Is There Proof Of ‘Use-It-or-Lose-It?

Some statistics create a movie on our mental-screen. Remember the expression -
‘Feelings follow imagery’? Grasping the meaning of a chart can be liberating,
and change the way we feel, think, and ultimately ‘behave’ in our reality.

Here goes: Our planet is 4 billion years old, human life is only 100,000
years old, civilization is just 10,000 years, and the Industrialization of our
civilized society is but 200 years old.

So what?

Don’t expect great strides from our tribes - we’re new at the game.
We aint that far from ’survival and self-preservation’ because kill and be killed
is still a ‘core-premise’ in our Reptilian-Complex brain.

Sure, the Muslims go nuts when a cartoon criticizes their Prophet, but Christians had the Inquisition in Europe, and in Salem, Mass. smoked women after calling them - Witches. It wasn’t that long ago in our ten thousand years of civilization.

Ever hear of Dr. Paul MacLean?
You cannot be called an educated, civilized person without studying his theory.
No scientist has provided a better picture of our three-part brain than Dr. Paul
MacLean’s Triune model.

Our ancient ‘original’ brain is filled with instincts, not thinking, and is called the Reptilian Complex; later came our emotional brain, the Limbic System, and feelings, and recently - our civilized brain called the Neocortex - new-brain.

Here’s the kicker: all three ’still’ operate as a partnership, meaning we are not
all logic and reason, and never will be. We react instinctively to many stimuli,
and emotionally (cartoons of the Prophet), to other stimuli, and consciously use our newest brain, the neocortex, just some of the time.

Be cool and Google Paul MacLean and the Triune Model of the brain.

Raining Dogs and Cats

If the authorities did not put strays to ’sleep’ - euphemism for the cold, cruel hand of death, we would be walking on dogs and cats. They are prolific and don’t use
Prophylactics, so society must create order. A statistic permits us to erase the
picture from our imagination of soft, cuddly puppies and kittens. We knock off
millions annually, and that’s how it is to live civilized.

Now let’s talk about people, folks, human-beans.

Worldwide there are 153,000 deaths per day; 56 million people cash in their chips
annually. But wait; there are 250 births per minute, and 129 million ‘births’ per year - worldwide. Picture 250 births for every 100 deaths - we’re way ahead of
the game, right. In the U.S. there are 12 births for every 8 deaths, and we just hit
300 million population.

Is There a Point to This?

We cannot think of our lives or anybody else’s life, as a statistic.
Meaning and purpose come from our consciousness, not the outside. Learning
gives us the skill to discover what others are thinking about stuff that makes us
human. The more we read, the greater workout our prefrontal neurons get, the
more civilized we become, and the greater value an individual life has.

Here’s what neuroscience posits: our brain is either in a ‘growth’ mode or it is
shrinking. Learning produces neuroplasticity - structural and functional modifications in our brain. Snailing produces less, and non-learning has a direct
result in ’shrinking’ our brains and eliminating neurogenesis - nerve cell production.

We suggest you become a lifelong learner and stay in a growth mode for the sake
of society and your poor old coconut.

Aging And Learning

A new study, published February, 2006 in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
proves we are either ‘in-sync’ with concentration, memory and learning, or
‘daydreaming’, and ‘at-rest’.

Consider this: when we are in a learning mode our brain’s Prefrontal Cortex
(dorsolateral side), produces attention, focus and concentration. The older we
get, the less we use this area of our brain unless we make a determined effort.
By itself our brain will slow down and send us into a ‘dumbness’ stage.

When we are thinking about ourselves, or monitoring the environment, (thinking
about ‘nuthin’), we deactivate our ‘medial-frontal and parietal’ regions. It’s known
as light-snoozing, chilling or daydreaming, and produces brain shrinkage.

This research was produced in Toronto by Dr. Cheryl Grady, using fMRIs (functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery), and is at the forefront of neuroscience.

