Why I Became Interested in the Brain Part 4: The United Nations and Brain Education

After last year's Olympiad, I returned to the U.S. to spend some time learning about the International Brain Education Association (IBREA). IBREA is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote excellence in brain education for the betterment of humanity. As part of this mission, IBREA represents KIBS (the Korea Insitute of Brain Science), an NGO (non-governmental organization) in consulative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), at the UN headquarters in New York.

As a representative of KIBS/IBREA, I attended United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) weekly briefings and participated in non-governmental organization (NGO) conferences and committee meetings. As I sat and listened to discussions about the challenges facing the UN and the world, I felt hope in the contribution that Brain Education could make to each and every issue, including health, education, youth, aging, peace, and guardianship of the earth.

I also had the opportunity to take the Brain Education Teaching Workshop (BETW) in Brooklyn, New York, where I joined teachers, social workers, occupational therapists, and parents from schools in the New York area. Over two days, we experienced the 15-week Brain Education for Enhanced Learning (BE for EL) curriculum, which includes exercises and activities focused on the brain itself, resulting in physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits for students. For more information about the program, see http://www.powerbrainedu.com/.

After returning to Canada, I started teaching the BE for EL program at the Burlington and Mississauga Dahn Centres. I was joined by my colleague, MaryAnn, who helped to teach the class after we both graduated from the BE Leadership course. Through the course, we became certified to teach all 30 weeks of the BE for EL curriculum and the BE for Successful Aging program for older adults (or anyone interested in aging successfully :).


I learned a lot from teaching the children's program and watched as the students grew in their confidence, in their ability to concentrate and to regulate their emotions, and in their concern for each other and for the earth. None of this was something we taught them--the program had brought out the natural abilities and qualities they already had inside. At the end when the students shared what they had learned, I was amazed by their wisdom and by the understanding they had of themselves. As a teacher, this was exactly the kind of program I had been looking for and it gave me a lot of hope for the future of education.

In April of this year, we held a BETW in the GTA area and trained 25 teachers and BE instructors. Since then, Brain Education has also been introduced to educators in Ottawa and Calgary and to schools in the Montreal area. There are plans to hold another BETW in the GTA this year.

(On September 30th from 7:40-9 pm the Burlington Dahn Yoga Centre will be hosting a special Introduction to Brain Education Workshop for Teachers. Please visit or call the centre to reserve a spot: 905-681-7215).

So, this is the long answer to why I became interested in the brain. Through this journey, I've learned to trust my own brain and that everyone has the ability to develop their brain's potential and have a positive impact on others. This has given me hope for the future of education, humanity and the earth and is what brought me here to UBE to learn and experience more about the potential of the brain and about the current and future implications of brain education.
I believe that as individuals, families, organizations, and nations look for ways to solve their most serious challenges, effective self-management, organizational-management, and earth-management through using the brain well will be the key to our successful future.

Why I Became Interested in the Brain Part 3: The 3rd International Brain Education Conference and Olympiad

As soon as I started noticing the benefits of practising Dahn Yoga, I began to think of all the different people that this could help. My desire to help other people become healthy, happy and peaceful led me to become a part-time instructor and then, in April of last year, a full-time instructor at the Burlington Dahn Yoga Centre.

Last August, I had the opportunity to be part of the 3rd International Brain Education Conference and HSP Olympiad in Ellenville, New York. The conference, sponsored by the International Brain Education Association, included Brain Education workshops for parents and teachers and lectures by neuroscientists and educators about the effects of Brain Education on the brain and on the health and well-being of individuals and organizations. I learned that these programs had been used in Korea in companies, schools and other organizations, and even the military. In the US, a curriculum had been developed specifically for schools and was being used with much success across the country.

The HSP Olympiad includes friendly events which showcase the potential of the brain. The events test participants' cognitive, motor and sensory systems (the ability to perceive information using subtle body senses rather than the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste). Children and adults from Korean, Japan and the US competed together and there were a lot of smiles and laughter.

