Why I Became Interested in the Brain Part 2!

Through training at the Dahn Center, I learned some basic information about the brain--the three layers, their functions, and relationship to our body, emotions, and thinking. I also learned and more importantly, experienced, the next two steps of Brain Education: Brain Versatilizing and Brain Refreshing.

Brain Versatilizing is about making your brain more flexible so you can learn and adapt easier. Through our lives we tend to use the same pathways in our brains. We tend to do things that we are good at or enjoy--this is a great function of the brain. It means we don't have to relearn everything over and over again. But, it also means we can become rigid or comfortable. This actually goes against the brain's (and nature's) natural tendency towards growth and development.

In my case, I was holding a lot of tension in my body and mind and I was afraid to try new things especially if it meant I would make mistakes or look silly. As my body and my brain became more flexible, I learned to enjoy challenging myself by learning new things and using different parts of my brain that I wasn't used to using (even if it meant making mistakes and looking silly).

Brain Refreshing is about releasing ways of thinking or emotions that are preventing you from living the kind of life you want to live. For me, no matter what others said about how well I was doing something or how great I was, this didn't matter. I had an underlying fear and lack of confidence in myself. I also was holding a lot of anger, sadness, guilt and other emotions that were holding me back. When I could let those go, I felt like I could really start to let the person who I think others saw in me, come out. Sometimes this is called your true or authentic self or your soul.

To be continued...