Mind Palace

“I wanted to! But I just can’t!”

Does this sound familiar? I guess a lot of parents and teachers are getting tired of listening to this kind of “excuses”.

Is it the laziness that your child does not put any effort in class? Or it’s because that your child was placed in the wrong school and in the wrong class? Or it’s caused by those bad teachers who don’t know how to get the child’s attention? Or even affected by other kids? Or is it because your child is lack of motivation as things just doesn’t seem right even they work for a longer period of time? Have you ever thought that are these really the factors contributing to the focus and concentration issues in your child?

It seems to be a trend that children nowadays are more restless and facing some attentional issues. Hence, it is very important to look at the person as a whole from different etiologies. Let’s look into some of the factors and solutions to overcome focus issues.

Sleep: A common issue that derived in current technology advanced world is that we do not get enough sleep. This is just like suffering from a brain injury that impairs the function of the brain. Try to think about the night you went to bed late, did you feel sluggish, lack of motivation, difficulty in remembering and focusing on things? We all know how important sleep is where previous research has also proven that sleep deprivation leads to impairment in memory, mood and even focus issues. Researchers had also found that higher cortisol levels impair cognitive function. Therefore, people who do not get enough sleep or people who suffer from any sleep disorder have increased stress hormones found in their bodies. In short, a good night sleep, including both sleep quality and quantity, plays a very important role for a focus mind. How can we measure good sleep quality? Surprisingly, our brainwaves indicating how well we rested and we can produce a certain type of brainwaves through brain trainer therapy.

Motor skills: Poor handwriting, difficulty grasping a pen or pencil correctly, or being clumsy can be indicative of hypotonia (low muscle tone). This neurological muscle disorder can make a child fatigue easily and make him or her facing difficulty in paying attention. Learning can never take place when a child is not attentive.  Hence, it is really important to look into the brain and train the motor cortex of the brain.

Nutrition and food intake: The nutrition level and food intake of our bodies are very important as food allergies or vitamins and minerals deficiencies can also lead to inattention issues. Do you know how important fish oils are to our brain? It’s the omega three fatty acids which function as the neurological building blocks for our brain. People with low omega three levels will always have the symptoms of dry skin, dry hair and excessive thirst. Nevertheless, most parents will ask, “Which brand of fish oil is better and how much shall we give to our child?”. A pharmaceutical grade fish oil with a ratio of 3:1 EPA to DHA is recommended and the recommended therapeutic dose for someone with focus issues is 3000 – 5000mg. In addition, protein creates the neurotransmitters that fire up the neurons in our brains and help us to focus better. I bet most parents would like to know how to determine whether their child is having sufficient nutrition level and toxins level by doing hair analysis testing (HTMA). Food allergies testing is recommended too to reduce stimulation that may affect one’s performance.

Whatever the reason for inattention, pharmacology intervention that may cause side-effects is not a long term solution, hence it is important to treat the person holistically. To gain a long lasting results, understanding the etiology is the key to treat the underlying cause, instead of just putting a Band-Aid on the symptom.

Brain Trainer: It is a non-invasive and non-side effect form of EEG biofeedback in which it exercises the brain that engages individual to actively participate by inhibiting excess amplitudes and increase connectivity in the brain. By learning how to create the desired brainwaves through operant conditioning techniques (through movie or games), a person can fire up new neuronal pathways and dissolve symptoms they seek for different treatment. This therefore facilities the brain to strengthen in its function depending on the location or area of the brain being trained. It has been proven to improve in attentiveness, sleep issues, memory, speech, behaviour and the results are long lasting.