*Please note- this blog post was written during my time at Brain Fit Academy Inc. I have since continued this amazing work under my own company- Brain FUNdamentals LLC. I hope you enjoy!

Balance is such a big word. And by big, I mean used in so many ways.

People talk about balance in life. We talk about balance in our emotions and in our bodies. We talk about balance in our relationships and balance in the world.

In a way, I wish there were other words to describe so many ways that "balance" comes into play. It might make it easier, don't you think?

Anyway, I want to talk about balance in relation to Brain Fit Academy. Just like out there in the "world", Brain Fit also refers to the word balance in a number of ways.

In my post titled "Changes", I refer to two important sensory systems that we address at Brain Fit- one being the vestibular system. The vestibular system (in simplest terms) is our balance system. Located in the inner ear, it is responsible for body awareness, gravitational relationship, balance and coordination.

See? There's that word- balance.

In this case- we're using the word balance to refer to actual, physical balance in our bodies, and how it relates to that sensory system. We don't always talk about this sensory system with all our clients, but we certainly work on developing it, since it is so closely related to the primitive reflexes. Again- read the post linked above if you're interested in learning more about the vestibular system.

Another way we talk about balance at Brain Fit is balance in our emotions. We teach our clients about the three parts of the brain (see the post titled "The Baby Brain"). When we get stuck in our "emotional brain" a lot, it means that we probably don't have a good balance within our emotions. We may "react" instead of "respond" more often than not and our baby brain leads the show- putting us into the stress response more often. The "roots" of our brain stem may be all tangled up and disorganized and the reflexes may continue to need integrating in order to help us be more balanced in our emotions.

We also talk a lot about the balance between the two sides (or hemispheres) of the brain. You are probably aware that we all have two sides to our brain. And you may even be aware that each side is responsible for different things. The left side is the more analytical, methodical side. Whereas the right side tends to be more creative and artistic. Ideally, we want a nice balance between the two sides of the brain. We want both sides of the brain to communicate with each other so that we can access the "big picture" as well as the "details". We want to be able to have (what we call) "whole brain learning"- both sides of the brain communicating in order to maximize our potential. We strive for brain balance.

Finally, the last balance I want to talk about is balance in life. When we work with our clients- be they kids, teens or adults, we help them to find balance in their life. We help our clients set goals that can assist them in finding balance in their life. We use movement to bring about positive changes, and by doing so, we can also improve balance. Since you can't change what you don't acknowledge, by setting a goal and being willing to change, our clients can improve the balance in their lives and move forward in more positive and healthy ways.

Balance.

Such an important word.

Such a big word.

I'm happy to be in a place where we strive for balance, and we help others to do the same.

Looking for some balance yourself? Look no further...