Mind Boggling Coaching
So, as my son was wont to say: "What keeps you from falling back on the old hard-wiring?" It's not difficult to fall back. The wiring is still there. That is why anchoring, regular feedback and support and delayed feedback are so important. This is usually where coaching fits in nicely.The good news is pretty amazing. Remember in the first issue I stated that the neurons we don't use get eventually weeded out and removed by the brain? Well that is pretty much what happens. If you stick with the new map, and nurture and pay attention to it the brain weeds it out. In it's desire to cut down on competition for resources it does damage control and removes the unused portions.The role of the coach is pretty straight forward if any of this stuff means anything to you.1. Never give advice or solutionsI could never, in a million years, imagine what might be going on in your head and what would work for you. So what works for me and everyone else just ain't gonna work for you in the same way.2. Ask the right questionsDavid Rock's book is pretty straight forward on what questions to ask and when. They also tell you what you need to know to go on to the next step:creating an space where inspiration can occur then nurture it with dedication.I used to think that asking thinking questions so much would get people thinking I was crazy.Ah nope. People never get tired about being asked what they think. As I said before the brain LOVES a problem.3. Goal setting and supportYes setting goals is pretty darn important. Its a way to anchor and build in opportunities for delayed feedback.I once had a client say, "Oh Good! You can hold me accountable to this. Uh no. It's about you keeping it in your working memory and holding YOURSELF accountable. It's about creating and being responsible for your own hard-wiring. You can TELL me how it worked out but it's up to you to make it succeed.4. ResourcesI have Tons of resources for you to use. You can look at them and create what would work for you. Or they may create another insisght or moment of inspiration for you.Maybe you just don't have an idea about how to do something. Then resources are there for you to pick and choose from or again cause more inspiration.The only thing I ever strongly recommend, is to journal. It's one of the most powerful ways I know to keep an inspirational moment alive on a daily basis. Then you have a documented piece of that "moment it hit me".
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Mind Boggling Discoveries - Issue 4
So how does this all connect? LOLWell this angst is what drives us to create new maps. It's what causes us to seek to better ourselve and perhaps start looking for someone like myself: a Professional Coach.So what needs to be done? Well the first step is to become mindfully aware (this is where the meditation info fits in) of what it is we are experiencing. It's not the end of the world but a drive to do some new mapping.As a coach I get to ask the questions that focusses you on what really IS the problem. What REALLY is this angst all about.Do I need to know the details? As David Rock is fond of writing: Interesting but not very useful. The only one who needs to be the "keeper of the details" is you. Remember? Focussing on the hardwiring (the details) only embeds it all deeper.My job is to lead you to the moment where inspiration will occur to you. I can see and hear when this moment is about to happen. You pause, your eyes move upward, you might sigh or go hmmmm then wham you get that new connection and the energy blast that goes with it. It might be as mild as: Hmmm I never thought of it that way. Or it can be as dramatic as OMG!Because attention is a powerful aspect of perception I will focus on that moment. It will get nurtured and talked about until it is firmly anchored in your maps, firmly networked.And I can spend the rest of the time creating ways to build even more networks. I don't even have to be there. I can create attention by asking you to take a step in that direction and then telling me what happened the next week we get together (delayed feedback - ever heard of that?). The delayed feedback requires the client to constantly have the new map in their current working memory. And remember visual is faster and takes up less space.All it takes, to firmly anchor new hard-wiring, is 30 seconds of attention to it and the AHA feeling only lasts up to an hour. So that initial time up to and after an insight or inspiration are critical.This is where building goals and offering support are so important. Support needs to be positive and regular to firmly entrench the new hard-wiring.What else does this mean? Well my theory is this: it gets harder to learn new things as I get older. This old dog is slowly weeding out the useless maps. Thank goodness we have a surplus of neurons to begin with.
