Brain Fitness and Brain Awareness Month
School is ending for the year, the pools are opening, the sun is shining – June is here! And along with popsicles and vacation plans, June brings with it National Alzheimer\’s and Brain Awareness Month. Though that might not be as sunny a topic, it should be on the tip of all of our tongues, right along with those Rocket Pops that signify summer is here. Worldwide, 47 million people are living with Alzheimer\’s and other dementias, and Alzheimer\’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. A recent survey notes that, \”Americans fear developing Alzheimer\’s disease more than any other major life-threatening disease, including cancer, stroke, heart disease and diabetes.\” While we as a society fear the onset of a brain illness, we tend not to focus on brain health. Just like other organs in our body, we only notice when something is wrong. The brain is the most complex organ in our body. As long as our hearts are beating, our brain is the organ most directly responsible for our overall quality of life. With all that our brains are responsible for – visual processing, motor coordination, attention, memory, executive functioning – you\’d think we would spend more time and energy keeping our brains as healthy as possible, but we often don\’t take notice until they are no longer performing as we would like them to. There is not currently a cure or a sure-fire way to prevent Alzheimer\’s or other dementias, but taking brain health seriously is a step in the right direction. While we may not yet have the key to end Alzheimer\’s, we do know that we can implement a plan for healthy aging – and that plan includes diet, exercise, social interaction, and cognitive activity. In fact, in Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology, psychiatrist Stephen Stahl notes that “… so far, the only intervention that has been consistently replicated as a disease-modifying treatment to diminish the risk of MCI [mild cognitive impairment] or Alzheimer’s disease and that can slow the progression of these conditions is cognitive activity.” Cognitive activity. Brain fitness! But what exactly does this key to aging well look like? Brain fitness, at its core, is all about how well the brain can handle the daily cognitive demands placed upon it. Fortunately, our brains are not static, so we can train them to better handle those demands and increase our brain fitness. Training the brain to be cognitively active is not a passive act – it\’s mental push-ups and cerebral strength training, meant to keep your brain healthy, active, and working as well as it can for as long as it can. Just as physical exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system, brain fitness training is a tool for activating the mind, building new neural networks, and strengthening old ones. Overall brain fitness is vital throughout our lives. Thanks to neuroplasticity, our brains are constantly changing, forming new neural connections throughout life as we encounter new experiences, environments, and stimuli. The brain\’s ability to reorganize itself is incredible, but if we cease to use neural connections, they diminish. This use-it-or-lose-it phenomenon should have us asking how to use it so we don’t lose it. Brain fitness training is a way to do just that: to use it rather than lose it. Its cognitive training with vast benefits. Improvements can be seen in attention, memory, visual processing, motor coordination, and executive functioning (such as reasoning, problem solving, and planning skills). Basically, improving brain fitness improves the quality of life. Some periods of life are full to the brim with opportunities for brain fitness. Think of the infant taking in their brand new world – every sight and sound is new, and they are learning constantly – how to communicate, how to move, how to make decisions, how to get what they want! Contrast that time of intense learning with later periods of life, when it\’s easier to rely on what is already known and there\’s less emphasis on finding time to challenge one\’s brain. But no one has time in this life for cognitive apathy – not if we want healthy brains, long lives, and to remain \”with it\” for as long as we\’re breathing. Mental quickness, flexibility in thinking, ability to problem-solve, and overall brain function are vital to living a long and fulfilling life. Brain fitness can improve all of these areas, and we can improve our brain fitness through cognitive training, active mental participation in life, developing habits of lifelong learning, managing our stress, exercising, getting enough sleep, and engaging in exercises designed to improve our cognitive skills. This June, I invite you to go purple for #BrainAwarenessMonth and encourage you to make a commitment to keep your brain as healthy as possible. For lifelong health and mental acuity, we need to cultivate a life that promotes brain fitness. Sign up here to receive a free copy of my Keeping Brain Fit checklist. Start taking steps today toward brain fitness and cognitive well-being. May you live all the days of your life! Alli Berman is a Brain Fitness expert and the Eye Brain Fitness Guru. She has been an artist, author, educator, creativity consultant, workshop leader, perceptual and sensory products and programs developer, and motivational speaker for the past 30+ years. Berman has served as an educational advisor to the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine for over 30 years, and she is the founder of The Art of Rehabilitation and Anti-Aging Art. She created the PuzzleArt Therapy System in collaboration with behavioral optometrist, Susan Fisher, OD, and through consultation with neuroscientists around the world. Berman uses the system herself on a daily basis to keep her own brain as healthy, engaged, and challenged as possible! [CONTACT_FORM_TO_EMAIL]
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Is PuzzleArt Therapy Right for Your Clients?
