Gabriela Lombardo: Brain Gymn is about exercising, sharpening and making the most of your brain power.
“Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.” Macbeth (Act II, Scene III)
What a strange thing the mind is! How wonderful and at the same time how terrifying! But the mind is a muscle that needs to be exercised, trained, directed. Lot’s of people do push-ups, for example, others run around the block, still others go jogging and come home panting.
Gabriela Lombardo, a woman with long experience in brain friendly language teaching technique, recently chatted with “Jaquematepress” about the exciting benefits which persons of all ages can obtain from brain exercise.
“That´s a powerful question !” she exclaimed, when asked what was on her mind.
Then she added quickly: “You want to know what’s on my mind? Training and assisting teachers in learning these techniques as well as helping students learn with joy and ease while they make use of their full potential through brain gym. Also,working with people, with children and adults, to overcome ‘learning disabilities’ and assist them in fulfilling their dreams!”
“O.K. But what exactly is brain gym?”
“Brain Gym is about exercising,sharpening and making the most of your brain power It is an educational system created by Dr Paul Dennison that allows you to reeducate the mind – body system towards a desired goal. When you start using Brain Gym you stimulate the flow of information and processing within the brain and between the brain and body.”
“And why is this so important?”
“Because as you exercise the brain, you restore your natural ability to learn and function at optimun efficiency. The body is the structure for learning . We need to make sure that our body is prepared for learning, that our eyes are teaming together, our ears open to listen and our coordination at its best.”
“I see. But wouldn’t you say that in the Western Judo-Christian tradition we tend to separate mind, body and spirit, get fat and forget our bodies or throw our guilt complexes around and then go to plastic surgeons...?”
“This is not so much about our physical appearance but, of course, we all know that when we are feeling good about ourselves, it also reflects on our faces and we sweat happiness, don´t we ? It´s about paying attention to our body in the learning process too since we are based on the principle that mind and body are interconnected. It´s about mind body integration, having coherence with what we think, what we feel and what we do!”
“How can doing brain gym help learning languages, improving professional life, etc.?”
“Brain Gym can be experienced in different ways! It can be used while you are learning or practicing something in order to remember the information, become unstuck, concentrate, accelerate the process of learning, in fact, to optimize teaching and learning. The other context in which brain gym is experienced is through balances- A balance is a process whereby the person is balanced towards that desired goal. Learning blocks in relation to the goals are identified and dealt with.” “Could you tell us about some of your experiences in this and how you got involved?”
“Yes, of course I can.. It’ll be my pleasure! I got involved in Brain Gym because many years ago I went through a bad patch in my life and I had to stop working due to a prolonged stress. So, after a while, I started my search: first I found yoga, which has helped me a lot, and then Brain Gym. It was not until I became a certified instructor in 2002 that I fully realized the powerful tools I had learned. I use Brain Gym in my own personal and professional life as well. Many students around the world and my own students in particular do Brain Gym in my classes. It is one of my most important tools to optimize learning with children and adults as well The body has to be ready to learn as well as the mind and viceversa.
I also give one on one individual sessions to overcome learning difficulties and improve in any area you might feel weak, stuck or not functioning at top efficiency. Let me give you three examples of sessions I had , two of which were with children: a primary student , a high school student and one with an adult. Pablo, who was 11 years old, first came for a session with his mum because of quite a lot of suffering at school. He could never finish copying from the board, he found it hard to read, had problems in math, among other things. It looks like an endless list and it really was! Let´s say school was equivalent to prison. Not only because things didn´t go well there but also because as soon as he was done with school, he had to do extra things to catch up after school.
I noticed in our first session that he could neither draw a lazy eight nor follow it with his eyes. This is the figure of a sleeping eight or the infinity symbol, whatever you want to call it. Among other things, at that point I could understand why he found it so hard to read. When we read our eyes should harmoniously team together and cross the midline but this is not always the case. He was hardly able to cross the midline!!! This is just one little and at the same time significant thing I noticed which after having worked for some time, it really paid off.
The other boy, who was 13, had communication problems. He was very shy and had big difficulties to relate to people. A very important reflex which had not been integrated at the right time hugely affected him and so we worked on it . After some time, his relationships changed completely, even the relationship with himself who was then able to listen to his needs and after that, he also started building his self confidence. Needless to say , he also raised his marks at school. And last but not least, the case of an adult who wanted to obtain her driver´s license but didn´t dare to go through the testing process. After talking for a while, I asked her if she had had trouble at school or university every time she had to sit for an exam and she said she did.. So I balanced her for taking the driver´s license test easily and after two weeks she visited me again with tears in her eyes and the driver´s license in her hand!! It is very rewarding to see the wonderful transformations people experience when they go through balances.”
“What requirements are needed to practice BG?”
“There are no requirements to practice brain gym. Anybody can practice brain gym, from little children to adults, within their own possibilities. Even people who cannot move. You can do the exercises for them while they are looking at you and in this way they activate their mirror neurons. Certainly, it is always a good idea to ask the physician if you are allowed to do all the exercises if you have some physical discomfort or disease.” “How can people contact you or get more info on the subject?”
Gabriela’s contacts: Web: http://centrojoyful.com.ar e-mail: centrojoyful@fibertel.com.ar
Phone: (011) 4523-5261 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Gabriela Lombardo
holds a degree as a Sworn Translator from Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been working as a teacher of English at all levels for 18 years now . She also gives in company training. In her classes she applies humanistic as well as brain-friendly approaches in the teaching of the language so that students acquire it easily and with joy. She facilitates one to one sessions to help children and adults in private sessions to defuse learning difficulties and stress related issues, thus enhancing performance, increasing self-esteem and reducing stress, returning the person to an awareness of CHOICE. She is a yoga practitioner and a certified Brain Gym â Consultant / Instructor, member of Brain Gym International (www.braingym.org) She has also done diverse presentations at different congresses. She is at present studying psiconeuroeducation, teaching English in companies, doing Brain Gymâ and counseling parents, teachers, schools and any person interested in learning and applying these wonderful techniques. She can be reached at Joyful Learning Center, Centro Integral de Aprendizaje: http://centrojoyful.com.ar. Phone: (011) 4523-5261
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