Training the Brain

Revo Consultant recently launched its very first online learning programme via Teachable.com and I thought I would share some of the week 1 learnings here - getting the programme completed has certainly taken me out of my comfort zone, but I have LOVED stretching myself these past 4 weeks and I got to practice some key resilience factors - vulnerability, self-acceptance and empathy!

In week 1 of the curriculum, I started off by laying the foundations with a focus on the Science of Emotions, where we talk all about brain chemistry. I believe that if we want to improve something we really need to understand the mechanics behind it so this first week is included as a crucial part of the course curriculum (and because I am super fascinated with neuroscience!!) Its not all theory though as I included a great activity that I only recently discovered for myself as a great way to 'train the brain' (i.e. prime it)!!

As part of this first week the students get to complete a fun, creative activity to train the brain for resilience - an opportunity to get out of the "thinking" brain and into the "creative" brain. I included this activity after only recently creating one for myself on another project and found it to be super rewarding and insightful! The task was to create a visual Resilience Inspiration Board as a way for each student to identify with what resilience means and to imprint that as a visual trigger or reminder. Much like we might go to the gym and train our muscles or train our level of fitness, there are many ways we can train the brain. Creating a visual trigger / anchor is just one of them.

As part of this lesson on The Science of Emotions, I share the basics of neuroscience covering how the brain 'tags' events as either positive or negative, as either risky or rewarding via the Reticular Activating System or the RAS, which is connected to the cortex or the thinking brain. Its the gatekeeper of all the information that is brought to our conscious mind and I for one am super grateful for this function because without it we would all walk around in a constant state of surprise and overwhelm.

The downside is - the RAS decides what is going to be brought to your attention. It takes what you focus on and creates a filter based on all of the programming that you've had in your lifetime and sift for pieces of information that are important for YOU.

We end the science lesson understanding how and why the way we feel about an event determines our decisions and behaviours. With this knowledge and knowing what we do about how the brain likes to filter things, week 1 highlights how by doing certain things we can train the brain for more conscious and productive responses, for example, resilience.

Getting clear on our values, beliefs, emotions, needs and desires is fundamental to the process of being able to respond more intentionally rather than just reacting to the stimuli that floods our attention on a day to day basis. Think of this clarity as a marinate for the brain - it helps to prime the RAS with information that is rewarding and meaningful to each of us as individuals.

So the "Resilience Inspiration Board" is practical activity that gives the students the opportunity to get out of their thinking brain for a bit. Rather than it be a theoretical parrot fashion dictionary definition understanding of resilience, creating these boards really helps to clarify the meaning of resilience at a very personal level. Not only does the activity tap into creativity, but it really boosts self awareness in terms of how resilience might show up for each student. The visual imagery then becomes the data or pieces of information that prime the brain for resilience - and act as anchors to the experience of resilience.

In addition to consciously focusing on these symbolic anchors as part of training the brain for resilience the first week also sets the foundation for developing attention. When we develop attention, we are literally moving towards something. Research shows that 47% of the time our mind & thoughts are actually wandering. Think of it as the brain being in a bit of a time travel - into the future or into the past. As we learn in Week 1 of Let's Build Resilience, the brain has 1 job - to look after our survival, in other words, it is pre-programmed to look for the risky / dangerous 'saber tooth tiger'. So most of this time spent in the time-travel-mind-space the brain is primed for an unproductive / negative pattern of thinking and behaviour. Mind travelling into the future or past we are also not 'living in the moment' - we are not paying attention.

Priming the brain to choose meaningful, rewarding and positive 'data' and training the mind to be focused and mindful are key themes that run throughout the 4 weeks of this course. They are key factors in being able to develop and nurture resilience, and it all starts with a lesson in the Science behind Emotions and a creative activity to meaningfully identify (articulate) what resilience means!

I loved creating my Resilience Inspiration Board (see image above) as part of my own preparation for facilitating this lesson! I'm no artist, but I am particularly proud of the way it turned out - what do you think?

Alison