Binge Thinking

Now I am offically certified - Suzanne Wood

As an NLP practitioner that is!

At the end of last month I was locked in a room with another 18 individuals for 7 days with the end result declaring me a certified practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming. NLP is the study of excellence, which describes how our thinking produces our behaviour.

It is all about how we use our subconscious mind to achieve our desired outcomes, which I can explain really simply in 6 words “You get what you focus on”. NLP talks about the “Prime Directives of the Unconscious mind” and the most important one is that the unconscious mind preserves the body.

Since starting at Go MAD last year I have been fascinated with how the brain works, our Brain Magic book was the second book I read ( after the Art of, of course!) and I devoured the CD’s with a passion, eager to know more. What I find most interesting   is the body and mind connection, the fact that you can keep your brain healthy and active by learning new skills, taking up new challenges and being at cause, which is an NLP term for “Taking personal responsibility for your circumstances”.

Well, we would all like to live longer and be healthier wouldn’t we? People who are more cognitively active do… So I researched this…

I trawled through decades of studies that show that ongoing learning and education is the sought after “fountain of youth” Research shows that those who keep their minds engaged in active education live longer and ward off the ravages of ageing such as memory loss and lethargy.

One significant example I found was Albert Einsten, who died at the age of 76 (which in 1955 was well above average life expectancy)  had his brain preserved for scientific research, in general it was found to be the same as all others except in one particular area…. The parietal lobe, the region responsible for mathematical thought and the ability to think in terms of space and movement ,was 15% larger than average.

So the brain is a muscle, and like all your other muscles if you want to develop it, you have to exercise it!

There are also loads of examples of “Brain training exercises” around on the internet, and even games consoles… hmmm wonder if it’s too late to put a last request into Santa…