SusanAMatthews.com
Susan
A. Matthews, M.S.
Shanti School of Internal Martial Arts
An Institute of Research and Education
Southwestern Colorado,
USA
970-903-5723
Contact
Susan
GeorgeXu.com
Brain
Workshop™
Exercises for a New Brain-
Use Mind Power and Movement to Change Your Brain
Web
site Design: Susan
Matthews
© 2003-2008
all rights reserved
No part of this web site may be reproduced without expressed permission.
Brain Workshop™ Programs are presented in Seminars offered nationally. You can also access this information Online as a part of several Special Topics in the Ten Minute Tai Chi Program. If you would like to sponsor a Brain Workshop seminar with Susan Matthews please email Susan at mail@susanamatthews.com.
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Brain
Workshop™ ─Tai Chi for the Brain
Brain Workshop™- Use Mind Power and Movement to Change Your Brain
Scientific discoveries about the brain and nervous system have revealed the brain's capability of plasticity—it's intrinsic ability to change and grow. Important Tai Chi mind and movement principles have been used for centuries by Chinese masters to enhance brain function, healing and conscious evolution. If you are interested in turning on this power in your brain, then this workshop will provide you with tools and inspiration for your professional and personal development.
Brain Workshop™ uses sophisticated sensory integration techniques (visual, kinesthetic) and mental imagery that can transform your brain and body. These techniques are combined with movement principles (synchronous, rhythmic, bilateral) which have all been linked to brain activation for memory and learning, growth and development, states of consciousness, locomotion, autonomic function, and neural repair.
Hello Susan,
Thanks again for the brilliant seminar last weekend. We've heard nothing but positive things all week from the participants. I especially gained some valuable things to work on from our one-on-one session. Thank you. George Petrush
You can easily
incorporate Brain Workshop™ methodology and theory into your current mind/body
practice. Whether it's Tai Chi or other martial arts training, or other
therapeutic repertoire of exercises, rehabilitation, manual therapy, or
counseling, you can achieve amazing results. Amplify physical strength,
internal energy, and spiritual intent with advanced Tai Chi & Qigong
principles with these special components found in the Brain Workshop™
curriculum: Spiral Anatomy™ Advanced Biomechanics; Mind & Movement
Integration Training; Rejuvenation and Longevity Training; and, Neurorehabilitation
and Balance Training.
Practitioners of internal martial arts such as Taijiquan and Qigong have
cultivated the dynamic qualities of energy in movement to enhance physical
and mental abilities well-beyond normal, and to further their spiritual
paths. Discover within yourself the "supreme ultimate" exercise
to activate your brain and nervous system to change through movement.
Hello Susan,
I want to thank you and the staff of the White Oak Institute for the seminar on Saturday. The wealth of information was a blessing. The DVDs are useful in helping my wife and I put new life into our long time practice of Tai Chi Chih and also to enjoy the new form you presented at the end of the workshop. Again, I thank you for coming to Asheville. All the best! Roger Wheelock
Goals:
- For the Individual Practitioner: Techniques learned can be used as a stand-alone Tai Chi/Qigong practice for the individual or be incorporated into an existing practice. Stress reduction, improved health, vitality, strength, coordination and flexibility are common physical benefits along with those same qualities cultivated in the mind and spirit energetically.
- For the Therapist,
Teacher and Trainier: Methodology and theory are presented so that it
can be incorporated into a practitioner’s current therapeutic repertoire
of exercise, rehabilitation, manual therapy, counseling or mind/body
practice. Advanced biomechanical and energetic technique makes your
work easier and transforms it into a physical, energetic and spiritual
practice for yourself.
- For
the Client: Techniques (both sitting and standing) can be taught to
clients of all abilities. Reports include improved balance, reduction
in chronic pain, reductions in the symptoms of arthritis, improvement
in the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, recovery after stroke, improvement
in the symptoms of depression and migraine, increased bone strength,
reduced incontinence, improved cardiovascular and respiratory function.
Brain
Workshop™ is produced by Susan
Matthews and
We
wish to:
·
Promote
the integration of scientific exploration and eastern energy medicine
in the practice of internal martial arts.
·
Provide
affordable, high-quality programs to promote the health and well-being
of women and the people in their lives.
