BRAIN TRAINING -
EXPANDED CONSCIOUSNESS and all that…
We are moving into a new era where the mystic, Buddhist, and others paths of self development are being fully explained in current neurochemistry research. Paying attention, mindfulness, compassion and creative reverie are all experiences we have had. Now brain research suggests that if we could use these skills more often, our lives might change out of all recognition. We might be capable of anything: self healing, super powers of concentration and performance, heightened awareness, intuitive processing, effective clarity of vision, and unbounded optimism.
The following skills have been identified as what we should be able to do. Since the 1980’s I have been training people on evening courses on Parapsychology, Skills of Storytelling and Improvisation, and workshops on Healing Drum, Play and Creative Journal, how to develop attention, body awareness, and energy management. It is my view that once two or three can use them collaboratively, mutually reinforcing each other, there will be nothing that cannot be sorted in this world…. The world WILL be our oyster!
Now, PAY ATTENTION carefully to these, which I know from my own experience is what is possible:
(adapted from Living the Field teleseminar on Brain Training)
By following the link at the end of the blog, you could begin discovering…
• How to begin to see like a native, up close and in greater detail - and to observe hidden connections so that it is viewed as unity of interlocking parts.
• How to allow into our consciousness, the flow of all information coming from our environment, paying greater attention to detail and subtle connection.
or help you:
• To know the difference between being a 'lumper' (‘knee jerk’ thinker) and a 'splitter' (analytical thinker), how to learn to perceive 'pieces' of information, and to access lower levels of raw somatic/intuitive information.
• To consciously tune into information received intuitively. With the need for greater introspection and problem-solving, the modern brain has developed a dominant frontal lobe, thus marginalising intuitive, ‘holistic’ ways of thinking.
• You avoid ‘cognitive overlay’, where you see a portion of something and, in a sense, 'fill in' the conceptual details to produce a whole and become blind to the details of it.
…how to learn:
• Ways of attending to each tiny, separate piece of sound, sight and smell in order to develop extreme perception.
• Techniques that 'turn off' the overly analytical neocortex and bolster our own innate ability to consciously become aware of this intuitive raw data information flow. The two types of information flow -- 'low-road' unconscious information to the amygdala, and conscious 'high road' cognitive information to the neo-cortex, and how to begin to tap into this constant latent information flow.
• How to avoid 'verbal overshadowing' in the inner voice, which mimics ‘best models’ or ‘right answers’, and to encourage yourself to think in pictures, rather than words, so as to get more of the nuances of meaning and insights.
• The power of the 'seeking' mode of your brain and why a 'love of the hunt' heightens your perception and intuitive awareness.
• What to practice in order to develop your ability to receive information from many levels.
• How to become aware of -- and focus on -- the information that you are constantly and unconsciously sending out to the world.
• How and when to listen to gut hunches, no matter how irrational.
These are all skills that we train our brain to use naturally through mindfulness, relaxation, and expressive arts, particularly when integrated with Creative Journal. Once we know how to train our Inner Voice to play with images as well as words, we consolidate our ever attebtuve and creative ‘overviewing self’. The techniques taught in Lucia Capacchione’s CJEA – Creative Journal Expressive Arts – aim to balance the two predominant brain functions: rationality and intuition. Using both right and left hands, a dialogue is set up between different personae in the psyche, as if writing a script in the journal. The result is electric, filling a participant with a sense of wonder, joy and release: ‘I didn’t know it was possible, but now I have much more energy than before. This is amazing work, I have made so many new insights.’ writes a sufferer of ME.
The Facts: The explanation is simple: brain research has now confirmed that with extended awareness, focus and attention, the brain regenerates its cells to become richly interconnected and highly efficient. My experience is that CJEA generates a ‘creative reverie’ that channels information from the intuitive sixth sense so that I find solutions for problems popping up out of nowhere. Activities used in coaching sessions involve both right and left hands, accessing the right and left hemispheres, thus rewiring and thickening the neural bridge between (the corpus callosum). This balances our thinking and feeling, and integrates information from the somatic body.
Never need we be in such conflict with our inner selves that it makes us ill, because that’s OK, research (Candace Pert ‘Molecules of Emotion’) indicates that resolving emotional distress makes us well again. By strengthening our ‘inner witness’ or aware self this way, the brain releases beneficial chemicals into the immune system, thus reconditioning our body and brain from inside out. Our potential for self healing may be limitless – just think, pay attention to that thought. There is nothing complicated about the solution: by simply reflecting on and paying attention to our thoughts and feelings, we begin to change our brains, learn new habits that reduces stress, increase our resourcefulness, ease emotional distress, and spontaneously bring about an effortless, flexible, creative lifestyle on a daily basis. Happiness takes on a new meaning, as creative fulfilment becomes the norm.
My question is: Does it take just a teleseminar to teach you how to train your brain? Maybe you can’t be bothered with journaling, bu how do you keep brain training going so that you get its benefit every day of your life, and what support do you need to make the changes you wish to make in your life?
June 14, 2010
Charlotte Yonge, PhD, Certified CJEA Facilitator and Coach
Workshops in Expressive Arts and Journaling; Coaching through Expressive Arts
www.creativeliteracy.co.uk