Through years of collaboration with neuroscientists, behavioral optometrists, anti-aging experts, educators and others, I developed the PuzzleArt Therapy system. This system uses one-of-a-kind abstract art paired with exercises that will lead your clients through new ways of thinking, seeing, processing, and creating. It encourages the body and brain to work together, developing visual perceptual skills, improving memory, encouraging neuroplasticity, and increasing communication across the corpus callosum. It\’s also the first therapy to combine binocular, perceptual, and sensory therapy with hands-on abstract art. One of the most appealing aspects of PuzzleArt Therapy is that it is fun and relaxing. The phrase visual therapy has a heavy connotation to it, and in our busy lives, it\’s sometimes overwhelming to think about dedicating time to yet another task. But moving through the modules of Puzzle Art therapy is easy, fun, relaxing, and takes only minutes a day! Even the most reluctant of patients can be enticed to give it a try. The versatility of PuzzleArt Therapy is also astounding. From 3 to 103, everyone can benefit in different ways, building a better brain along the way! The College of Optometrists in Visual Development recognizes 17 skills that are necessary to succeed in reading, learning, sports, and throughout life – and PuzzleArt Therapy can help to develop and strengthen all of those areas. Those skills encompass: Eye Movement Control Simultaneous Focus at Far Sustaining Focus at Far Simultaneous Focus at Near Sustaining Focus at Near Simultaneous Alignment at Far Sustaining Alignment at Far Simultaneous Alignment at Near Sustaining Alignment at Near Central Vision (Visual Acuity) Peripheral Vision Depth Awareness Color Perception Gross Visual-Motor Fine Visual-Motor Visual Perception Visual Integration While those visual skills are vital, PuzzleArt Therapy doesn\’t stop at just working on strengthening those competencies. The benefits are far reaching! Children From the preschool child to the high school student, PuzzleArt Therapy can help students succeed in and out of the classroom. Children need complex hand-eye coordination, the ability to coordinate gross motor skills and fine motor skills, and near and far focus to do close-up work as well as view teacher demonstrations or the blackboard. PuzzleArt Therapy strengthens all of those skills, and more, including: Bilateral Integration Binocular Skills Letter + Word Recognition Directionality Spatial Relationships Visual: Closure, Discrimination, Figure /Ground, Perception In addition, children who have developed conditions such as strabismus, amblyopia, or refractive errors can benefit from the strategic visual perceptual skill builders within the PuzzleArt Therapy System. Adults At its most basic level, PuzzleArt Therapy is an easy, engaging, and fun method of practiced relaxation. It can have a meditative quality, which can help reduce stress, anxiety, and lower blood pressure. Relaxation is not the only benefit, though. As your clients arrange and rearrange the pieces, they will find themselves becoming completely absorbed, making connections of line, color, shape, and texture as they work through the therapeutic modules. Tuning-in to their creativity, they will find they\’ve tuned-out worries, concerns, and problems. But as they make new connections and see patterns and solutions that weren\’t immediately obvious, they may find themselves open to new solutions in other areas of their lives as well. Finding solutions to problems within the pieces can translate into improved problem solving throughout life. Maslow is quoted as saying, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.” If all of your clients problems are nails, it may be time for new tools! Of course, adults benefit from the strengthening of visual perceptual skills, as well. The PuzzleArt Therapy system can improve cognitive and problem-solving skills, strengthen memory, aid in visualization – all skills that increase productivity, decrease stress, and add to the enjoyment of life! Keeping the brain active, engaged, and challenged is one of the major secrets to living a long and happy life – and PuzzleArt Therapy can help your clients do just that. Special Populations Those who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, stroke, post-traumatic stress disorder, or have a family history of Alzheimer\’s or dementia can benefit greatly from the skill builders that can improve memory, problem-solving skills, gross and fine motor skills, binocular skills, and bilateral integration. Improving those areas can lead to a vastly improved quality of life – and after all, it\’s not just the quantity of our years that matters, but the quality. Try PuzzleArt Therapy for yourself today – just sign up here for your free brain game – that you might live younger, longer, and stronger! Alli Berman is a Brain Fitness expert and the Eye Brain Fitness Guru. She has been an artist, author, educator, creativity consultant, workshop leader, perceptual and sensory products and programs developer, and motivational speaker for the past 30+ years. Berman has served as an educational advisor to the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine for over 30 years, and she is the founder of The Art of Rehabilitation and Anti-Aging Art. She created the PuzzleArt Therapy System in collaboration with behavioral optometrist, Susan Fisher, OD, and through consultation with neuroscientists around the world. Berman uses the system herself on a daily basis to keep her own brain as healthy, engaged, and challenged as possible! [CONTACT_FORM_TO_EMAIL]
