Brain balance and Flexibility

There are two main principles that underlie our approach; brain balance and brain flexibility.

• oBalance - equality of distribution or equilibrium between oppositional forces.
• oFlexibility - the ability to move fluidly and effortlessly.

• The brain mediates your perception, thoughts and actions.
• If one part of the system is out of balance, the effects can ripple out into many other areas.
• If you are experiencing emotional or functional difficulties, we will see over or under-activity in the corresponding areas of the brain.
• These areas will be working harder than the others, and putting the brain out of balance.
• When our brain activity is out of balance, there will be corresponding problems in our emotional or physical health. 

• What you use grows stronger.
• This is as true for the brain as for physical muscles, and is called neuroplasticity.
• With repeated use, a thought, mood, or emotional state becomes a ‘habit’.
• The habit grows into a trait; a trait becomes a constant state.
• If the brain is out of balance and loses its flexibility, you may get stuck thinking when trying to sleep, dreaming when trying to concentrate, or be saddled with uncomfortable emotions.
• The brain has been pushed out of balance, and has lost the flexibility needed to shift out of it.

• The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is your internal accelerator – it governs your alert state, your adrenal function, and arousal level.
• If this critical system is locked into an ‘on’ position, you can be plagued with sleeplessness, anxiety, and racing thoughts – perhaps a low-level panic as you drive.
• You can think of it of having your foot firmly planted on the accelerator pedal at all times, which makes it difficult to slow down.
• Stress and anxiety

• The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) can be thought of as your internal brake pedal. The opposite action of the SNS, it governs your ‘rest and digest’ function.
• If the PNS is permanently engaged, it can result in digestive trouble, lack of ‘pep’, enthusiasm and vitality.
• You may feel generally disconnected from your vehicle, or not quite at home inside.
• Social skills and intimacy
• Sleep and fatigue

• When our SNS accelerator and PNS brakes are both fully engaged, try as we might we will have difficulty getting anywhere at all with any comfort.
• You may even end up swinging from high energy to extreme lows.
• It is, of course, an exceptionally poor use of mental energy.
• Trauma and PTSD
• Emotional Balance

• Is your attention going to where you put it, and can you hold your attention there as long as you need it to?
• Or are you fiddling with the radio, checking messages, or staring off into the countryside rather than being able to stay on task?
• Does your mind drift somewhere completely different than where you intended it to?
• Attention training
  

• If your brain is unstable, it is akin to having poor wheel alignment.
• Whenever you try to get somewhere, your emotions or actions may shake, wobble and buffet around.
• Migraines, epilepsy, tics, and a number of other symptoms may result from poor stability.
• Emotional Balance

• How much brain power is available?
• Is power running short in a certain area, or all the energy is being used somewhere other than where it’s needed?
• Without enough energy to get through the day, your mind will fade and falter.
• Sleep and Fatigue 

• Many of the brain’s functions are timed events.
• Timing can be crucial – signals from one part of the brain should arrive at another area at just the right moment to perform a specific task efficiently.
• When the delay is excessive the signals arrive too early; deficient, and it’s too late.
• In either case, it can make it difficult to get from point A to point B if the controls aren’t doing what you want them to, when you want them to do it.
• Autism, Dyslexia or Developmental

• In order to properly make sense of the world around us and accomplish complex tasks, the different parts of the brain must share information.
• If different areas are not connecting to each other, getting anywhere can be tough.
• Learning Disabilities may show either (or both) excessive or deficient coherence characteristics; serious traumatic brain injury classically results in excessive coherence.
• Autism, Dyslexia or Developmental