So how does this all connect? LOLWell this angst is what drives us to create new maps. It's what causes us to seek to better ourselve and perhaps start looking for someone like myself: a Professional Coach.So what needs to be done? Well the first step is to become mindfully aware (this is where the meditation info fits in) of what it is we are experiencing. It's not the end of the world but a drive to do some new mapping.As a coach I get to ask the questions that focusses you on what really IS the problem. What REALLY is this angst all about.Do I need to know the details? As David Rock is fond of writing: Interesting but not very useful. The only one who needs to be the "keeper of the details" is you. Remember? Focussing on the hardwiring (the details) only embeds it all deeper.My job is to lead you to the moment where inspiration will occur to you. I can see and hear when this moment is about to happen. You pause, your eyes move upward, you might sigh or go hmmmm then wham you get that new connection and the energy blast that goes with it. It might be as mild as: Hmmm I never thought of it that way. Or it can be as dramatic as OMG!Because attention is a powerful aspect of perception I will focus on that moment. It will get nurtured and talked about until it is firmly anchored in your maps, firmly networked.And I can spend the rest of the time creating ways to build even more networks. I don't even have to be there. I can create attention by asking you to take a step in that direction and then telling me what happened the next week we get together (delayed feedback - ever heard of that?). The delayed feedback requires the client to constantly have the new map in their current working memory. And remember visual is faster and takes up less space.All it takes, to firmly anchor new hard-wiring, is 30 seconds of attention to it and the AHA feeling only lasts up to an hour. So that initial time up to and after an insight or inspiration are critical.This is where building goals and offering support are so important. Support needs to be positive and regular to firmly entrench the new hard-wiring.What else does this mean? Well my theory is this: it gets harder to learn new things as I get older. This old dog is slowly weeding out the useless maps. Thank goodness we have a surplus of neurons to begin with.
Mind Boggling Discoveries - Issue 3
Perceptions are the meat of the issue. These little things are what holds all the networks and hard-wiring together. All our minds are networked with our perceptions? Makes sense, you say. Aha!Ever heard of the saying "What we expect we experience"? This has never been truer than in the world of HW the brain.This whole process of the way we perceive things and how a connection is actually made can be SEEN on an MRI (Brain Matters link). When something is hardwired there is an entire chain of biological responses that can be seen on an MRI. The neurons actually "light up" in response to a connection before we EVEN TAKE ACTION.As a result we pay more attention to what we're expecting. Now if THAT isn't powerful I don't know what is.On a microscopic level this is what happens. Our brain actually (I know I'm saying 'actually' over again but I can't help it) creates a new dendrite. These are the tiny little arm-like tentacles that connect one neuron to another. Little street lamps wired together. These are what the neural maps and networks are physically connected with. So when a new "connection" is being HW we create a new dendrite/connection. With this comes a blast of energy which you can physically feel. Ever had that AHA! moment? You feel excited, energized and ready to take action - inspired so to speak (I am smiling here). Inspiration is a truly physical response to creating a new idea, thought or connection.So what does this mean from a deconstrutionism point of view? Here is where I might get a lot of flack but I agree with Dr. Schwartz and David Rock. Its almost impossible to decontructionism "hardwiring". That's why a conventional psychology doesn't always work. Nothing definitive here. Phew!If you do start to focus on the HW you are going over and over the same connections and maps and embedding the whole behaviour even deeper.Attention physically impacts the brain so you need to be careful how you use it. Just bringing attention to something creates brain matter.Another aspect is: the brain prefers to focus on and solve problems or inconsistencies. It makes the brain fire up like crazy. This is important because "lack of change" IS a problem. Ever been dissatisfied? Unhappy about the way things are? Or just had the deep sense that "something is missing? Your brain is in overdrive baby.