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PuzzleArt Therapy: How it Came to Be
My life was on track and I was going places. I was a talented young executive in my 30s, still enjoying the invincibility of youth. For a decade, I had my own international award-winning design and marketing firm in NYC, with some two dozen employees. I wasn\’t on my way to living the dream – I was living the dream! I had worked tirelessly to get there, and I never imagined I could lose it all in an instant. But everything changed when I suffered a stroke. No one expects their life to change dramatically and without warning, especially with something like a stroke, which most people think of as \”something that happens to someone else,\” or someone older, or someone more disease prone. But it happened to me, and suddenly, everything in my life was changed. A cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is restricted and it results in cell death in the brain. Stroke survivors\’ lives are impacted in different ways, and the effects of the stroke depend mostly on the location of the stroke and the extent of brain tissue damage. Common effects include: Paralysis on the opposite side of the body where the stroke occurred Memory loss Speech/language problems Vision problems Changes in behavior In the following years, I found myself on a seesaw. One part of me missed the fast-paced excitement of the business world. That was the life I wanted, but I could no longer function in it. My pragmatic half, however, moved toward new horizons. Finding a New Path to Recovery After my debilitating illness, I was grateful my right side was still working and my long- term memories were intact, but I felt adrift. It was difficult to concentrate. Short term memory deficits plagued me, and aphasia impacted my communication skills. I didn’t know where to turn, but I knew something had to change. When I suffered the stroke and then began the long road to recovery, I had made a promise – to myself, to the universe – that if I got through this, I would give back to humanity. I wasn\’t sure what that would mean, or how it would look, but I knew I would spend my life giving back. At that point in my journey, I was working on finding a new normal and recovering from my stroke, when one day, I felt restless. I felt the urge do something creative. I realized I had so much art bursting out of me, so much to say with color, shape, texture, and line. I had always been artistic and loved anything to do with my hands: painting, sculpture, calligraphy arts, crafts, flower arranging, trompe l’oeil, Japanese sumi-brush, weaving, needlepoint, crocheting, knitting, macrame, gardening, sewing, cooking — the list just went on and on. But above all, there was always painting. So I began again, putting color on canvas and letting expressions of color, shape, texture, and line take over. I was always covered in paint. To this day, I don’t think there is much in my closet that isn’t paint-spattered, unless it’s brand new. But as I painted, I began to recover myself in ways I hadn\’t expected, though it\’s certainly not shocking given what a transformative and powerful tool we have in art as a therapy. What came out of all the personal challenges of those years was a system I slowly developed; it was a way to connect with all the answers the world was offering me. To understand my own circumstances, I had delved into the world of neuroscience and vision therapy, connecting the dots between vision and brain health, learning the best ways to promote optimal brain activity and brain-body communication, and systematically putting those tools into practice. From Pain to Progress to PuzzleArt The result was PuzzleArt Therapy, a way to find happiness and live younger, live longer, and get stronger. PuzzleArt Therapy was born out of my journey from a debilitating stroke, and what began as an exploration of creativity and color and line for myself, grew into a visual perceptual therapy system designed to stimulate the brain and improve over 20 different skills. As I collaborated with neuroscientists, behavioral optometrists, anti-aging experts, and educators in order to realize the potential of PuzzleArt Therapy, it dawned on me that I had found my way to give back, and I\’ve been doing it ever since, dedicated to creating my own best life by helping others create theirs. I use PuzzleArt Therapy myself every day and I see the results in my own life on a continual basis. PuzzleArt Therapy was developed out of a specific need, but its applications are truly endless. Sign up to try out my free brain game, and may you live younger, longer, and stronger through creativity every day! Alli Berman is a Brain Fitness expert and the Eye Brain Fitness Guru. She has been an artist, author, educator, creativity consultant, workshop leader, perceptual and sensory products and programs developer, and motivational speaker for the past 30+ years. Berman has served as an educational advisor to the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine for over 30 years, and she is the founder of The Art of Rehabilitation and Anti-Aging Art. She created the PuzzleArt Therapy System in collaboration with behavioral optometrist, Susan Fisher, OD, and through consultation with neuroscientists around the world. Berman uses the system herself on a daily basis to keep her own brain as healthy, engaged, and challenged as possible!
