Sunday, October 05, 2014

Do you struggle with reading and learning? Maybe this is why...



More has been learned about the human brain in the last 15 years than at any other time in history.  And what we have learned could revolutionize the education system – but not yet!

However, let’s talk a little more about YOUR brain so you can tap into your real learning power and be one of the few who has.  

The brain is an incredibly complex, and capable piece of equipment - but it comes without an owner’s manual.  Rarely are we told how it works and how to get the most out of it.  So I’d like to do that now.

The first surprise is that the brain is really split into 3 chunks.  Maybe you’ve noticed my logo.



OK so we’ve got 2 components to the brain.  At the base of the skill you have this chunk.  This is the reptilian part of the brain, the oldest prehistoric area.  Keeps you breathing and your heart beating.  When this part of the brain is under stress, what do you think it does?  That's right - it retreats and withdraws in fear.

Now when a reptile is super happy, what does it do?   It basks!  So the reptile brain is in charge of the physical body, especially fight or flight and physical safety.  It’s also territorial, so it monitors your safety zone of proximity and gets jumpy when people get in too close – know what I mean?  Now if you don't feel physically safe, how well do you learn?  Exactly - so we need a happy, basking reptilian brain in order to learn. Yes?

Now the next part of the brain you need to learn about, is the mammalian part of the brain. This is the part that handled hormones, immune system and long term memory.  Also the emotions – which explains why emotions and memory are so closely linked.  You remember the memories that have emotions in them.   Like the first time you did anything.  Your first kiss for example.

Now what does the mammal do if it's unhappy?  It growls and bares its teeth and claws.  

Now the mammalian part of the brain is said to be in charge or the emotional body and emotional safety.  When it's happy, it's very much connected to the physical body.  And what sound does a happy mammal make?  A contented purr...

So the ideal learning state is to have a happy reptile and a happy mammal, which looks like?  Now every human being has a reptilian part, and a mammalian part, so in order to learn well you have to create physical safety, and emotional calmness.  I love this phrase:

Know relaxation, know learning

If you want to be a good student, and you are good students - are you not, then you need to be safe and calm.  Also if you want to teach well, you need the same state

Now there's another chunk of the brain that you probably know, where the brain is split into 2 hemispheres - the left side and the right side
LHS – speech, logic, numbers
RHS - Melody, patterns, intuition
To be honest this model is a little bit out of date, but it still is a useful way to think about it, ok?  So this represents the right hemisphere of the brain – stand on the right – and this thinking cap represents the left hemisphere.   What we have is a well-connected brain.  The most creative people have a beautiful communication between BOTH hemispheres of the brain.  Not just right brain.  Extremely analytic and extremely creative at the same time.

So if we have a happy reptile, and a happy mammal, then the L and R hemispheres will talk to each other.  If I have an unhappy reptile and an unhappy mammal, then these 2 don’t talk to each other – they sort of turn away.

If you’re right brain dominant, you tend to attack inwardly and at self – fume and stew and huff.  Feel bad, pout, cry, and behaviours that bring them down.  If you’re left brain dominant they will attack outwardly at other people – anger, rage, shouting and hitting.  Show up late and on purpose.  So if you see these behaviours then you know what’s going on.

So what do we need to do?  Get them physically safe, emotionally safe

Then there’s the third and final chunk.  The 100 billion brain cells that make up the capacity of the brain.  Let’s put that in perspective – as you grew in the womb, as a 12 week old embryo you were developing 2000 brain cells a second!  An adult bee, by comparison, has 7000 brain cells TOTAL.

Now let’s introduce the conscious mind 
And here we have the unconscious mind 
Now, I want you to know that you have access to all the resources of the brain.  And un-conscious isn’t really an accurate name.  There’s no part that’s UN conscious.  You may have learned to not direct your attention to the uncon mind - You’d be too powerful!  So the western world teaches you consciously – verbal. 2% of the brain size.  The database of the conscious is outnumbered 10 billion to one.

Now all learning, all change and all behaviour is Unconscious.  As an educator, which part of them should I be teaching?  Who’s really in charge?  The UN conscious is 10 billion times bigger than the conscious mind.  Do I really care about the conscious mind?  A little bit, not all that much

How do you get messages from your unconscious mind?
Emotions
Intuitions.
Hunches
Physical sensations
Dreams
And when do we tend to get those signals usually?  When we’re relaxed, trance – drifting off to sleep, just after we’ve woken up.  When we do meditation, or visualisation – we’re connecting directly to the other than conscious mind.  

So meanwhile we have a happy reptile brain – bask for me.  Bask!
We have the happy mammal – purring.  Purr for me.
We’ve got the communicating left and right hemisphere…
And as you can see… my mind is wandering

So to put all 3 chunks together – information coming in goes to the 2 hemispheres.  It acts like the switchboard, rerouting the information to the thinking brain.  But if you’re under stress, the reptilian brain shuts the switchboard down, and that’s when your mind gores blank.

Very often people, who have had a poor learning experience, feel unconsciously threatened by the thought of upcoming learning experiences in the future. It’s a vicious circle.  Because they feel they’re crap at learning, they feel stressed.  And that stress shuts off their ability to learn, and it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The secret is to get into a calm, positive state BEFORE you start learning, And then you can learn anything… as nature intended!

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