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...