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Perceptual Activities and Memory
For as long as humanity has been aging, we\’ve been lamenting the process. In The Maxims of Ptah-Hotep (c. 2200 BCE), Ptah wrote on aging, \”. . . the progress of age changes into senility. Decay falls upon man and decline takes the place of youth . . . The mouth is silent, speech fails him; the mind decays, remembering not the day before.\” While Ptah may have been a bit melodramatic, most everyone has felt the weight of getting older. Who hasn\’t walked into a room only to realize they have absolutely no idea why they\’re there, or spent ages searching for an important something-or-other? Helping others combat issues of memory at any age is crucial to our success as practitioners. Memory When memory lapses become more common, reaction times slow, or words don\’t come as easily, panic often begins to set in! But as we know, this is not an inevitable part of aging! People don\’t have to sit around waiting to forget what they had for breakfast! Fortunately for all of us, we can take daily initiatives to improve our memory, which greatly increases our quality of life regardless of age. From 3 to 103, we can all benefit from increased memory. Recent studies demonstrate that working memory capacity, long thought of as a constant, can be improved through training. The changes in cortical activity after training could be evidence of training-induced plasticity in our neural systems. Since working memory is essential to how the brain handles information – how we process it, integrate it, retrieve it, and apply it – this basic functionality is vital to performing daily tasks throughout the life span. From memorizing the alphabet to learning to read, playing team sports to participating in a monthly book club, solving problems, meeting deadlines, setting and reaching goals – all of these (and more!) are dependent on working memory. The Eyes of Memory The connections between our eyes, brain, and working memory have powerful implications. Our brains process information all of the time, and we make decisions constantly about what to attend to and what to discard. 80 percent of the sensory information the brain receives comes through our eyes, which means we need to pay particular attention to being sure the eyes know how to take in what is being seen. When someone has 20/20 vision, they may think that none of this applies to them. Of course, visual acuity is a small piece of the entire visual picture, as visual ability includes so much more: peripheral awareness, depth perception, focusing ability, eye coordination, tracking, and color vision, to name a few other perceptual factors. Since what we take in through our eyes is so crucial to how our brain processes, integrates, and reacts to information, focused time and energy should be dedicated to perceptual training. Perceptual activities are fun learning tools that can help train the brain in a multitude of ways and assist in making sense of the information the eyes are sending to the brain. Train The Eyes and The Mind Will Follow PuzzleArt Therapy is the first therapy to combine binocular, perceptual, and sensory therapy with hands-on abstract art to improve memory and overall brain function (and therefore, enjoyment of life!). This fun, engaging, and creative therapy can work in so many ways and can strengthen an incredible number of perceptual skills, including: Visual Memory Closure Figure-ground Perception Peripheral Vision Binocular Skills Near/Far Focus Visual Sequential Memory Oculomotor Skills Directionality Spatial Relationships Discrimination Cognitive and Problem-Solving Skills Bilateral Integration Amblyopia/Suppression And more! PuzzleArt Skill Builders take participants on a guided journey through the perceptual learning field, providing perceptual activities that challenge and activate the brain, improving memory and cognition. It\’s vital for people to take an active role at any age and train the eyes to truly see and fully communicate with the brain. Try one of my PuzzleArt Skill Builders for FREE today to sample a perceptual activity that trains the eyes, the body, and the brain. Alli Berman is a Brain Fitness expert and the Eye Brain Fitness Guru. She has been an artist, author, educator, creativity consultant, workshop leader, perceptual and sensory products and programs developer, and motivational speaker for the past 30+ years. Berman has served as an educational advisor to the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine for over 30 years, and she is the founder of The Art of Rehabilitation and Anti-Aging Art. She created the PuzzleArt Therapy System in collaboration with behavioral optometrist, Susan Fisher, OD, and through consultation with neuroscientists around the world. Berman uses the system herself on a daily basis to keep her own brain as healthy, engaged, and challenged as possible!
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Early Bird Registration for PuzzleArt Therapy Training Ends Today!
Hi everyone, The next PuzzleArt Therapy training is June 8th, but early bird registration ends today, Friday, May 30th! Lock in your price at $245 for a full day of hands-on training that you can use the very next day. After today, the full registration price will be $265. Train to improve 20 skills, including: • Memory • Near / Far Focus • Oculomotor • Peripheral Vision • Sensory PuzzleArt Protocol • Spatial Relationships • Visual: Closure, Discrimination, Figure /Ground, Perception • Visualization • Amblyopia / Suppression • Bilateral Integration • Binocular Skills • Cognitive and Problem-Solving Skills • Creativity • Directionality • Gross + Fine Motor • Letter + Word Recognition Register today! Alli Berman
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Come see me at PuzzleArt Therapy Training Next Sunday!
Hi everyone, Our next PuzzleArt Therapy training will be next Sunday, June 8th, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Come see me in action! Here\’s my bio below: PuzzleArtist Alli Berman, PAT Artist, Author and Educator for 36 years, Berman created her interactive PuzzleArt™ concept to help others. Founder of Anti-Aging Art and Brain Fitness Art. Thousands benefit from her arts, professional development, creativity and ed- ucational programs. Berman’s art is exhibited in museums, galleries and corporate + private collections worldwide. BA/Edu + BA/Art Stony Brook Univ, MS/Abt Pratt Institute. See you soon! Alli Berman
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