Imagine you’re in the groove—ideas flow, obstacles dissolve, everything clicks—all the time. Most of us have been there at least once in our lives: our flow state, where everything seems to effortlessly fall into place and your mind creatively works to build cohesion among all factors of the environment (both internal and external). It’s a marvelous place to be. Some psychologists say it’s the key to a happy life.
What if we told you that there’s a way to put yourself in a flow state at will? It’s easy to imagine how much more productive, effective, and content you would be in every part of your life. Well, there is a type of brain exercise you can do that can get you there if you practice it regularly.
Strengthening the Brain Bridge
We know that the brain is separated into two halves (hemispheres) and that each area is primarily responsible for certain functions. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. The halves are connected at “the midline” primarily by a thick bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum, the vehicle by which a constant stream of information crosses between the left and right brains.
Some of the body’s functions are stimulated in both hemispheres (with one side predominant) and some in only one. For those functions that are bilateral, it therefore makes sense that the stronger the communication between the hemispheres, the better your brain will perform. This is known as “cross-crawl”.
Certain physical activities like crawling, swimming, and walking force the halves of the brain to work together toward a common goal; an example is moving your left leg and right arm at the same time while walking. Regularly exercising this type of cross-brain activity has been found to improve attention, concentration, and brain processing speed. It does this by stimulating neurotransmitters to move back and forth between the hemispheres.
Link Between Cross-lateral Physical Activity and Mental Function
Carla Hannaford, PhD is a biologist, neurophysiologist, educator, and learning consultant. She explores the scientific evidence that movement is critical to learning in her book Smart Moves – Why Learning is not All in Your Head:
“Cross-lateral movements, like a baby’s crawling, activate both hemispheres in a balanced way. These activities work both sides of the body evenly and involve coordinated movements of both eyes, both ears, both hands and both feet as well as balanced core muscles. When both eyes, both ears, both hands and feet are being used equally, the corpus callosum orchestrating these processes between the two hemispheres becomes more fully developed. Because both hemispheres and all four lobes are activated, cognitive function is heightened and ease of learning increases.”
In Smart Moves, Dr. Hannaford describes a case study in cross-crawl with a student she calls Todd. At sixteen years old, Todd couldn’t read and his physical co-ordination was difficult. This was heartbreaking for Todd’s family because he was an intelligent boy whose future options were severely diminished by his inability to read. Todd’s parents learned about Hannaford’s “Brain Gym” and cross-crawl exercises and began to perform them twice a day as a family. The results were nothing short of astounding: in six weeks, Todd was reading at grade level! Furthermore, Todd joined the basketball team (he couldn’t dribble a ball before he started brain exercises!) and went on to graduate from college with a degree in biology.
This story provides evidence to the theory that not only is physical movement directly related to mental/cognitive ability but that improving cross-lateral communication between brain hemispheres has a profound effect on even the most basic body functions at any age. We can no longer consider the mind as separate from the body, as Hannaford finds:
“Through the advances of science we are realizing the importance of whole body/mind integration and the effect of coherent functioning not only on learning and memory, but also on all the people we come in contact with, and on the world at large…we are finally coming to grasp that movement and sensory experiences are the fertile soil for continual brain development and growth for a lifetime—and that these experiences actually cause the brain to constantly transform itself in unimaginably plastic ways.”
“Plasticity” is used to describe the brain’s ability to learn and create new neural p