Personal Development

When most people discover a book that really connects for them, they can’t put it down. Me? I can’t keep it picked up!

Contrary, I know. But sometimes an author’s words hit all the right buttons, and my mental machinery gets all wound up and excited. It starts kicking out so many of its own ideas that I’m compelled to put the book down, pick up a pen and notepad, and scribble madly.

Brain Rules is one of those books. It sparked so many thoughts that I had trouble focusing on the book itself. My attempts to focus on a proper review have been even trickier. [click to continue...]

Read Part 1

So. Where were we in the discussion of my personal computerized neuro-enlightenment madness? Oh yes, we were about to speculate on contributing factors: exactly how a new computer and online interaction may have brought on a burst of neural re-organization akin to enlightenment.

Here goes:

Sudden Exposure To New and Different Perspectives

I’d already had a pretty interesting mental reorganization as I learned basic DOS structure, and some early Visual Basic programming.

But accessing the Internet itself did more to broaden my perspectives, exposing me directly to people, ideas and cultures I’d otherwise never have encountered. I wasn’t just reading about them; I was interacting with people whose backgrounds spanned spanned generations, geography, income and educational levels. Mixed in was exposure to spiritual systems ranging from psychotic cults like Heaven’s Gate to traditional Buddhism.

Instead of looking on as a spectator, I was trying to put myself in these peoples shoes, to understand their perspectives and what made them tick. All that learning no doubt created a new neural pathway or two (thousand).

Removing Familiar Aspects Of Communication:

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Here at MindTweaks, readers have come to expect an odd combination of humor, science and general advice about how to make your brain work better. A twisted few among you have even despaired that there is not more of this sort of mind-tweakish thing available on the web.

Despair no more, Brain Rules is here to save the day!

Seriously. (Or maybe not)

It’s a book. It’s a DVD. It slices, it dices, it amuses, and it informs.

“Brain Rules” is the brain-child of John Medina, a molecular biologist with a wicked sense of humor, and an interest in all things brain-ish. I think I have a new bloggy crush going on here.

But back to the product: through a combination of written and video materials, Medina presents his “12 principles for thriving at work, home and school.”

I’ll let you know more after my copy gets here, but for now, there’s a wealth of information and excerpts at the Brain Rules website. (I highly recommend the video on Rule #1: Exercise. I laughed outloud. Seriously.)

Or you can just trust your favorite brain-blogger’s instincts, and pick up your copy of this multimedia extravaganza at Amazon now. We’ll make it our own little book-club pick. Like Oprah, but with much cheaper shoes.

Order your copy here:
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Book & DVD)

Or Preview Audio/Video Excerpts At The Brain Rules Website

Instead of listening to me yammer on and on about Learning Styles, I thought you’d rather just have a link.

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/questions.asp 

So. Go there.  Answer the questions. Discover your learning style. Report back!

(It’s a free test, with free results, though they do offer an optional “Full Report” for $6.95.   If you order one, let me know, I’d like to see what it looks like.)

The site itself is worth wandering around for a bit.  One bit I found especially interesting was the associations between learning-styles and activity in various parts of the brain. That knowledge didn’t leave me especially enlightened, but I did find it interesting.

Oh, and my own results?  The test showed a pretty even balance, but with slight preferences to Visual, Verbal and Social styles.  From personal experience, I can say that “social” learning is almost crucial for me - without someone to toss ideas around with, processing information is much, much more difficult.

What styles did you score highest in?

For years I’ve seen the hullabaloo about personal “learning styles” and I admit, I never really “got” it. Oh, I understood the theory, but it didn’t seem relevant - Apparently, that’s because the articles weren’t presented for my learning style ; )

That all changed this week, as I worked my way through an online class in content creation (more on that another time). The course authors not only wrote a lesson on the topic, but went out of their way to engage participants of all learning styles. So I got it, finally. And lucky you, I need to share what I learned, as part of learning. [click to continue...]