Coda

Learners are constantly activating their prefrontal cortex to keep their brain
young and active through concentration and discovery. It doesn’t matter what you
are discovering as long as it becomes a challenge for your brain, and you can explain
it to someone else in three sentences or less. Learning must be practical and offers
you the competitive edge to control unnecessary mental aging. Use it or lose it,
and you snooze - you lose.

Two-Minute BIS

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Why imaginary friends? Because they may be smarter than you real friends. Well, at least they may give you better, more creative solutions to your problems.

If you are like most people, your thinking is often best when you’re interacting with a friend. You feed off of each other’s ideas and help each other to clarify things. But what about times when you’re alone, or you have no one you wish to share your ideas with? How do you stimulate creative thought and find elegant solutions to your problems? Try talking to Albert Einstein.

Of course, you’ll probably want to talk to Andrew Carnegie or Lee Iacocca if your problem has to do with making a factory more productive. Spiritual problems might be better discussed with the Dalai Lama. The point is to have a conversation in your head with an expert, or a historical personality, or any imaginary friend who can help with your particular problem. Why would you want to do this?

Imaginary Friends Give You Answers

You have a powerful imagination, whether you know it or not. However, what you may not have, is a powerful way to use it. This is what you get with imaginary friends and advisors. A conversation in your head is a way to access the creative power of your mind. You’ll be surprised how often your imaginary Einstein comes up with an interesting idea, or asks you a question that produces something useful.

It is best to use someone who you respect and/or know something about. That way you can more easily imagine what they might say. It could be a fictional character, and in fact, this may be even better. Start by explaining the situation to this person, and then listen to what they have to say.

You may remember those “WWJD” pins and stickers. The WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do?” Kids wore the pins (still do, I believe) as a source of guidance. Whether or not you are a Christian, you can understand how in a time of confusion, a simple question like this can immediately clarify the situation and allow for a right decision.

Consider this for a moment. The information necessary to make a right decision is there in a young man’s head already, and yet there is confusion. Then, just imagining what Jesus would do or say is all it takes to “see” the answer.

With a simple conversation in your mind, you can ask for help with personal, business, moral and any other problems. It’s a powerful technique for problem solving, and for drawing on the power of your unconscious mind. Why not start talking (in your head please) with your imaginary friends?

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Day to day responsibilities and To Do Lists often keep us busy and focused on the task at hand. Very often we become so focused on what needs to get done, we miss out on all of the possibilities for new ways of doing and being. As a result, we become unduly stressed, frustrated, and/or dissatisfied with our current state of affairs. While we are in the throws of getting things done, we aren’t really aware of these restless feelings. It is when we are in the car on the way to the grocery store, in the shower thinking about the day ahead, or in bed ready to fall asleep that we begin to pay attention to our need for something more.

As human beings, we have an inherent need to grow and improve ourselves. It is up to us to pay attention to our restlessness or our stress levels, for these feelings are really a calling. They are calling us to a greater awareness, and this awareness leads us towards action. So many people feel stuck in their current situation. They know that they want and need to grow, but they do not know where to start or how to get off the treadmill of their daily experience.

One client described her day:

Every day, I get up at 5:30 am, take a shower, get dressed, and make breakfast and lunch for the family. Once I have gotten the kids settled, my husband comes down while I finish getting ready. Once the kids are dropped off, I go to work. After work it is the same routine. Pick up the kids from after care, make a snack, then get homework and dinner started. When my husband comes home about an hour later, he takes over and I go to the gym. By the night’s end, we are both exhausted, get into bed and fall right to sleep.

This client’s goal centered around bringing more consciousness and joy to her daily life as a means of getting off of “her treadmill”. With a little awareness and some alone time, this mother of three was able to shift her focus to the possibilities. By widening her scope, she realized that she did not need to engage in the same routine day after day. Furthermore, she took action and experienced results.

