Engaging the Brain
Including:
* The brain’s function and fitness
* Sensory integration concepts for all ages and many diagnoses
* Being aware of our senses. Further information is on the resource page
Being Sensory Aware
* How the brain impacts and is impacted by a healthy lifestyle, including emotional health and sleep!
Why Therapy In Your Home – OT, PT, ST is focuses on your brain health:
Therapy In Your Home focuses on activities that challenge you, as well as activities that comfort and reassure you. Challenging the brain helps it adapt and improve. Allowing it to wander, rest and recuperate helps it be creative and function at its best. We help you learn to recognize the difference so your brain is helping you. Our focus will be the areas that you have control over and helping you feel empowered to function at your best.
Some concepts
- The brain is “plastic” and can be retrained in many more ways than we initially felt possible
- Taking care of sleep, nutrition, stress, emotions and circulation among other needs helps the brain to function better
The brain described: How the brain impacts and is impacted by emotions and nervous system development and integration:
- Central Nervous System Integration Sensory Aware – nervous system guide
- Brain Health – notes from Dr. Cohen’s book
- Benefits of Meditation, summarized below, New York Times Magazine Jan 19, 2014 Breathing In vs Spacing Out by Dan Hurley:
- Describes research by Yi-Yuan Tang, Texas Tech University shows meditation enhanced the integrity and efficiency of the brain’s white matter, the tissue that connects and protects neurons…importan(t) for rational decision-making and effortful problem solving.
- Quotes Peter Malinowski, psychologist and neuroscientist at Liverpool John Moores University in England as saying, “Your ability to recognize what your mind is engaged with, and control that, is really a core strength.” He was speaking of focusing on the here and now, as in learning to focus on breathing, which trains the brain to stay on task and avoid distraction.
- Mentions research that suggests that 10 minutes a day of mindfulness results in improved attention and memory.
- Also describes that the downside is that mindfulness may hinder creative thinking and implicit learning. (One more reason to focus to keep a balance in all you do!)
Concussions and the role of Occupational Therapy
Help the brain function at its best
