Brain Health for Sustaining Change

It’s been a while (a whole week) – I’m off my game and starting again on my 2007 resolution to post a blog everyday. As my excuse I’ve been working on preparing the Emergenetics ® Seminar announcement for the Seminar on the 26th of February. I have been having a bit of trouble figuring out which format to send the email out with. But with that excuse, I am starting again on my 21 days of creating this habit of posting a blog everyday.

As with every posting I want to provide you with value, but I would like to also post the information for the upcoming seminar. Today, I want to give you some brain exercises – these are part of the many games and fun you would experience in the Emergenetics® seminar on February 26th.

If you want to be able to use your brain optimally for change you need to keep your brain healthy. To do this you need to exercise and feed your brain things it needs. What most people know about their bodies is that their bodies need water to live. But what most people are not aware of is that our nerves and neuropeptides (brain material) are made up of oils. We need this oil for proper nerve conduction. The way we get that oil is through the different types of foods we eat particularly fish. The problem is oil is 100% fat and we as North Americans have a bad relationship with fats. There are good fats (unsaturated) and bad fats (saturated). If we don’t have some fat in our diet we will experience forgetfulness, disruption of focus, and disturbed sleep to name a few symptoms.

Another item to consider for brain health is daily exercise. Exercising you body – physical activity - will help keep you brain fit but there are a number of other exercises you can do to exercise your brain:

Seek challenges and learning that stimulates different parts of the brain – items like crossword puzzles, Sudoku or others offer challenge. Welcome new ideas, new pursuits, new activities into your life – change your exercise routines, type of exercise, the way you get to work, etc. By changing different parts of your life it acts in a way of maintaining a healthy brain. Here are some additional brain exercises:

1. Cross-Crawls. With your right hand, touch your left ankle. Now with your left hand, touch your right ankle. This is most effectively done standing up, but works sitting down too. This exercise is thought o integrate the right and left hemispheres of your brain. And by clearing the potassium and sodium that builds up in your brain when you concentrate, it will help you read faster and comprehend more (1).

2. Crazy eights. Make big “eights” horizontally (like the infinity sign) in the air with your right hand. Without moving your head, follow your thumb with your eyes. Make the eights as big as your peripheral vision will allow. Now do the same thing with your left hand. This may help integrate both sides of your body (1).

Tracy Slotin
CEO and Grand Sandmaster
The Executive Sandbox ® Change Consultants
www.ExecutiveSandbox.com

(1) Geil Browning, Emergenetics: Tap into the New Science of Success (New York: Harper Collins, 2006)

Personal Change

As you can see from my own example of writing a blog entry everyday as my New Year’s resolution – I have fallen off the wagon. It really is difficult to create change due to the way our brains work. However, if you are determined (I am determined to develop this writing habit) to change your habits then eventually you will change.

Some of the reason why it is difficult to make change is due to our scheduling of the desired habit. Using myself as an example for this, typically we don’t make room in our life for the changes we want to make. If having a shower every morning is important to me, I always seem to have enough time. Yet, for writing, I don’t have a specific time that I write where others will not interrupt me. Beyond this, when someone interrupts me, whether it be by phone, email or being in my space I welcome them in instead of requesting them to rescheduling a conversation, a request, etc., at a different time. What this means is, I don’t like to tell them this time is not that great for me.

Many times we don’t schedule (i.e.: put in our schedule) our own time and keep those appointments. Our mothers taught us to take care of others before ourselves and as a result we don’t get to accomplish the things we desire. This might be the one thing that’s in the way of accomplishing a new habit – our habit of not keeping our promises to our selves.

Another thing that may keep us from our goal is fear or worry. Fear of success also comes under this heading. If we let our fears stop us in our path to our goals then we will only have the path of being fearful. We don’t get the goal. We only get the fear.

Fear is an inherited response. We’ve evolved with it. It is a reptilian response to unfamiliar stimulus that was used to keep us safe. If we continue to engage in it we develop a habit of listening to it. It becomes a learned behavior. Over the years I’ve come across a number of solutions to dealing with fear but the best one I came across recently.

We all have thinking preferences or parts of our brain we prefer to use. If we are using the right side of our brain to process information and we are getting worried or fearful we need to switch to processing on the left side of the brain. Sure that sounds easy, but what does that mean?

The two sides of our brain are responsible for different kinds of thought. Although their functions are normally integrated, they possess capacities and can operate independently. The right side of the brain processes asymmetrical thinking and its function is to work on intuitive, emotional, holistic, nonverbal, visual, spatial, and simultaneous comprehension tasks. The left side of the brain performs symmetric thinking and its function is to work on rational, logical, analytical, mathematical, verbal, linear, sequential ordering tasks.

Now, think about the tasks you perform everyday. What task are you performing when you are fearful? Next time you are fearful, switch to task that is using the other side of the brain. This will eliminate your fear and you will be able to fulfill your goal.

Tracy Slotin, MBA
CEO and Grand SandMaster
The Executive Sandbox ® Change Consultants
www.ExecutiveSandbox.com