Due to our gift of consciousness, we have the ability to evaluate our current situation; to determine what is working and what is not working. We have ability to ask ourselves questions such as: what do I want, how can things become different, what can I do to increase the happiness and joy in my life, where do I want to go from here, what do I want to accomplish, what’s next? By asking ourselves these kinds of questions, we are setting into motion a new effort toward growth and improvement.

At times, the only thing that matters is taking some kind of action It is important to take that first step to getting unstuck and moving in the direction of a greater sense of fulfillment. During this process, we must be aware of personal blocks - the obstacles that we see, think and feel which serve to deter our efforts to open ourselves up to the possibilities before us. For example, fear is the number one reason why we don’t make the changes we need to make. Fear sabotages our efforts. It purposefully gets in the way. It distracts us from our goal, and then, it says “I Told You So” when things do not work out according to your plan and expectation. In addition, lack of patience deters us from getting to where we want to go. We live in a world of instant gratification. Being patient is very difficult. We try something new for a couple of days, and when we do not get the results that we want within that short time period, we become discouraged and give up.

Perseverance, patience, and believing in oneself is necessary for growth and self improvement. By cultivating these qualities, the possibilities become endless. Even obstacles can be seen as opportunities. As a result, your belief system becomes fortified with all of the empowering thoughts that help you make things happen.

For more information and simple solutions on how to open yourself up to the possibilities, go to www.simplycoaching.net

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The principle is to yield to an oncoming force in such a way as to render it harmless and at the same time, change its direction by pushing it from behind instead of resisting it from the front.

When there is a conflict between two or more people, conditioned response is to cope by fight or flight.

Flight responses are passive and range from giving into an unreasonable request from your mother, accepting a role established by your mate, lying and making up an excuse when your friend wants to borrow your car, to complete withdrawal, hiding from any contact with potential adversaries.

Fight responses are aggressive and range from lightly veiled sarcasm directed toward your mate, childish yelling at the repairman who is an hour late getting to your house, to actual physical violence.

Both responses result in unpleasant emotions of fear and anger, usually failing as an effective method of coping with problems.

So from childhood we learn to deal with our problems indirectly, and often dishonestly. We repress our real feelings at the expense of our self-respect and often our physical well-being.

Assertion is commonly mistaken for aggression, but understand that to be assertive means that you are standing up for your basic human rights. Aggression is a matter of forcefully violating the rights of another, and there is no excuse for such behavior.

An important part of assertiveness is showing consideration for the feelings and rights of others, without letting your kindness or empathy be used as an opening for manipulation.

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Self esteem is a familiar term that is used, but what exactly does it mean?

Self Esteem is actually a system of measurement. It is a way of measuring and describing how a person thinks and feels about themselves. It is a method that attempts to measure a person’s value or self worth.
Self Esteem measures how people think about themselves in two different aspects . By using a combination of these two criteria enables a person to make a judgment about their unique value, or worth as a person. From this judgment a feeling of self esteem is usually formed.
Here are the two criteria people commonly use to measure self esteem:
How Lovable Am I?

Your self esteem is based on how lovable you think you are. How do you decide how lovable you are? This is usually determined by what you think other people think of you, and how much you think these other people care about you.

How Capable Are You?
Your self esteem is measured by what you think about the things you ‘do’. This falls into two groups; your traits and behaviours. Traits refers to attributes such as patience, being brave, clean, organized, thrifty etc. Qualities that you believe are valuable and desirable in your life. Behaviours are more specific, for example, how fast you can run 100 metres, how well you can cook dinner, or add up numbers.

As you determine your self esteem to the degree that you consider yourself lovable and capable, it will inevitably be deeply rooted in your intrinsic belief in your uniqueness, value and worth as a person. It is also, clearly a subjective opinion and strongly influenced by your personal beliefs and values as well as the influence of your family, upbringing and other significant life events.

This process of measuring your value and worth as a person poses some interesting questions for consideration.

If I were to ask you to rate your level of self esteem today with a number between 1-10, with 1 being no self esteem, you see no value in your life and are seriously considering suicide, and 10 being

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