scene of the traumatic experience easy any time of year. And during the holiday season when the pressure’s on to be happy? That’s even harder. So what to do to help manage the emotional and physical impact these traumatic memories have and to help ensure they don’t adversely affect the festive celebrations?

Aside from avoiding returning to the scene of trauma altogether (more about that later) the first thing to do is to acknowledge that the traumatic event occurred. That may sound a little crass. After all, who’s likely to forget a traumatic experience? Yet many people play down their past experiences, while others don’t even recognize that they’ve been traumatized by an event. As the American activist Tarana Burke asserts: “Violence is violence. Trauma is trauma. And we are taught to downplay it, even think about it as child’s play.”

Trauma definitely is not child’s play. It’s defined as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. Something it’s perfectly natural to want to forget about. The brain pushes bad and unpleasant experiences like this into a corner, often because contemplating what happened is too much to handle. It’s another survival mechanism kicking in. But accepting that a traumatic event has occurred is vital to helping handle the sensations and emotions that are attached to it. Since returning to where the trauma occurred can reactivate disturbing feelings and experiences, one way to avoid these emotions resurfacing is to not go back, and this is completely legitimate and acceptable, no matter what other people’s opinion about it is. Refuse the invite to return for the holiday season celebrations even if that means being alone. We’ll discuss below what other options might be there for you, if that is your choice.

But what help can be given to those who don’t want to or can’t avoid going back? AnatBanielMethod® NeuroMovement® (ABMNM®) lessons can help. These safe and simple lessons involve gentle physical movements and heightened awareness which awaken a potent process in the brain to create new connections that build new neural patterns. The result is you acquire new ways of feeling, thinking, moving and acting that will stand you in good stead for the holiday season, provided you practice them regularly for a while. When faced with revisiting the scenes of traumatic experiences, these lessons can help create a whole new place of internal safety so you can be who you are now. And if you do regress, you are likely to be able to pop back into your inner space of safety more readily, and take the actions you need to take to maintain your well-being. So, regressing back to the feelings and experiences of childhood doesn’t happen quite so much, quite as fast, and is easier to recover from.

It’s also important to have support from positive and loving individuals. We all have people in our lives who don’t want us to change, who remember us being certain ways a long time ago and who want us to still be that person. They don’t want to or can’t recognize or appreciate that people change. Don’t look for or expect support from these people in your life. Instead, focus on spending time with those who support you for who you are now.

Now, what of those who’d rather spend the holiday season alone than return to a scene of a trauma? Or those who have no choice but to be alone, with no friends or relatives to call on, no social network to support them? Loneliness is exacerbated at this time of year. It’s easy to slip into emotional pain, thinking everyone else is out there having fun. To feel unwanted, unloved and not worthy. All are natural human feelings in these circumstances, but feelings that do not have to represent reality, or the truth about you and your life.

When in this position, however deep the painful feelings are, remember that there are many people who will be spending the holiday season alone, some by choice, some through necessity. Once you do the NeuroMovement® lesson, or a few of them, you most likely will feel better both in body and in spirit. When you do, you may discover that it is easier to reach out and look for a group you can join in celebrating the holidays – virtual, or in person. It might be easier to remember that there are people out there who would love for you to reach out to them. You may choose to engage with neighbors, call an old friend, connect with a place of worship, or search for local support groups online.

This holiday season, we hope that you can take some time to harness your ability to enhance your resilience, vitality, and well-being, and find more joy in the holiday celebrations.

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