Doc Meek

Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

The brain can be likened to a multiple-drawer steel filing cabinet

 

– PICTURES in the top drawer of the brain

 

– SOUNDS in the middle drawer of the brain

 

– FEELINGS (tactile) in the bottom drawers

– FEELINGS (emotions) in the bottom drawers

 

This is part (4a) article in a series of 7 articles, designed to help us work with our very own brain more easily, and to encourage our children or our students to learn how to work with their very own brains more easily.

If you missed the Introduction to this series of 7 articles, or the first 3 articles , simply click on the titles below:

(Intro) Learning to run our brain: 10 minutes daily

(1) Learning to run our own brain: Fear of failure

(2) Learning to run our brain: Vital need for HOPE . . . always

(3) Learning to run our brain: What are qualifications for the daily “brain coach?”

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The brain can be likened to a vertical multiple-drawer filing cabinet

If we want to easily retrieve a specific file folder from the filing cabinet, we have to make sure we put that specific file folder securely in the filing cabinet in the first place. 😮

OK, if my brain is a “filing cabinet,” how do I get the needed stuff . . . in and out of it . . . easily . . . every day?

Well, for one thing, we might prefer a “softer,” simpler image of the brain-as-filing-cabinet analogy. How about this approach . . . this gentler image?

Our brain can be likened to a vertical 4-drawer wooden filing cabinet; photo at: hayneedle.com

To get stuff in and out of our filing cabinet (brain) easily, we need to remember two major things:

A. Our brain is immensely complex, with extensive storage capacity

B.  Our brain–despite enormous complexity–mainly does four (4) things

So what are the four (4) simple things my brain does?

(1) Our brain brings in information

(2) Our brain moves information around, organizes it

(3) Our brain stores information

(4) Our brain brings information back out, brings information to our attention

Can be more complicated in my private practice

The problem is that each of our brains is unique, and each of us does these four (4) things in thousands, perhaps millions, of different ways. 😮

However, that is my problem really, when I am working with a particular client in my private practice. Or, more accurately, it is a joint effort, a partnership between myself and my client.

As a learning specialist, when I am working with clients to help them overcome learning problems, we need to figure out, jointly and specifically, some of those thousands of ways in which their brain is working uniquely for them.

Less complicated in regular daily life

For our everyday purposes, knowing those four (4) simple things, and learning how to manage them more easily, is straightforward. Let’s check on some simple and easy things we can do with each of these four (4) processes our brain uses all the time.

(1) Our brain brings in information

Some people call this “registration.” In other words, how do we “put in” information when we first encounter it? Sometimes this is “done for us,” by the brain’s various subsystems, if the input is dramatic enough. Most of the time, however, this registration process is very much up to each of us, individually. Our personal choice entirely. All we have to do, really, is consciously think about what we want to input securely on the “first pass,” so to speak.

The classic example of remembering names will be presented in part (b) of this fourth (4th) article.

For a colorful review of ways to improve this process of “registration,” see my previous article. Just click on the title:

The learning brain needs “uprightness” for greatest efficiency

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So, now that we’ve looked at brain “registration” or brain “inputs,” let’s move on to the second (2nd) of the four (4) macro processes the brain uses.

(2) Our brain moves information around, organizes it

The brain is doing this all the time, especially at night, while you are sleeping. This is one of the most important functions of our brain. And this is why it is imperative that you get a decent night’s rest. A “sleep-deprived” brain is not just going to have problems with registration and memory, it will produce all manner of dysfunctions: mental, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, etc.

Get enough sleep deprivation, and your brain is sure to find dis-ease, and follow up with disease. Not funny.

More about this aspect of our brains in future articles.

(3) Our brain stores information

Again, our brains are doing this all the time, especially when we sleep. Get a good night’s rest, eh? 😮

More on this in future articles.

(4) Our brain brings information back out, brings information to our attention

Ah . . . retrieval of the information we need . . . the bane of our existence . . . especially as we grow older, eh?

This is the “relax . . . and it will come out a lot easier” game. You know this. When you are tense, anxious, depressed or stressed, information is not as readily available to the “surface,” as when you relax . . . take it easy . . .  and let the brain’s subsystems dive deeply and easily for important things. More on this in future articles.

To having a fun run at managing our brain more easily!

Doc Meek, Tues, June 29, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

P.S. Hey, my writer friend, Richard Paul Evans, just told me:

“Today is GratiTuesday!” This is the day we can express gratitude for all those things for which we are grateful. The thing for which I am most grateful — besides my wife Jeannette of course 😮 — is that I am able to feel gratitude. This has not always been so, so I am doubly grateful. 😮

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“What if you are smarter than you think?”

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