Welcome to Week 7 - the Finale of High-Octane Brain Fitness! THANK YOU for your feedback on all of the previous weeks! The Week 7 Finale focuses on reviewing the previous content, sharing personalized High-Octane Brain Gain Dashboards with each member, celebrating member graduations, and inspiring momentum for the continued journey of brain health! 

This week is also a perfect time to document the sense of community and excitement that members are experiencing, especially in the context of the joy of graduation! Throughout the program, pictures and testimonials from previous members have been very key in connecting to current members and sharing peer perspectives and encouragement. Please invite members to have their picture taken together after they are presented with their graduation certificates, with the “health” pose, which has become a signature pose for the program (arm/arms up at the sides making a muscle pose, which we use to visually communicate the word “health” as in “brain health,” as shown in the facilitator PDF). 

Of course, if there are any members who prefer not to have their picture shared, that is completely fine! But if members are open to it, and you could snap some pictures (or videos) with your phone or a camera during/after the graduation and when they are listening (and perhaps dancing to!) the final version of High-Octane Calypso (which they will hear in its entirety this week), and email or upload them to me, that would be fantastic and deeply appreciated by me and by future members! There is a bit more unscheduled time this week to give members a chance to connect with one another after the class, and hopefully identify some friends or an accountability partner to check in with as they continue their brain health journeys!

• PRINT COLOR WORKBOOK PAGES FOR EACH MEMBER (see “Workbook” button on “Facilitator Home” page)

• PRINT GRADUATION CERTIFICATE FOR EACH MEMBER

• PRINT High-Octane Brain Gains Dashboard for each member (these will be uploaded by the weekend of 12/6)

• Bring pencils for each participant (in case they do not bring a writing utensil).

• Note that you’ll be collecting the Weekly Movement with Joy minutes and a Post-Course Survey from each member

Since the journey of brain health truly requires long term engagement to attain the Optimal/High-Octane Trajectory, I’m excited to be providing continued support and content through monthly High-Octane Brain Fitness LIVE With Dr. Michelle sessions, which will be held via Zoom for 1 hour on the last Friday of each month, from 12-1 pm CST (1-2 pm EST) in the same Zoom room we’ve used for the duration of the program. Importantly, since community is a core part of the program, each session will be held in group format, on site, with facilitators, just like the weekly classes during the program have been (in other words, members are not able to join individually from their home or outside of the group). Each monthly booster session will include:

1. A brain health lesson that is tied to the EXCELS Foundation, with a seasonal theme

2. A socially-based cognitive exercise(ThriveTogether Circle)

3. Question & Answer

4. MIND Diet seasonal recipe

The dates and topics for the First Quarter of 2026 are listed below:

1. Friday, January 30, 2026: Ignite Your Inner Spark

2. Friday, February 27, 2026: Heart & Brain Harmony

3. Friday, March 27, 2026: Spring Into Momentum!

BEFORE CLASS (4 MIN)

• Greet Members 

• Play “High-Octane Calypso” as light background music to familiarize Members with it (they do not need to learn lyrics at this point).

WELCOME & CHECK-IN (4 MIN)

• (2 min) Ask Members if they have any questions or insights since Week 6. Perhaps they want to share what they learned about sleep in the past week?  

• (2 min) Ask Members to hand in their “Movement with Joy” Turn-In page from Week 6 (where they again totalled their weekly Movement with Joy minutes).