Today a friend told me that I tickle her brain. What a sweet and funny sentiment! It has occurred to me that it has taken me exactly 10 weeks to effect a change in one of my student’s lives. This certainly tickled my brain!

To put it all in context – I was teaching my adult ballet class and I always start by asking the ladies to speak about something that happened in the last class that has stuck with them for the week. I feel that this interlude brings their minds back to the dance studio and gets them remembering what we worked through the week prior and hopefully “gets their head in the game” before we begin the class. It always surprises me what is meaningful to my students and also what has stuck!

The surprising thing that was brought up this week was our discussion last week about how exercise can actually fight debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s. There is a good article about this subject by US News. Another of the ladies said she has been struggling to get her legs to do the correct exercises at the ballet barre and last week she stopped focusing on her legs and focused on her posture and body structure. Her big surprise was that when she shifted the focus off the legs onto her body – her legs suddenly started doing exactly what she wanted them to do. Again the brain is an amazing machine!

Just to keep my ladies going I promised that I would stop teaching them about their brains and teach them about balance and core body strength. I am just wondering how long it will take them to figure out that no matter what I teach them about their body – it always relates back to their brains! I guess they will figure it out when reading this blog! Just in case you want to know why you have a brain – I have found a TED Talk by Daniel Wolpert that explains it beautifully!