Perceptions are the meat of the issue. These little things are what holds all the networks and hard-wiring together. All our minds are networked with our perceptions? Makes sense, you say. Aha!Ever heard of the saying "What we expect we experience"? This has never been truer than in the world of HW the brain.This whole process of the way we perceive things and how a connection is actually made can be SEEN on an MRI (Brain Matters link). When something is hardwired there is an entire chain of biological responses that can be seen on an MRI. The neurons actually "light up" in response to a connection before we EVEN TAKE ACTION.As a result we pay more attention to what we're expecting. Now if THAT isn't powerful I don't know what is.On a microscopic level this is what happens. Our brain actually (I know I'm saying 'actually' over again but I can't help it) creates a new dendrite. These are the tiny little arm-like tentacles that connect one neuron to another. Little street lamps wired together. These are what the neural maps and networks are physically connected with. So when a new "connection" is being HW we create a new dendrite/connection. With this comes a blast of energy which you can physically feel. Ever had that AHA! moment? You feel excited, energized and ready to take action - inspired so to speak (I am smiling here). Inspiration is a truly physical response to creating a new idea, thought or connection.So what does this mean from a deconstrutionism point of view? Here is where I might get a lot of flack but I agree with Dr. Schwartz and David Rock. Its almost impossible to decontructionism "hardwiring". That's why a conventional psychology doesn't always work. Nothing definitive here. Phew!If you do start to focus on the HW you are going over and over the same connections and maps and embedding the whole behaviour even deeper.Attention physically impacts the brain so you need to be careful how you use it. Just bringing attention to something creates brain matter.Another aspect is: the brain prefers to focus on and solve problems or inconsistencies. It makes the brain fire up like crazy. This is important because "lack of change" IS a problem. Ever been dissatisfied? Unhappy about the way things are? Or just had the deep sense that "something is missing? Your brain is in overdrive baby.
Mind Boggling Discoveries - Issue 2
So is this true?Not really, because it then becomes important to realize what the brain does after that. It also can be quite interesting to understand how you actually physically can "change your mind".Your brain becomes agile in another way. So here are some facts you'll to know.Our mind adores order. So any type of chaos, it will network till the connections are made to create order. Maps that make the most sense or work well with each other are kept. This means a biological preference is given to these maps. Our brain physically strengthens the connections and will eventually weed out (yes remove!) the ones that don't work well. These maps will also compete for physical and mental resources if and when they come into conflict. Confused? Not sure what to think or what do decide? EXACTLY! you got some competition going on upstairs.Because our very environment and experiences creates these maps can you see how unique and individual our brains are at close range? Sure there is placement, in general areas that brain surgeons can rely on but on a minute level our brains are as unique as our fingerprints. Just like we all have hand, joints, muscles, bones, fingers etc but our fingerprints are unique.We all have genes on creating the maps and connections but NONE how we do this an individual.WOW! Hey?So what's next you ask? Well something called "hard-wiring" (HW).HW occurs when something is done repetitively. You can see why we would need this. It would make driving a nightmare! Can you imagine learning how to drive every time you got into your car?It also means anything done 2-3 times is HW. You heard right. Not the old stand-by of 21 days, just two or three times. But you must be conscious when you are doing "it". After it's HW you can become unconscious again. So if you want to create a habit, be careful of what you ask for.Another interesting tidbit is that the working memory can only hold 7 ideas at a time. So you can see why talking on a cell phone might be a tad dangerous while driving. hmmmm how many things is that in my working memory.Because of this limitation we can use another fact. The visual brain works faster and requires less working memory. So does this mean you can watch TV while you drive....uhhhm nope?A good plan, however, is: in order to simplify things it works best to create visual imagery.Hmmm what does this all have to do with anything? Stick with me.
So is this true?Not really, because it then becomes important to realize what the brain does after that. It also can be quite interesting to understand how you actually physically can "change your mind".Your brain becomes agile in another way. So here are some facts you'll to know.Our mind adores order. So any type of chaos, it will network till the connections are made to create order. Maps that make the most sense or work well with each other are kept. This means a biological preference is given to these maps. Our brain physically strengthens the connections and will eventually weed out (yes remove!) the ones that don't work well. These maps will also compete for physical and mental resources if and when they come into conflict. Confused? Not sure what to think or what do decide? EXACTLY! you got some competition going on upstairs.Because our very environment and experiences creates these maps can you see how unique and individual our brains are at close range? Sure there is placement, in general areas that brain surgeons can rely on but on a minute level our brains are as unique as our fingerprints. Just like we all have hand, joints, muscles, bones, fingers etc but our fingerprints are unique.We all have genes on creating the maps and connections but NONE how we do this an individual.WOW! Hey?So what's next you ask? Well something called "hard-wiring" (HW).HW occurs when something is done repetitively. You can see why we would need this. It would make driving a nightmare! Can you imagine learning how to drive every time you got into your car?It also means anything done 2-3 times is HW. You heard right. Not the old stand-by of 21 days, just two or three times. But you must be conscious when you are doing "it". After it's HW you can become unconscious again. So if you want to create a habit, be careful of what you ask for.Another interesting tidbit is that the working memory can only hold 7 ideas at a time. So you can see why talking on a cell phone might be a tad dangerous while driving. hmmmm how many things is that in my working memory.Because of this limitation we can use another fact. The visual brain works faster and requires less working memory. So does this mean you can watch TV while you drive....uhhhm nope?A good plan, however, is: in order to simplify things it works best to create visual imagery.Hmmm what does this all have to do with anything? Stick with me.
