Have you considered that your body has a wisdom of its own?

Mind-body Integration: Listen to Your Body’s Wisdom

What if you could tap into this knowing for deeper insight? What if it could also shift you from endless trying to success in doing what you want to achieve? You can unlock your true potential by using this mind-body modality. It may sound too good to be true, but this has been my experience with Brain Gym®—and my clients’, too.

You may have noticed that things just feel “right” when you are in a state of flow. By contrast, when you feel stuck and uncertain, the opposite occurs. You may experience doubt, overthinking, and/or physical discomforts, to name a few.

In a nutshell, Brain Gym® is a way to bring about more flow, joy and forward momentum with less effort. It resolves the patterns of fruitless hard work, overthinking, poor focus and emotional reactivity that keep you stuck. It does this by tapping into your perceptual and subtle energy systems, so that you can know what is deeply true for you and how to shift for greater ease and peace.

Ways to Recognize When Your Body Has Something to Say

  • Spinning your wheels, confused as to why your intellect and hard work are not enough to meet your goals?
  • Feeling stuck?
  • Becoming sore or tired for no physical reason?
  • Having difficulty focusing?
  • Falling apart when you have to give a speech?
  • Failing at school?
  • Feeling emotionally overwhelmed?
  • Lacking self-confidence?

In these situations, you may be feeling lost and confused. You might even feel lost to yourself, unable to access your inner knowing. In a way, this is true.

“There is no substitute for whole body learning. When we now the truth of something in our bodies, it is truly transformative.”

– Richard Moss

Here’s how it works

When you feel stressed, you are less able to access the inner resources that you rely on to live optimally. When you are struggling or stuck, your body and mind are not working together in a balanced fashion. You may be fully ready in your head and heart to achieve a goal, but your body’s wisdom is telling you that there is one other piece that needs to be acknowledged or released before moving forward. You may not even be aware that this piece exists, but your body may be speaking to you in many ways: with pain, anxiety, self-doubt, indecisiveness or difficulty getting started. Chronic pain was the way my body spoke to me until I learned how to listen (more on this later).

it works
Thinking: Not Always the Best Solution

It is human nature to respond to stress with overthinking. Our brains go into overdrive in order to gain control over something we perceive as threatening. As well, our reliance on thinking as a go-to strategy for coping is reinforced by our society’s reverence for logic. If you are reading this page, you have probably noticed that logic by itself does not actually help much when we are not getting where we want to go.

Shutting the body out of the decision-making process is like driving a car while wearing blinders: you may see what is directly in front of you, but you will miss the beautiful countryside and the signs that tell you where the next turn is.

Our culture is overly reliant on logic as the source of all things, so the last place you may think to look is your body. If you are in pain, you might even blame your body as the source of the problem. Everything inside us wants to move away from discomfort, not toward it.

And yet, your body contains so much wisdom. It knows the truth of what is best for you, and it never lies; only your mind weaves interesting stories. Ultimately, your mind and body are two parts of a healthy whole; they are both valuable. When they learn to share and work together, great things begin to happen.

About Educational Kinesiology

I learned that Educational Kinesiology, created by Dr. Paul Dennison and the basis of Brain Gym®, is about educating the body, drawing out its wisdom and integrating all parts of our being. Gaining recognition by the mid-1980s, it drew from many evidence-based fields such as psychology, the Chinese meridian system including acupressure points, and the chiropractic work of Dr. John Thie.

At its most basic level, Brain Gym® is a specific set of movements, exercises and activities. It is an educational process that enables us to learn more effectively, perform optimally and return to a healthy balance. It does this by soothing emotional, physical and mental stress. When we are relieved of the stress stored in our bodies, our brains function better.

For me as a client, the practical result was that I experienced energy moving through my body—energy that I had not felt for years! In fact, I had not realized how shut down I was until the systems were switched back on.

I literally found my joy again and began to make decisions and take actions that were better for me. Inside, it felt like a master electrical switch had been thrown to the “on” position, and my body was carrying me forward in the right direction.

You Ask, “But Will It Work for Me?”

Yes, without reservation. I firmly believe that Brain Gym® was integral to my full recovery, but it’s not just me. As a certified Brain Gym® instructor, I see the success in my clients. The changes are often breathtaking.

it works
Client Success Stories

Sabra
20-year old Sabra stood in front of me with her shoulders slumped. She told me she was having a hard time getting organized. She wanted to see her friends, but even speaking on the phone to them felt overwhelming. She wanted to study for school, but she wasn’t doing it. During our conversation, she did not appear to be “at home” in her body. She told me that she felt she was not living her life.

Following the Brain Gym® exercises, her face was brighter. Her eye contact became calm and direct and she said she felt grounded. Her shoulders were square and her feet were firmly planted. She smiled and said she felt like herself again. She could speak on the phone with ease. She went home and found herself readily accepting dates with friends, studying and feeling more centered.

Maggie
Maggie loves animals. When a beloved pet died, she was inconsolable. She was crying constantly and finding it hard to be in her apartment where her pet had once been.

Maggie wanted to integrate this experience so that she could function better.

She set a goal to release the painful memories of her pet dying.

After our session, Maggie was no longer crying. She had stopped shaking. She could think of her pet and feel appropriate sadness without feeling threatened. She was able to return to her apartment feeling joy for her pet and calmly process her feelings.

Victoria
Victoria was experiencing stress at work. She was triggered by coworkers and a boss she did not feel safe with. She noticed herself becoming reactive in their presence, and she was feeling a lot of anger. More troubling was that she would get stuck ruminating about her exchanges. She was visibly shaking when she thought about them.

After the brain gym activities, Victoria was no longer shaking. She reported feeling centered, and although she did not like what was happening at work, it was no longer throwing her off. She felt more confident and less victim to what others thought of her. She was able to strategize about work situations with calm and ease. Several weeks later, she reported to me that she had asked for a raise and sailed through a performance review, advocating for herself successfully.

“We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.”

– Francis J. Braceland