Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Flexible Hearts, Brains, Bodies and More
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Flexible
Brains, Hearts and Lives.
What are brains
for?
Learning.
Learning what?
How to stay out
of trouble. Hence habits that we cling to since they once “worked” to avoid
some problem.
And, learning
how to be happier, or do something better. As early as learning how to roll
over, crawl and walk. Our brains learned that. How to get along with others.
How to have a good time. How to make friends. Our brains learned that.
And now, what
would YOUR brain like to learn?
And how could
being flexible in your approach radically accelerate your learning?
Learning is
what? Let’s get this amazingly useful concept front and center:
Learning is the
noticing of a difference that makes a difference.
That’s worth
repeating: Learning is the noticing of a difference that makes a difference.
Let’s take
three kinds of learning that might point toward a better, more enjoyable, more
potent life.
Emotional.
I’m sure this
doesn’t ever happen to you, but some people are known to have people in their
lives who annoy them.
To use a brain
to change this around, let’s toy with a central variable in how people perceive
others who annoy them.
They think the
annoying one is wrong and should change.
Okay, if this
were about flexible hearts, we could hint at saintly behavior and loving the
annoying ones anyway.
But, let’s use
the brain systematically to try other ways of dealing with
this.
One, what if
the annoying one is not wrong. Wait, wait, this doesn’t have to be believed.
Just tried out.
So, one
difference: they aren’t wrong.
Difference two:
what if, in some small and almost infinitesimal, we are wrong.
Difference
three: what if, again, in some small and almost infinitesimal way, there is
some change we might bring into the equation.
( Hint: it’s
usually to change in the way we want them to change. But that’s a bigger story.
This story, is that letting our brains change the construct around gives us a
vastly more free and perhaps congenial way of relating to an “annoying” person.
Movement.
This, of
course, is the stock and trade of the Feldenkrais® work. So we need only the
slightest example, since all the lessons, thousands of them, require a flexible
approach to movement, that results in large improvement, by varying something,
often varying something rather small.
So, we want to
turn to the left to see better over our left shoulder in a sitting position.
This could help driving safety, say.
The old model,
is to yank our neck to the left, and then yank a little more.
One variation
that is yank free, would be to put the back of our right hand on our left
check, and with the hand there, turn to the left in a way that involves our
right shoulder and our ribs.
And the turning
is easier.
A second
variation.
Push your right
hip forward so that your pelvis rotates to the left. Do this as you look to the
left. See if that is a difference that makes a difference.
A third, and this
is similar to the first, but I like it because it’s so self-friendly. Hug
ourselves by holding the opposite armpit with each hand. ( Figure it out. It
feels good).
In this hug,
rotate our ribs to the left as we look to the left.
Finally. Using
the self hug, and our right knee forward at the same time, rotate our face and
ribs and pelvis to the left and notice the ease and increase in this movement.
Problem
solving.
This is a
little trickier, since we don’t have a specific problem, and let’s have
flexible brains and play with this too.
One variation:
Think of three
ways to make the problem even worse. How could we lock it down and make it more
intractable?
Two:
Think of three
really silly ideas, that have no merit whatsoever, apparently, but write or
doodle them out.( Robbing a bank to make more money, say)
Three:
Come up with
three possible new approaches, that go against the first variations, and create
any small shift.That is: whatever would make it worse, do less or the opposite
and doodle, write, brainstorm them out into the world of though
experimentation.
Four:
Find the one of
the most promising of these ways and find ways to make even smaller sub changes
toward making that happen.
This is perhaps
too abstract.
Alas, that is
one thing brains are good at : thought experiments. You could use your brain to
try out the third example in your own real life and your own real variations.
Or, you could
skim on to the next thing.
Flexible brains
get to make decisions.
Aware brains,
know when the decision is being made.
It’s your
brain. Enjoy it.
It’s your awareness.
Thrive from it.
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