Mind Boggling Discoveres - Issue 1
Here are some things you might not have known.Did you know that when you are born you have all the neural maps set up in your brain? There are general locations like downtown (emotions), communities (senses) and urban areas (behaviour and body functions). They move if there is damage - say if you're in a war and someone bombs downtown. It's not quite the same but it functions.Since there aren't any street signs yet you get to name as you need them. So the first time you are touched, as a baby, you KNOW you are touched. You haven't quite figured out where. You now have an address called "Body Touch". The 2nd and 3rd touch leads you to stick an address right on the house - Let's call it "I was touched on my hand". Every touch thereafter is networked around the first time you were touched. Not only where, but how often, HOW you were touched, the temperature and trillions of other little things you associate with touch.Up until the age of 4 when children suffers strokes or brain injury, which results in physically changing the brain, a child can almost completely recover and re-route almost everything to another section of the brain. Suburbia look out. Some children have been known to lose half their brain and still function.After that age it becomes less agile and easier to do the re-routing. But it is still possible.Another reason they call kids brains "sponges". The child is constantly adding addresses to their neural maps and making interconnections. It comes very easily to them and they don't have to even think about it. Ha Ha - get it?These maps, once created are almost - yes I said almost - impossible to remove. The most effective way to change behaviour is to just change the map. So does it works to keep saying "NO! Don't do that!" Nope. But it is very effective to offer the child something else to do or divert them. You are creating a new map.Groups like La Leche League have always been huge believers in this type of "discipline" or whatever you want to call it. They also believe that offering choices as a diversion is incredibly powerful.And this feeds into the next step of neural maps. These maps REALLY WORK WELL, if the individual has created the new map. This means, they take what they know or what is in front of them and decide what will work best for them. That is why diversion by choice is so effective. Instead of TELLING a child what to do they are given a choice, think about which will interest and excite.
Here are some things you might not have known.Did you know that when you are born you have all the neural maps set up in your brain? There are general locations like downtown (emotions), communities (senses) and urban areas (behaviour and body functions). They move if there is damage - say if you're in a war and someone bombs downtown. It's not quite the same but it functions.Since there aren't any street signs yet you get to name as you need them. So the first time you are touched, as a baby, you KNOW you are touched. You haven't quite figured out where. You now have an address called "Body Touch". The 2nd and 3rd touch leads you to stick an address right on the house - Let's call it "I was touched on my hand". Every touch thereafter is networked around the first time you were touched. Not only where, but how often, HOW you were touched, the temperature and trillions of other little things you associate with touch.Up until the age of 4 when children suffers strokes or brain injury, which results in physically changing the brain, a child can almost completely recover and re-route almost everything to another section of the brain. Suburbia look out. Some children have been known to lose half their brain and still function.After that age it becomes less agile and easier to do the re-routing. But it is still possible.Another reason they call kids brains "sponges". The child is constantly adding addresses to their neural maps and making interconnections. It comes very easily to them and they don't have to even think about it. Ha Ha - get it?These maps, once created are almost - yes I said almost - impossible to remove. The most effective way to change behaviour is to just change the map. So does it works to keep saying "NO! Don't do that!" Nope. But it is very effective to offer the child something else to do or divert them. You are creating a new map.Groups like La Leche League have always been huge believers in this type of "discipline" or whatever you want to call it. They also believe that offering choices as a diversion is incredibly powerful.And this feeds into the next step of neural maps. These maps REALLY WORK WELL, if the individual has created the new map. This means, they take what they know or what is in front of them and decide what will work best for them. That is why diversion by choice is so effective. Instead of TELLING a child what to do they are given a choice, think about which will interest and excite.
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