·
Take
a leadership role in the development and administration of community-based
affordable, effective and safe exercise programs for elderly populations.
Programs are to include the care-giver, as well as the person with chronic
stroke, parkinsonism and other conditions requiring more-sophisticated
neurorehabilitative techniques.
·
Disseminate
on a local, as well as a nationwide basis, the scholarly products available
to positively influence professionals who provide services for senior
populations.
Please contact us to be notified of upcoming Brain Workshops or to schedule a workshop for your group.
Mind
and Movement Principles for Enhanced Brain Function, Healing, and Conscious
Evolution
Susan A. Matthews, M.S.
Recent
scientific discoveries about the brain and nervous system have revealed
the brain's ability to change and grow. As we turn 50, youthful vigor
gradually declines into a stiffer body and slower mind. Most people know
that exercise, especially the right kind done correctly, slows this process
in the body. Evidence also suggests that mental exercises can also help
the brain stay young. But what kind of physical exercise can you do to
stay young mentally?
Researcher
and teacher Susan Matthews says that tai chi is one exercise that can
do both—help you maintain both physical and brain health and well-being.
She explains in her workshops that by using the kind of movement you learn
doing taijiquan (tai chi), along with precise mental focus, you can directly
affect the function of the brain and nervous system.
“Physical
and mental health depends primarily on a finely tuned nervous system,”
Matthews says, yet typical physical exercise rarely takes this approach.
“Most
of what we see these days is ‘muscle exercise’ with secondary effects
on the cardiovascular system and internal organs,” Matthews says. “Practitioners
of Chinese internal martial arts, such as tai chi, have consistently used
various forms of ‘meditative’ movement to promote longevity and to enhance
physical and mental abilities well-beyond average.”
She
says also that, “Using proven methods to induce plasticity (the ability
to change and grow) you can form new neural pathways.”
In
terms of rehabilitation of injuries and chronic ailments, these same qualities
make tai chi the "supreme ultimate" exercise to access the brain
and to activate the nervous system to change through movement.
Similar
benefits can be achieved in many other types of exercise if they contain
certain mind/movement principles, including, running, walking, skiing,
swimming, tennis, golf, and everyday activities.
Matthews
introduces five aspects in her workshops central in her approach to movement,
tai chi, and brain health. She defines them in class and works with participants
to understand their meaning and how they may be incorporated.
First,
movement with synchronicity, rhythmicity, and symmetry has been linked
to brain activation during memory acquisition, states of consciousness,
locomotion, neural repair, and rehabilitation.
Second,
mental practice, including visualization and movement imagery, are receiving
greater significance for athletic training and for treatment potential,
she says. New imaging techniques show that when you visualize going over
the movement in your mind (imagery), neuronal (nerve cell) activity in
the brain actually mirrors that movement.
This
capacity of the nervous system is just beginning to be explored in brain
injury research and treatment, Matthews says. Tai Chi and other ‘internal’
martial arts training greatly enhance mental agility by tapping into the
mind connection between internal energy (qi) and movement.
Third,
balanced, integrated, left- and right-sided movement is accompanied by
balanced brain activity. Such movement activates the neural circuitry
of the whole brain. Balance is accomplished by using two major components
of Tai Chi training: 1) “central equilibrium training,” or developing
a straight spine with an energetic central “plumb line,” and; 2) spiraling
in the joints, which is called “chan shi chin training.”
Fourth,
engaging and integrating multiple sensory systems both physically and
with mind intention, wakes up the entire body and brain, and can speed
up the healing process. These systems include visual, kinesthetic, the
sense of gravity and position, muscle load, stretching and contracting,
sensors in the skin, and the sensation of qi.
1
Qi can be thought of as a high-frequency vibration that can be perceived
or felt after a moderate amount of training. Training with synchronous,
balanced movement combined with specific movement visualizations enhances
the practitioner’s ability to both feel more and to guide the Qi with
the mind. Thus mind and body become linked in a true mind-body practice.
Merged PET-MRI brain section illustrating changes in cerebral blood flow
during movement visualization. From: Lafleur, M. F., et al., 2002. Motor
learning produces parallel dynamic functional changes during the execution
and imagination of sequential foot movements. Neuroimage. 16, 142-157.