Movement of the Month

Hook-ups

The Hook-ups Brain Gym® integrative movement accesses the Cerebral Cortex of the 3 - Dimensional Brain. It is typically used in the Centering Dimension of the Brain Gym® Menu.

Keywords associated with the midbrain are; emotions, motivation, centering and organization.

It is the part of the brain responsible for:

• sexuality/hormones
• blood pressure, sugar level
• long term memory, emotions
• biorhythms, body temperature
• love, connection, and bonding
• fight or flight or freeze response

How to do Hook-ups:

Are you focused, organized, and able to concentrate on the task at hand, or are you easily distracted and unable to think?

Part one: Cross your ankles. Next, extend your arms in front of you and cross one wrist (on the same side as your top ankle) over the other; then interlace your fingers and draw your clasped hands up towards your chest.  Hold like this for a minute or more, breathing slowly, with your eyes closed and your tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth when you inhale.

Part two: When ready, uncross your arms and legs. Put your feet flat on the floor and put your fingertips together in front of your chest, continuing to breathe deeply for another minute while holding the tip of your mouth when you inhale.

Notice again your level of focus, organization and concentration.

What this looks like in day to day life?

• Assertiveness
• Accountability
• Positive Energy
• Setting Priorities
• Handling Rejection
• Handling Feedback
• Maintaining Enthusiasm
• Calmness and Self Control
• Setting and Meeting Goals
• Leaving Voice Mail Messages
• Maintaining a Sense of Humour
• Managing Constructive Feedback
• Data Entry with Speed, Accuracy and Comfort

Benefits of this Movement:

Doing the Energy Exercises and Deepening Attitudes activities helps build the movement map that provides tactile and kinesthetic awareness of the postural core.  Ideally, visual and auditory skills are built on the body’s proprioceptive movement map and the sensory skills that develop spatial exploration. When a learner is able to make a match between what he/she takes in through his/her senses and what he/she experiences kinesthetically, he/she can align his/her looking, listening and felling with his/her movement.  Without this congruency, conflicting sensory channels will make coordinated movement (and learning) difficult.

What Improves?

Emotional centering, grounding, organization, deeper respiration, inhibition of a hyper-arousal response, clear listening and speaking, test taking, and similar challenges, working on a keyboard, self control, sense of boundaries, enhanced balance and coordination, comfort in the environment (hypersensitivity).

History of Movement:

The late Wayne Cook, a pioneering researcher of bioenergetic force fields, developed Cook’s Hook-ups, the posture from which the Brain Gym® Hook-ups were adapted, as a way to counterbalance the negative effects of electromagnetic fields. Cook’s posture (with legs crossed) has the added benefit of relaxing the hip flexor muscles, while our version emphasizes balance.

To learn more about the Hook-ups and other Brain Gym® movements join us for one of our workshops, go to www.brainworksglobal.com  

Some "Movement of the Month" content is derived from the following publications, Brain Gym® for Business, Brain Gym®Teachers Edition and the Brain Gym®101 Manual.

Do not reproduce - Format © Brain Works Global Inc.2010