 Got your attention, didn’t I?

No no.. this isn’t a sexual expose.  It’s about my recent desire to crawl back into bed, and stay there,  and what  happened when I tried…

Enlightenment is SUCH a bother!

Anyway….

Recently, MindTweaks has been treading on far more personal territory than expected. This, in turn, has lead to the inevitable: a mild relapse of my suffering from privaticus neuroticus.  (Actually, I think I’ve had a touch of a simple flu, but privaticus neuroticus is so much more exotic sounding, don’t you think?)

For those of you who  aren’t in the know… privaticus neuroticus is the not-so-scientific term for my obsessive near-anonymity. It’s tragic. Really.

After consulting WebMD, Wikipedia, and the Oracular Coffee Grounds (Did you know coffee may help delay dementia in women?) I adopted the most advanced course of home-treatment available: I crawled into bed, pulled the covers up over my head, and pretended none of you existed.  

It didn’t work very well.

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Most of you are familiar with the idea of blog memes, tag lists, and so on. I know you’re familiar with them, because many of you keep tagging me — and I keep letting the games die. It’s not that I’m not interested, I am! I just get so caught up in the brain/mind ponderings they slip my mind (other things slip my mind, too… I’d tell you about them, but I’ve forgotten what they are).

But I’ve resolved to do better, starting with the most recent game of tag — Priscilla Palmer’s Personal Development List. It’s a great big list of personal development blogs. Many of my favorite blogs and bloggers are already on the list. Many of *you* are already on the list. In fact most of the blogs I read are already on the list.

That’s what happens when you’re playing tag, stop to count to 100, get distracted by a turkey sandwich, a phonecall, and a cloud that looks like a butterfly. The game passes you by (but you do have a nice lunch, get to fuss at a telemarketer, and smile at the sky.)

I did manage to find a few blogs to add, though… here they are, for your personal development pleasure: [click to continue...]

As regular readers know, lately I’ve embarked on a personal “fix my mind” regime. I’m only a few weeks into it, and there’s a definite perceived improvement in my alertness, focus, and concentration. The brain-fitness program Lumosity is most likely the major contributor.

But outside of the expected improvements in cognitive function, I’ve learned a few interesting tidbits from the experience. [click to continue...]

Ever envied people with photographic memories?I’ve always longed for the ability to flip through a mind-album of experience, examining each Polaroid snapshot for details and information.

When I was younger, I came close to that having that level of recall. I could read a textbook chapter, and while I might not remember a specific detail, I could usually tell you what page and paragraph the detail could be found on. The mental photos were out of focus and sometimes spotty, but it was enough to give me a serious edge in school.

That skill weakened over the years (actually while I was still in high school) and it was one of the losses that most frustrated me. I *liked* having that edge, dangnabbit!

But a recent article by Mark Shead (of Productivity501) gave me hope I might yet recover that skill, and I suspect that anyone might use a method like this to develop a similar level of recall.

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We’re all prejudiced. No matter how logical, forward-thinking and open-minded we think we are, prejudicial thinking lurks in our subconscious, influencing our reactions, goals, opinions and choices.

And no, I’m not going to ask you to reveal your personal prejudices to the world today; this post is about my own flawed stereotypical bias(es). So you can breathe a sigh of relief and feel a bit superior, if you like, while I get down to business.

As I explored/exploited my intellectual vanity this week, a few ugly prejudices surfaced… prejudices related directly to intelligence. I don’t really remember how they surfaced, just that they did, and I was shocked.

Buried in my subconscious darkness is an association between being thin, and being smart. I also uncovered a subconscious bias towards wealth, and a hidden belief poor people are less intelligent.

Akk. These beliefs aren’t pretty, and I don’t like admitting they exist, but there they are, staring me right in the face. They’re inaccurate, they’re unfair, they’re ugly, and I want to hide from them. [click to continue...]