How do we tune in to the rhythms around us? How do we synchronize our frequency with the changing frequencies in time? It has only been in the last tw...
How do we tune in to the rhythms around us? How do we synchronize our frequency with the changing frequencies in time? It has only been in the last twenty years that modern scanners and experimentation have taken neuroscience to a level where we can now know with more certainty what cognitive functions are taking place in which parts of the brain.The four sides of the
Wealth Dynamics Square,
a profiling system used by over 30,000 entrepreneurs to find their flow, match the ‘four sides’ of the brain: our frontal lobes (located on the front and top of the brain) are the centre of our creative thinking and intuition; our parietal and occipital lobes (located at the centre and back) are the centre of our sensory function; our left hemisphere is responsible for analysis, with one input at a time; and our right hemisphere is responsible for our relationships, with multiple inputs at a time.
“The brain is simply a collection of neurons and other cells, Gathered together in one place to simplify the wiring.” - Helen Phillips, New ScientistIf our brains are all so similar in size, and if wealth appears to have little to do with intelligence or talent (with fortune eluding many of the most intelligent and talented amongst us), what is the process by which our brain turns success into a habit?All of our actions are based on either a conscious action, based on mental calculation, or unconscious action, based on reflex. Breathing is a reflex action, whereas intellectual argument is a calculated action. Yet when we see a great athlete in action, it is often a reflex action at a critical moment that wins the game.
“In the same way that I tend to make up my mind About people within thirty seconds of meeting them, I also make up my mind about a business proposal Within thirty seconds and whether it excites me.” - Richard BransonIn 1997, researchers at John Hopkins and the University of Maryland using a PET scanner found that we all learn new skills through our outer cortex, but then in repetition these physical skills are stored and accessed through the inner brain, within the cerebellum.Conscious thought operates on the outer layer of the brain. We are masters of pattern recognition and we experience the world by comparing our experiences to the patterns formed by our past history. This is where we conduct our conscious thought. Yet within the centre of our brains, we conduct our unconscious thought. It was only in October 2005 that a study at MIT found the location where our habits are stored: the basal ganglia, located next to the cerebellum in the inner brain. They found through a series of experiments that at critical moments when a familiar situation was encountered, a lost habit could be automatically re-activated from within our unconscious.Dr Ann Graybiel, Professor of Neuroscience at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, said: "It is as though somehow, the brain retains a memory of the habit context, and this pattern can be triggered if the right habit cues come back. This situation is familiar to anyone who is trying to lose weight or to control a well-engrained habit. Just the sight of a piece of chocolate cake can reset all those good intentions." Our actions are fired much faster by the more primitive, unconscious inner brain, responsible for our automatic actions, than by the outer, conscious brain, responsible for pattern recognition or memory. But to ‘program’ our habits at the centre, we need to first create patterns through our experience. To know and not to do is not yet to know.We learn to drive a car consciously by using our cerebral cortex, until it becomes an unconscious process accessed through the cerebellum and basal ganglia. A footballer learns through practice but scores in the game through instinct and habit. We gain our greatest learning through conscious thought, but at our critical moments we achieve our greatest actions through our unconscious thought.
“We are what we repeatedly do; Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” - AristotleTuning in is a process of conscious learning, leading to unconscious habit. The more we play the same game, the better we get at that game. Where do we experience flow? Is it a pattern or a habit? Is it conscious or unconscious? Hidden in the very centre of our brains, (above the cerebellum and the basal ganglia) lies the pineal gland - about the size of a pea. The pineal gland, which controls our melatonin levels, looks after our sense of rhythm with nature, synchronizing our internal biorhythms with nature’s cycles.This tiny pea in the unconscious, automatic part of our brain has been recognized for thousands of years as the doorway to our flow.For more information about Roger Hamilton and
Wealth Dynamics, visit www.roger-hamilton-news.com
