I know I am writing a lot at the moment. Please do feel free to ignore me. I write here because it's the perfect 'notebook' for me and my ideas. If a thought comes to me and I don't write it down, it can fly away and not necessarily come back to me for a long time. Hence, as the thought occurs, I write it down and at least this way I can retrieve it for further thought or for some writing task later on.
Coffee with the girls after Pilates class led to a discussion of the brain. As you do. Actually, this discussion was between me and one other woman who has a psychology degree and is in between jobs working in HR at the corporate level. She's been doing a lot of reading about the brain (that's what she does for fun; a woman of my own heart!) and yesterday she attended a seminar wherein they had participants hold their hands and then contort them around so everything about folding their hands was the other way around. Then, they asked them to move their middle finger. For a time, most people couldn't do that, but as they really focused hard on the task, they found they could. It is said that they "re-mapped" their brain.
Not so long ago, it was thought that if you had a stroke, let's say, that was that and parts of your brain were now probably inaccessible to you. We (the 'we' being researchers) now know that we can find other pathways in the brain. As well, learning and challenges allow a rather tired or slack or depressed brain to re-charge. It is never too old to learn or to re-wire the brain; to locate hidden talents within yourself or to reinvent yourself. It is all entirely do-able so long as you are brave and take that first step towards reaching your dreams. Once you've taken that first step, the rest will come. Just be brave.
I think BDSM has benefits for a person that go far beyond play or pleasure. The challenges of BDSM can indeed open your mind to all sorts of other challenges because you get to see that you are brave; that you can do it. "I did it!" say little children. Just tap into that joy; that pleasure in succeeding and take the chance.
Of course, when a child says, "I did it" then the parent or teacher or caregiver says, "Oh wow!! wowedy wow! Yes, you did do it! Aren't you brave! Aren't you the clever one!" We all need that. We all want someone to be proud. And, that's where the power exchange comes into its own. Because the best of doms will be over the moon about your success. Some of the sweetest moments of my life were receiving messages like, "mr d beri beri prowd!"
So, be the best you can be. Shoot for the stars. Follow your dreams. Then, bask in the glow of pride. It's living life at its best.
Coffee with the girls after Pilates class led to a discussion of the brain. As you do. Actually, this discussion was between me and one other woman who has a psychology degree and is in between jobs working in HR at the corporate level. She's been doing a lot of reading about the brain (that's what she does for fun; a woman of my own heart!) and yesterday she attended a seminar wherein they had participants hold their hands and then contort them around so everything about folding their hands was the other way around. Then, they asked them to move their middle finger. For a time, most people couldn't do that, but as they really focused hard on the task, they found they could. It is said that they "re-mapped" their brain.
Not so long ago, it was thought that if you had a stroke, let's say, that was that and parts of your brain were now probably inaccessible to you. We (the 'we' being researchers) now know that we can find other pathways in the brain. As well, learning and challenges allow a rather tired or slack or depressed brain to re-charge. It is never too old to learn or to re-wire the brain; to locate hidden talents within yourself or to reinvent yourself. It is all entirely do-able so long as you are brave and take that first step towards reaching your dreams. Once you've taken that first step, the rest will come. Just be brave.
I think BDSM has benefits for a person that go far beyond play or pleasure. The challenges of BDSM can indeed open your mind to all sorts of other challenges because you get to see that you are brave; that you can do it. "I did it!" say little children. Just tap into that joy; that pleasure in succeeding and take the chance.
Of course, when a child says, "I did it" then the parent or teacher or caregiver says, "Oh wow!! wowedy wow! Yes, you did do it! Aren't you brave! Aren't you the clever one!" We all need that. We all want someone to be proud. And, that's where the power exchange comes into its own. Because the best of doms will be over the moon about your success. Some of the sweetest moments of my life were receiving messages like, "mr d beri beri prowd!"
So, be the best you can be. Shoot for the stars. Follow your dreams. Then, bask in the glow of pride. It's living life at its best.
The malleable brain is indeed a wonderful phenomenon; we build and reinforce neural pathways throughout our lives and our capacity to adapt as a result is one of our greatest strengths. There are some fascinating experiments documented that illustrate this wonderful ability; here are two gems that I know of.
ReplyDelete1. It's a commonly known fact among physicians that the images we collect on our retinas are in fact upside-down and back-to-front, due to the optical characteristics of our eyeballs. Our brains swap the signals over so we "think" we are seeing things the right way round/up. So scientists gave a team of volunteers eyeglasses to wear that reversed that effect, straightening the images out if you like. Initially the subjects were helpless, finding it almost impossible to do the most basic of tasks as everything "looked" upside down and back-to-front though it wasn't. Their brains had no neural pathways to cope with images that had been corrected in this way. However they were instructed to keep the eyeglasses on and to persevere and after a while (days I think) their brains flipped the images so they were the right way round/up again when looking through the eyeglasses. Interestingly at that point, when they took the glasses off, everything still looked the right way round/up. Their brains had built new neural pathways to cope with the eyeglasses adjusted images, but retained the old pathways for when they weren't used!
2. The U.S. military adopted a small device which, when worn around the ankle of service personnel, vibrated when they were facing North. This was intended to assist in navigation should they be lost behind enemy lines. After two weeks of wearing the devices, the military personnel found they instinctively knew in which direction magnetic North lay, regardless of whether they wore the device or not. The positive feedback from the device had reinforced neural pathways connecting to sensors deep within us somewhere that pick up on the earth's magnetic field (much like that of birds).
If nothing else, this proves how easily we can re-wire our brains through experience and positive feedback. For me it also demonstrates that we are all capable of doing things we might never imagine possible.
rollymo: I agree, it's awesome. There isn't much we can't do if we put our minds to it. The question in my mind is what motivates some people to keep on trying to do what others see as impossible? I wonder if it is an 'inch by inch' thing and that it boils down to finding the impetus to take the first step. It is that first step that so many people need help with. A coach, a therapist, a mentor, a friend, colleague or family member has to have the desire to help. That means stepping out of an egocentric stance to put someone else first, I think. That's really what my therapist did for me.
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