Brain Science & You & Me

What used to be my screened porch is now a real 4-season room, and I’ve moved my office and art studio into it, and my new “Sun Room” is so big that I was finally able to move my library out of storage and arrange it neatly at my fingertips.  Talk about luxury!

In going through one of my favorite books, containing all my treasured correspondence with my figure skaters, I found this.

 

Holly Larson Letter.Brain Science

 

Laura Harris’ mom told me to write to Laura and tell her this story, and to be sure to give her Holly’s info.  As soon as Laura Harris received this letter, she got in touch, and because she is such a “giver,” she gave Holly and her family the gift of a weekend at Campbell’s.

Holly recovered fully, although it took years.

I’m still in touch with Holly, her sister Hayley and her mother Doris, we were all Facebook friends right up until I left Facebook and now that I’m Facebook-free, they know right where to find me if they ever want to talk, Skype hang or visit.

Moral of the story: be guided by your genuine interest in others, ask a ton of questions, help everyone you can, any way you can, and the more you learn about how our brains work, the more powerful your help will be.  And don’t worry about typographical errors, unimportant things like that will never mess with your flow.

If you’d like to learn more about the research based on the effectiveness of living and working this way – of being a “smart giver” like me – read this:

Cover of Give and Take by Adam Grant

 

 

Have questions or need help?

I’m right here.

+1 206 963 0755

[email protected]

Brain Science & You & Me

What You’re Watching, What We’re Supporting

As fans of the NFL, we simply must come to terms with how, as fans, we’re part of creating an environment where, for our entertainment, this type of injury is common.

Thanks to a smart mouthguard, we were able to understand, for the first time, exactly what happens in the brain of a player who takes the kind of brain-rattling hit that happens every team, every game, almost on every play.

I still watch NFL but it’s becoming more and more ethically difficult to justify my continued viewing when the league is doing such a poor job in dealing with this problem.  Setting aside the bigger philosophical issues and focusing on what’s realistically possible, when a helmet-to-helmet hit happens, the offending player should be thrown out of the game and possibly suspended.  We have plenty of evidence that simply penalizing his team 15 yards is not enough to change behavior.

I couldn’t get the link/permalink to work so you’re going to have to copy and paste the permalink into your browser.

Jesus.

 

 

 

What You’re Watching, What We’re Supporting

The Opportunity of Tragedy

There’s no shortage of tragedy in today’s world and, sometimes, tragedy comes and gets us right where we live, it comes into our lives, and it can shatter our hearts, it can make us afraid, bitter, mean or detached.

Here’s a blueprint for a way to transmute tragedy into peace, strength and confidence.

Listen to this to learn about how my childhood friend, Ann Hounchell, informs my every day life, and especially my work.

 

ann-hounchell-collage

 

And yes, that’s me in the back row over Ann’s right shoulder.

 

Questions or need help?

I’m right here.

M: +1 206 963 0755

[email protected]

The Opportunity of Tragedy

The World Series & You

Tomorrow night in Game 2 of the World Series, Trevor Bauer is pitching for the Cleveland Indians.  I first read about Trevor in Sports Illustrated back in 2011.  He developed his pitches by exploiting the brain science of batting.

Tevor Bauer Alchetron Site

“I’m very passionate about my craft and I’ve always been into science and discovery and all that stuff, so I’m always trying to find a way to get better from season to season. And throwing more pitches is a way that I’ve found to…. The more pitches that I have, that have different speeds and move differently, the more confusion it creates for the hitter. And if I throw all of them out of the same tunnel and make them look the same though 20 feet of flight … obviously, I’m going to be a lot tougher to hit.”

It’s within that “20 feet of flight” that batters have to decide if they’re going to swing and Trevor, exploiting the brain science of his opponents, has designed all of his many pitches to travel that same 20 foot wheelhouse strike tunnel.

What’s that got to do with being a problem solving movement teacher?

Exploiting brain science is available to everyone, not just professional athletes like Trevor.

If you’ve Gap Filled with me, you already know about athletes like Trevor, and you already know why my work is so startlingly effective.

If you haven’t and don’t, read the SI article, and once you get comfortable with the idea that brain science is behind everything we do and say and feel, and how we act and think, maybe read this one, too, to see how Trevor exploits the brain science of focus – which is explained at about the 8:30 mark in the linked video – in how he settles himself.


 

Exploiting brain science is exactly how I developed my pain-relieving/alignment/engagement protocols.  My protocols have been called a lot of things over the years – like many of Joe’s exercises, clients have named them – and for now, they’re most often referred to as “Doming, Elevator, Pelvic Ring & Cross Draw,” or sometimes “Leone Align & Solve.”

Here’s proof of the effectiveness of my protocols within a single session.

before-after-serialized-gina-leslie

 

Here’s what those types of alignment changes look like on the inside.

Thoracic Straightening using Elevator

 

Lumbar straightening using Elevator

 

 

My work is based 100% on the exploitation of brain science, my work is full of the work of Mihaly Cssikszentmihaly, and if you want to take the most direct, powerful and effective approach to achieving change, lasting results, and solving any problem you or your clients are faced with, your work will be full of the exploitation of brain science, too.

Working any other way – especially the “monkey see, monkey do” way of movement/choreography-based demonstration and/or description – is woefully ineffective and, in the end, a waste of time.  I mean, how many clients do you have who still, no matter how many times you show them or explain it, can’t do what you’re trying to teach them to do?  Years of expensive and time consuming effort on the part of all involved are spent trying to learn something that, through the exploitation of brain science, can be accomplished in a few minutes time.

That’s precisely how I can teach clients to solve long standing pain and performance problems quickly, effectively and permanently.  Many videos of me doing just that are up on my video site.  Many who’ve observed me teaching my problem solving sessions have said it seems like “magic.”  It’s not magic, it’s brain science, and seeing the power of the unconscious brain come out of the recesses where it usually lurks and take over in the conscious world is a totally cool thing to witness.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you already knew what you were going to do, each session you teach, each problem you face?  Think how empowering, relaxing and down right fun that would be.  That’s exactly how I feel about my work, every session I teach, every problem I face.  I already know what I’m going to do.  I’m going to exploit the unconscious brain’s superior wisdom to solve it, to solve anything, to solve everything.  And with that, I’m free, I’m completely liberated from the rote, from the formulaic, from the circumstances and details of any given situation.  When you use the full resources of your unconscious brain’s super wisdom, nothing surprises you, nothing destabilizes you, nothing breaks you.

Nothing.

 

We’re infinitely more powerful than we realize.

Learning about brain science is imperative for all problem solving teachers.

Be like Trevor and exploit every possible advantage so you can be your best, and bring your best, to every client, every friend, every interaction, every single day.

Otherwise, what are you doing?  And why?

PS  Having learned about it from Trevor, I have and love using a Shoulder Tube wobble stick.  Buy it here.

 

The World Series & You