Marek participating in the HSP Gym Event at this year's Olympiad

HSP Body Sense Perception Event

What really stood out for me wasn't the individual abilities of the competitors, but the kind of environment that was created by the trainers and competitors that allowed for each person's potential to shine. I was also struck by the brain's potential beyond what we normally expect and felt how, with this potential, creative and productive solutions to the problems of humanity and the earth could be found.

The HSP Olympiad is a display of the 4th Step: Brain Integrating, which can be achieved through advanced Brain Education training. I talked about the three layers of the brain before: the neocortex (the "thinking" brain), the limbic system (the "emotional" brain), and the brain stem (responsible for basic life functions). Do you ever feel like your thinking, emotions and body aren't working together? Brain Integrating means getting these three functions of your brain working together. It also means integrating the left (more logical and analytical) and the right (more creative and spontaneous) sides of the brain so you can use them together well. Using our brain in an integrated way allows us to tap into the immense potential of our brains.

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Why I Became Interested in the Brain Part 2!

Through training at the Dahn Center, I learned some basic information about the brain--the three layers, their functions, and relationship to our body, emotions, and thinking. I also learned and more importantly, experienced, the next two steps of Brain Education: Brain Versatilizing and Brain Refreshing.

Brain Versatilizing is about making your brain more flexible so you can learn and adapt easier. Through our lives we tend to use the same pathways in our brains. We tend to do things that we are good at or enjoy--this is a great function of the brain. It means we don't have to relearn everything over and over again. But, it also means we can become rigid or comfortable. This actually goes against the brain's (and nature's) natural tendency towards growth and development.

In my case, I was holding a lot of tension in my body and mind and I was afraid to try new things especially if it meant I would make mistakes or look silly. As my body and my brain became more flexible, I learned to enjoy challenging myself by learning new things and using different parts of my brain that I wasn't used to using (even if it meant making mistakes and looking silly).

Brain Refreshing is about releasing ways of thinking or emotions that are preventing you from living the kind of life you want to live. For me, no matter what others said about how well I was doing something or how great I was, this didn't matter. I had an underlying fear and lack of confidence in myself. I also was holding a lot of anger, sadness, guilt and other emotions that were holding me back. When I could let those go, I felt like I could really start to let the person who I think others saw in me, come out. Sometimes this is called your true or authentic self or your soul.

To be continued...

Why I Became Interested in the Brain

From Teacher to Social Worker to Yoga and Brain Education Instructor...How does someone who dropped out of Grade 12 Physics and avoided Science classes from that point on, become interested in the brain?

As a teacher, I was most interested in teaching children the tools that would help them get along well with themselves and with each other and have confidence in their ability to contribute to the world. This interest in helping children and their families led me to Social Work.

As a social work intern, I did internships at a hospital inpatient psychiatry unit and at a community counselling centre. In both cases, I began to appreciate the importance of the body and the brain in people's well-being and relationships.

As a social worker, my job was to support families of children with complex needs (developmental disabilities and mental health issues). These families felt like they nobody "got" their child and that the recommended treatment of choice, medication, was only allowing them to survive from one day to the next and not making things better.

I remember one day thinking to myself, this is all about the brain. If we can only understand what's going on in these children's brains, we can develop programs for them that help us to understand them better and help them improve and develop confidence in themselves.

I also learned about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and was struck by the impact that brain damage has on our society and the lack of awareness and misinformation about this issue--particularly about the possible effects of drinking while pregnant and about those individuals who may not look like they have a problem because they don't have the typical facial features, but whose actions show they do.

I began to see the effects of brain damage everywhere--in schools, on the street, in psychiatric units, in our justice system, in the news. Again, here was a group of people who were not living to their full potential because of a lack of understanding of what was going on in their brains.

For more information about FASD from Public Health Canada, please see: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fasd-etcaf/faq-eng.php.

In the meantime, after the first year of my Master of Social Work program, I decided it was time for me to do something for my body and brain. I was stressed and had low energy. I was using my thinking brain a lot and my body was paying for it.

When I joined Dahn Yoga, I began to be more aware of my body and how my thoughts and emotions, my habits, were affecting my body. I learned exercises, breathing, meditation, and principles that helped me to heal and strengthen my body and mind. This is Step One of Brain Education: awakening the senses and learning to manage the body's natural stress response.

To be continued...