Hello , how have you been getting on the last couple of weeks? Happily, over here we are all more or less recovered now from Covid and back on track, and I'm beginning to really enjoy this beautiful place.
This time I am saying a little bit about how the brain changes in response to experience, sharing a couple of really interesting and useful books and another research report, all
in the hope of whetting your appetite to explore further and see how all this can really make a difference to your life.
Change and neuroplasticity
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Last time I told you about the Neuroscience (NS), of the neuron, basically our brain cells, and how signals travel across the tiny gap between them at the
synapse. Remember there are about 86 billion of these neurons, each of which can connect to lots of others. It's been estimated that the total number of connections is about 100 TRILLION. We can hardly imagine such a huge number. It makes me awestruck at what this means for the infinite potential of every human being.
Here's a link to a video that gives you an idea of how this looks. (And this is only a mouse's brain!)
So, practically, what difference does this make to you? Well, every thought, feeling or experience you have happens ultimately at the synapse, where neurons connect. And the more they connect, the more easily they fire next
time. Neuroplasticity basically means, how neurons and their connection grow and change in response to use. This is how we get habits, and many of them are useful. For example if you had to think about every step of brushing your teeth in the mornings, you'd be late for work every time. It's an automated behaviour that saves your mental energy for more useful things. However, we all have habits that we'd like to stop or start, and this is where we can use the idea of
neuroplasticity.
Sarah McKay shows us how to maximise our chances of embedding a change we want to make - a new behaviour or habit, let's say, perhaps, learning to play the piano. This is her REFIRE process which leads to REWIRE,
- R for REASON: Why do you want to do this? If you're clear on why, you are more likely to succeed
- E for ENGAGE: Work with someone else to get their feedback and take it on board (in this respect two heads really are better than one, as you can look at what you're doing more objectively than by yourself
- F for FEEL: Get into your sweet spot, or flow state between too much challenge and not enough. This is where the brain learns. Notice small improvements
- I for IMAGINE: Thinking and doing are the same in the brain, which is why visualisation works - here's a brilliant link to show you in detail how to do this
- R for REPEAT: It's been said that neurons that fire
together, wire together; the more you repeat an action, the more automated and habitual it becomes
- E for EGO: As you REFIRE, you are becoming someone different and your sense of yourself changes - notice how that shows up. To go back to the piano idea above, can you now say you are a musician?
I'll say more about all this over the coming weeks, especially how sleep underpins brain health, but for now this gives you a taste of what's possible.
You'll probably think of Ruby Wax just as an outrageous sort of comedian; she's also an Oxford graduate in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and wrote an excellent and very entertaining book about how
mindfulness changes the brain. Neuroplasticity in action, you could say. I'm re-reading it just now. It's a deceptively simple easy read and makes the whole subject very clear, with a lot of laughs along the way. It's called A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, and you can get it on my Amazon link as shown. Then there is Daniel Siegel, a major writer in the mindfulness field. He's a doctor, psychotherapist and scientist, and wrote a beautiful book called Mindsight; the new science of personal transformation. He's compassionate, humorous and engaging and I highly recommend it. Let me know if you take a look at these, and what you think! Be careful with your Zoom background! I do a lot of Zoom calls these days and, like many of us, I suspect, I like to have an attractive background for people to look at. But this
research report gives me pause... We are told that...'those with home backgrounds and novelty backgrounds were seen as significantly less trustworthy than those with backgrounds of plants, a bookcase, a blurred home, or a blank wall.' Is this because we might look less professional
if people can see into our actual homes? Or if we blur the background, are we hiding something? What's your favourite background? I think I'd better water my plants for next time!
What's going on at This Coaching Business
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- I'm available for new clients and my coaching packages are open again. See here for full details. Many combinations are possible, depending on what you need now. I usually work remotely these days, on Zoom or Google Meet, although if you are local it's often good to meet in person at least once. Please note I am in New
Zealand from January to April, and there is overlap mostly for early evening for the UK. (I don't work in the US or Canada.)
- Harrison Assessments is a comprehensive system which can investigate the whole of the employment life cycle and beyond, revealing 'deeply rooted insights that determine essential high performance traits and those that will accelerate or hinder performance related to specific positions. It reveals a person’s work preferences and behavioural competencies that pinpoint developmental opportunities and career planning to achieve personal satisfaction and measurable job performance'. I
now have a dedicated website and a new package in my Coaching Shop based on Harrison Assessments. And I've added one or two brochures in Dropbox to give you some idea of how beneficial this kind of coaching can be.
- I'm taking a course on
Fusion coaching just now, which looks at the integration of coaching and counselling. As Frances, the trainer, says, 'Sometimes we are in the ‘OK’ zone and sometimes we
slip into the ‘not OK’ zone. It's just part of dealing with the inevitable ups and downs of life'. This course will give me some additional skills in this area, so that I can provide more value. I'll let you know when it's complete and what it means for my services.
- From time to time I write for a couple of websites, such as the Life Coach Directory. You can access all the back issues of my updates, with different themes over the last few years, on my website. There are two
archives; one up to May 2018 (don't sign up for this one as it is archived, just view it) and one since then - when the world changed with GDPR!
- You can access the rest of
my website here, with various free goodies, especially the Personal Life Analysis, which gets you started with the best places to make changes in your life. You can use it as often as you want, perhaps to track your
changes over time. I'm aware that there was an issue with the graphic displaying. This has now been fixed, so do have another go if this affected you.
I always do a free 15-30 minute intro online call to make sure coaching is right for you before starting work with you. You can check my availability on the button below. (If it isn't right for you I'll try to signpost you to something that is.) And if you can't see a suitable time, contact me anyway and I'll
find one for you. Important - please don't phone me on your ordinary mobile line between now and April while I am in NZ as it will probably cost you a fortune!! Email or What's App instead! I won't have voicemail on, for the same reason.
That's it for now, - have a great weekend. I'll be in touch again in a couple of weeks or so, All best wishes, Barbara
P.S. if you like this update and you got it elsewhere, you
can get your own personal regular copy by subscribing safely here. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think may like it; just keep the attribution to me. You also get a free email course on sign up that will help you increase your well being, effectiveness and resilience. |