Alecia, 22, was a very bright young college student, but she was no longer performing up to her potential. She was having trouble thinking clearly, problems with goal setting, and difficulty staying organized. She also felt like she didn’t have enough energy, was prone to angry outbursts, and spent money foolishly. It got so bad she had to drop out of school.
What was Alecia’s problem?
To find out, Alecia’s parents took their daughter for a brain scan, which revealed marked decreased activity in her prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes. The problems, it turned out, stemmed from an accident she’d had a year earlier when she tripped and fell face first on a slick, rain-soaked ramp at college. The fall had caused a traumatic brain injury even though she never passed out. Based on the brain scan, Alecia was given a treatment plan targeted to help heal and balance her brain and eventually returned to school where she excelled.
But what would have happened if she hadn’t gotten that brain scan?
The #1 Key to Optimal Performance—Your Brain
If you want to perform at your peak level at work, in school, or on the playing field, you need a healthy brain. Your brain is involved in everything you do and everything you are, including how you think, feel, act, and interact with others. Your brain is the organ of learning, communicating, personality, character, and every decision you make.
When your brain works right, you work right—whether we’re talking about work, school, sports, relationships, money, health, or anything else. Likewise, when your brain is troubled for whatever reason, you are much more likely to have trouble in your life.
How Can You Know Unless You Look?
The problem is no one ever looks at your brain. If you go to the doctor with crushing chest pain, they’ll scan your heart. But if you have crushing sadness, no one will scan your brain.
This needs to change. Brain imaging technology called SPECT measures blood flow and activity in the brain and can reveal areas of the brain with healthy activity, too much activity, or not enough activity. With this knowledge, you can get personalized strategies to balance brain activity for next-level performance.
Here’s what SPECT brain scans show about some of the most common issues that could be impacting your performance.
Acting Impulsively
Routinely acting impulsively without considering the consequences or taking uncalculated risks can get you into hot water and cause losses for you and your organization.
SPECT findings: Impulsivity is often associated with low activity in the brain’s frontal lobes. In some people, it is associated with ADD/ADHD.
Getting Stuck in Your Ways
Falling into a rut can prevent you from staying up to date in terms of skills and trends. When you’re stuck in outdated thinking patterns, it stunts creativity and innovation.
SPECT findings: Too much activity in the brain’s frontal lobes is commonly seen in people who tend to get stuck, have looping thoughts, or compulsive behaviors. In severe cases, it is linked to obsessive compulsive disorder.
Anger/Mood Issues
How can you expect to perform your best when you feel mad, sad, or anxious? These issues can rob your motivation, drain your energy, and sideline your ability to focus on your goals.
SPECT findings: Anger and aggression are often linked to damage in the temporal lobes. People who have low moods or depression often have increased activity in the brain’s limbic system, and those with high anxiety tend to have too much activity in the basal ganglia, insular cortex, and amygdala.
Relationship Problems
There’s no way to be operating at full capacity if you’re constantly butting heads with your colleagues, classmates, or teammates. And relationship problems at home can spill over into the mindset you take to the office, classroom, or playing field and throw you off your game.
SPECT findings: Having trouble getting along with others can be associated with a variety of brain issues. Low activity in the frontal lobes can make you blurt out hurtful things. Too much activity in this area can make you argumentative and prone to pointing out what you don’t like about others. Abnormal activity in the temporal lobes can make you tend to have temper problems. All of these things can make it hard for you to maintain personal and professional relationships.
Disorganization
How can you hit your deadlines and do your best work when you can’t find your files, lose your phone with all your contacts, and miss important meetings because you put a reminder on a sticky note that’s now under a pile of stuff?
SPECT findings: Decreased activity in the frontal lobes is commonly seen in people who are disorganized and those who have ADD/ADHD.
Memory Issues
You can’t be your best if you can’t remember due dates, upcoming appointments, people’s names, or your team’s playbook.
SPECT findings: A number of brain issues can be associated with memory problems, including overall low blood flow, a toxic-looking brain, or damage from a traumatic brain injury.
Seeing is believing. When you see on SPECT scans that your brain is troubled, it gives you a blueprint to finding the right strategies to balance it. And when you optimize your brain function, you optimize your ability to perform at your very best. Get your brain right and it will be much easier for you to be at the top of your game in every area of your life.
At Amen Clinics, we utilize brain SPECT imaging to help people see what’s happening in their brain that is keeping them from performing at peak levels. We have helped thousands of CEOs, executives, entertainers, influencers, professional and college athletes, and students optimize their brain health and enhance their performance in everything they do.
If your performance at work, in school, or on the field is holding you back, finding the root cause is the first step to turning things around. Call 888-288-9834 today to speak to a specialist about getting a brain scan as part of a complete evaluation or schedule a visit online.
Good evening, do you have any medical practitioners who are qualified/experienced in SPECT in South Africa? I live in Cape Town, South Africa
Regards
Garnet Titus
Comment by Garnet Titus — June 19, 2019 @ 8:53 AM
Do you have any offices in Maine!
Comment by Beth — June 26, 2019 @ 2:12 AM
what is the cost again if I come to Atlanta clinic some day?
Comment by CHRISTINE MILLION — June 26, 2019 @ 7:19 AM
Please wont you open a clinic in Boston or have practitioners that are able to do all you would offer. Many would be willing to travel to get a scan but then if you have very specific practitioners in Boston who could work as you all would, offering all the interventions you would offer for your clients based on their scans it might work very well!
Thanks!
Comment by Dorie — June 26, 2019 @ 8:55 AM
I developed Epilepsy at age 40, same age my father was when he developed this gift”hahaha” he passed away 3 years later from it. I’m 46 now .Many EEGs and MRIs. Last MRI showed Parenchymal Volume loss, which I was told was in the normal range for my age and head trauma from seizures and growing up as an extremist. “Motorcross and football” my Memory is shot, I go from happy/normal to aggressive really quick, if not for my girlfriend I would never make it to any Dr. Appointments. Iss this something that would help me understand and resolve what’s going on in my brain?
Comment by Michael T Hudson — June 26, 2019 @ 8:59 AM
Do you have any offices in New Hampshire , Maine, or Mass .IF not what would be your closest to NH!! Please help !!! Thank-you I am. more then willing to but the work in to get better. We are on a limited income but do have insurance. Thank-you for giving so many their lives back. May our gracious lord continue to bless and guide you in your work. thank-you Cheryl
Comment by cheryl Peavey — June 27, 2019 @ 4:47 AM
All these articles do it talk about identifying the problem. None of them talk about how to FIX it! We had the brain scan and almost all things in this article were identified, but NO solution was given! More of the same we had prior to the scan. What fixes these problems is what we want to read about, and know!
Comment by Linda — August 29, 2023 @ 7:11 AM
Linda — Please email me at 3funlife@gmail.com would like to learn more
Comment by John Axtell — August 29, 2023 @ 11:37 AM