Brainergy - Optimal Learning

A Personal Statement from Gessner Geyer

Welcome. This web site represents only a few aspects of my nearly dozen years studying and teaching about the functions and marvels of the human brain. As with our brains during every moment of our lives, this web presence is a work in progress. It is a snapshot of a journey. I hope it provides you with some useful and inspiring information about how your brain works, learns, and thrives. Whether you are an educator, a parent, a student, a health care professional, a corporate manager, or simply a curious individual who wishes to learn more about the most complex mass of organic tissue in the known universe, this web site can help you find practical ways to improve the function of your brain and to enjoy your brain more. We all have heard the phrase "use it or lose it." But it is just as important for us to understand that when we choose to use our brains in personally meaningful and challenging ways, that our lives become more joyful.

I also hope this site provides you with opportunities to experience the wonders of your own brain. Information is useful; but information coupled with conscious application is transformative. Years ago when I first started my consulting company, Brainergy,Inc., I was captivated by the biological fact of neural plasticity. Neural plasticity is a term used by brain researchers and neuroscientists to describe the phenomenon that brain cells, or neurons, can change shape, size, chemistry, or even function as a result of metabolic processesses or use. Neurons are the biological units of thought and learning. The fact that the human brain grows and changes in response to new learning and experience throughout the human life span is the basis of all my work (now it is accepted as a biological fact, when I began Brainergy it was a partially substantiated theory). Your brain and mine thrive on stimulation, challenge, change, appreciation, harmonious social interaction, genuine repose, and autonomous inquiry. It turns out that our brains are biologically designed for lifelong learning and problem solving. Research in gerontology, cognitive psychology, and behavioral medicine shows lifestyle habits of lifelong learning and mental activity not only promote optimal brain function, but also promote happiness and personal fulfillment. Our behaviors shape our brains and our brains influence our behaviors. Therefore I like to think of myself as a teacher of healthy brain behaviors that promote learning, curiosity, creativity, meaning-making, well-being and wisdom-building.

At first I began working only with seniors in retirement homes and assisted living facilities because my wife and I believed, the 'elderly' were being needlessly relegated to a place of social irrelevance and disuse. Since then I have also begun to work with educators, corporate trainers, psychologists and other health care professionals, human resource directors, life coaches, and yoga teachers. But the premise of my work has never changed; humans have a much greater degree of autonomy and influence over how well we feed and care for our brains than most of us realize. If we can learn how to strengthen and nourish the integrity of our central nervous systems (of which our brain is the primary structure), then we are better equipped to fulfill our dreams and our duties.

I say this is a journey, and on every worthwhile journey something worthwhile is learned. What I have learned, I have learned mostly by listening to my students. We all wish to make manifest our own unique talents, to merge and connect with others, and to be made whole. Believe it or not, the neurophysiological design of the human brain is organized precisely to help each of us do just that. I also have learned that the longest journey in life (for some of us) is from the head to the heart (to quote from Gary Zukav), and that whatever knowledge I am able to share about brain function and brain health is best taught in the framework of our universal pursuit for personal meaning. This is because our brain, no matter how remarkable it is as an information processor or miracle of neurophysiology, is ultimately a meaning-making organ. I would like to thank the thousands of students I have taught for having the collective and individual wisdom to help teach me that important lesson, and also I would like to thank the many wise, humane, and dedicated professors and researchers who have helped me develop my thinking and understanding about the brain's role in making our lives more meaningful. Therefore, as both teacher and student, I invite you to partake of what this site has to offer, and to let me know what you need to know, and in this manner I hope we can co-construct some helpful, useful truths on this web work progress.