NEUROSCIENCE IN OUR DIALY LIFE …

 NEUROSCIENCE IN OUR DIALY LIFE …

3 KEY PARTS OF OUR BRAIN.

When practicing mindfulness, the muscles relax, the nervous system balances, and hormones and neurotransmitters are released. This allows the brain to react rationally, think logically, and maintain focused attention, while also positively affecting people's mood.

Here’s a brief introduction from neuroscience about how brains works and how mindfulness influences our daily lives.

The brain serves as a guide to understand how we learn and behave. Its the place where our emotions and motivations are controlled. There are three fundamental parts of the brain involved in receiving, using, and storing information (memory). Each part is linked to a main function. And their functioning is closely related to our emotional state, our levels of stress and anxiety:

THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX (PFC) [THINKING].
Enables us to make rational decisions, perform calculations, solve problems, and focus our attention. The PFC passes information that needs to be stored/remembered to the hippocampus. However, the PFC only receives information when the amygdala is relaxed.

THE AMYGDALA, or "security guard". [EMOTIONS]
Regulates our emotional state and protects us from threats. It regulates and blocks information going to the PFC. Since it does not differentiate between a stressful situation and a true emergency, it can react quickly to fear, threats, and danger, leading to emotions such as fear, anger, or anger.


THE HIPPOCAMPUS. [MEMORIES]
creates, stores, and processes important memories and information from daily life. It acts as a large storage chamber for memory and learning. It also assists in managing responses to fear and threats.

When a person is relaxed and/or in a positive emotional state, information can flow through the brain in a rational and conscious manner. Conversely, when a person is in a negative emotional state (stress, anxiety, fear), information does not pass through the brain correctly, blocking higher-level thinking and rational decision-making. In this way, incoming stimuli and signals are handled by the amygdala as an automatic reflex response of 'fight, flight, or freeze.'


MINDFULNESS IN THE CLASSROOM...

Short mindful games and activities before and after the classes can make the difference between stressed minds and happy and focused kids.

Which mindful skills do you practice at home or at the classroom to maintain a healthy emotional state?

LAND ART & ENVIRONMENT

During this 3 days workshop, we explored the use of natural and recycled materials to create a mixed-media artwork.

We took the time to reflect and express concerns about the protection of our environment. 

Hong Kong. March 2024

HAPPY CRAZY FEET / Footprint Workshop

 A workshop full of fun and happiness ... please watch the video :

Leaving life prints ...

ART - MINDFULNESS - COMMUNICATION

In a way or another we leave different kind of prints along our lifes.

Hands representations and prints have been one of the oldest ways of art expression, being the hands prints on rocks maybe the earliest samples of art, dating of around 200,000. Even if print making has evolved with time and has been present in all cultures and times, today we still enjoy the simple way to represent and reproduce images coming from our hands, our feet or other parts of our bodies.

Here kids enjoy outlining, drawing, decorating hands and feet; making hands and foot prints at same time we play, we laugh, we explore materials and techniques.  But also we focus our mind, we breath with awareness so our body can keep still allowing us to make beautiful prints full of colour and joy.

A tricky Tree pose. Here is not only a mater of improving balance and toning the legs but about breathing with awareness son our body keep steady, our foot stay on place, we count to 10 and the print is done!

After a tiring day, have you tried to lie on your back, raise your legs and lean them against the wall? And if we add to that some circles with the feet, ah, what a rest ... This stimulates circulation, allowing the blood to go to main organs such as the heart and the brain, balancing the nervous system bringing stress relief … doing this before going to bed allow us a better quality of sleep.

We learn also that we can do every thing in its due time.  There is a time to work, a time to play, a time to pay attention and a time to be calm with ourselves, so important today in our busy lifestyle.  

Using hands and feet prints as a tool to improve a second language communication. 

Exploring with different techniques (ink, pastel, acrylic, watercolour) and supports ...

We bring awareness to the body, we connect to breath to relax and calm the mind. 

Time to be with ourselves in a safe space, our inner space. 

2022 ... ART & MINDFULNESS HIGHLIGHTS !

 2022 ... some highlights of our projects during our Art and Art & Mindfulness classes !

Mindfulness For Kids & Teens

 

Mindfulness sessions for kids and teens.

Aims to:

- Develop self awareness, self care.

- Promote wellbeing.

- Help to manage and reduce stress and anxiety.

- Create mindfulness practices to use throughout the school and homework time.

- Learn healthy habits.

- Improve communication.

- Deepen relationships with relatives and classmates.

The sessions can include:

Games.

Chanting.

Stretching and exercising.

Relaxation.

Art and Crafts.

Journaling.

Breathing exercises.

Focusing the mind.

Kids will get a good amount of tools like breathing exercises; relaxation or focusing the mind during the classes which, can easily be used at home.

Group and One to One Sessions Available

Art - Feelings – Mindfulness

            

Art - Feelings - Mindfulness

And the connections between Brain – Language - Body

Kids 4 - 8yrs

Art is a good tool for expressing feelings and a deep form of communication. It helps consciously or unconsciously to reach emotions such as frustration, anger, sadness and get them released. Art helps healing those emotions and help in preventing and healing stress, anxiety and depression.

We learn little by little to feel the body and mental needs when practicing mindfulness. In turn art is a strong tool for mindfulness. Both helps in boosting self-confidence.

We have being living difficult times during the last years due to Covid. Strict sanitary measures and the virus in itself have provoked lot of stress and distress in thousand of peoples in the world. Hong kong has experienced one of the strictest measures with schools, parks and sport facilities closed several times for months each time thus kids have been forced to stay for long periods indoors. Measures have been easing little by little recently and finally we can come back to classes. I though it would be a good idea to dedicate the first classes to talk and express feelings and emotions. Trying to create connections between brain-language-body to release tensions, stress at same time we reflect, we put words, colours and strokes on it.

                                                                                   

Kids often hide their feelings and emotions. It is easy to find kids thinking that some feelings are bad or abnormal so they prefer not to talk about and keep them well inside them.

During our the recent sessions the kids are asked to think about different feelings, those they like and those they dislike. We attribute them a main colour, a stroke, a shape to each of them to represent them in an expressive and abstract way. We liberate the world, we release tensions, gain self-confidence and stimulates our HAPPINESS hormones !

A (4.5yrs) represented her mum's belly while pregnant of her bigger sister !! That's pure love!

Mindfulheads - Mindfulness for kids and teens

The aims of these sessions are:

- Develop self awareness and self care.

- Promote wellbeing.

- Help to manage and reduce stress and anxiety.

- Create mindfulness practices to use throughout the school and homework time.

- Learn healthy habits.

- Improve communication.

- Deepen relationships with relatives and classmates.

The sessions can include:

- Activities / games to focus the mind.

- Singing.

- Stretching and exercising.

- Art and Crafts.

- Journaling.

- Breathing and relaxation exercises.