Speaking of plasticity. I've been working on my defense for my masters in conflict resolution and I keep thinking about this reaction many of us have in response to conflict. Through long-term potentiation (when several neurons fire together repeatedly they form a stronger connection that makes that same pattern of firing between those same neurons more common... "neurons that fire together, wire together") we learn to react to conflict. Whether we get angry or we avoid, most of us have created this negative response to conflict. By the time students are learning conflict resolution skills it's more of a re-learning process than it is a learning process. Conflict resolution education is about acting instead of reacting, and the difference lies in this long-term potentiation process. Changing a response requires recognizing ourselves having the response and instead choosing to do something else. But how do you teach that to children?
I'm starting to think teaching mindfulness is key to re-learning conflict resolution skills. As Daniel Siegel says Reflection is the fourth 'R' of education. As we learn, through mindfulness, to observe the things around us as well as our own internal state, we are able to reflect on it. When someone misunderstands me I notice my heart rate starts to rise, my thoughts become frantic as I search for ways to re-explain myself. If I don't stop to recognize this occurrence, I may snap or get defensive. If I recognize these as symptoms of this perceived misunderstanding, I can understand the situation, control my heart rate through my breathing thus calming myself and my thoughts so that I can correctly respond. I recognize my current neural connections (aka reactions) and decide I'm going to make a new connection fostered around mindful reflection of the moment. Through practice, I will re-learn how to act in conflict.
This is the key, in my opinion to constructive conflict management... Reflection... or maybe Mindful Reflection is more accurate. Although I'm not sure if reflection can be mindless.
Stay tuned for thoughts on Conflict Resolution and the Polyvagal Theory...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Knowledge is Empowering
I recently finished Norman Doidge's "The Brain that Changes Itself", a book all about brain plasticity (which is the idea that our neural connections can change and grow in relation to our life experiences). There is something so empowering about this book, actually it's more the entire idea of neuroplasticity that is empowering. We aren't bound or trapped by our previous life experiences or genes; they have helped to form who we are today, but they don't determine who we are tomorrow. Every choice we make, and person we allow into our lives changes us. Even memories are plastic, each time we recall something it's changed by the person we are when we recall it.
There are so many points I could ramble on about here in reference to what plasticity means but recently I've been thinking about it in terms of music. My mom has been singing her whole life. Recently she has been having trouble with a few notes in her higher range and it has been causing a lot of frustration. Imagine something you've been doing well your entire life... now imagine not being able to do it to your standard and having no idea why. Frustrating right? One day I randomly mentioned the studies I had been reading about in Doidge's book. Doidge talks about people who had strokes or lost functioning of some area of their body, and through neuroplasticity, they were able to re-train themselves to do that action that had been lost. I told my mom about it, and said I was curious what would happen if she listened to a song, and then tried to replay the song on the piano, without singing, just listening. I felt like there could be some disconnect between what she hears and what the actual note is. I would imagine that's the cause of being off-key right?
Later my dad sat down with her and played notes on the guitar, which she would try to copy on the piano. Sure enough, there were a few high notes she was not able to accurately play at first. After a few tries she was able to hear the correct note but it took some practice. I'm wondering now if these are the notes she finds herself going flat on because she doesn't hear the correct note at first. Wouldn't it be amazing if over time of practicing hearing those notes, she was able to sing them exactly on key?! Neuroplasticity isn't only about learning, it's about re-learning. She used to hear those notes perfectly. Now she hears one note, and associates it with a different one. Through practice, she will re-train her brain to associate the note with the correct note in her head. Hmm.. that sentence seems a little confusing. Hopefully you're following my logic here. As the title of this blog clearly states, I'm a rookie with this whole brain thing so I have no idea if this is actually what's going on here but it seems pretty logical to me.
It's an obvious correlation but one I had never thought about in terms of what's happening in the brain! It just seems more do-able when you think about it in terms of neuroplasticity. Instead of thinking about your singing coach saying "just do it" you can think "okay, how do I change the neural connections in my brain so I'm hearing the right note?"
Stay tuned for more on re-learning.
There are so many points I could ramble on about here in reference to what plasticity means but recently I've been thinking about it in terms of music. My mom has been singing her whole life. Recently she has been having trouble with a few notes in her higher range and it has been causing a lot of frustration. Imagine something you've been doing well your entire life... now imagine not being able to do it to your standard and having no idea why. Frustrating right? One day I randomly mentioned the studies I had been reading about in Doidge's book. Doidge talks about people who had strokes or lost functioning of some area of their body, and through neuroplasticity, they were able to re-train themselves to do that action that had been lost. I told my mom about it, and said I was curious what would happen if she listened to a song, and then tried to replay the song on the piano, without singing, just listening. I felt like there could be some disconnect between what she hears and what the actual note is. I would imagine that's the cause of being off-key right?
Later my dad sat down with her and played notes on the guitar, which she would try to copy on the piano. Sure enough, there were a few high notes she was not able to accurately play at first. After a few tries she was able to hear the correct note but it took some practice. I'm wondering now if these are the notes she finds herself going flat on because she doesn't hear the correct note at first. Wouldn't it be amazing if over time of practicing hearing those notes, she was able to sing them exactly on key?! Neuroplasticity isn't only about learning, it's about re-learning. She used to hear those notes perfectly. Now she hears one note, and associates it with a different one. Through practice, she will re-train her brain to associate the note with the correct note in her head. Hmm.. that sentence seems a little confusing. Hopefully you're following my logic here. As the title of this blog clearly states, I'm a rookie with this whole brain thing so I have no idea if this is actually what's going on here but it seems pretty logical to me.
It's an obvious correlation but one I had never thought about in terms of what's happening in the brain! It just seems more do-able when you think about it in terms of neuroplasticity. Instead of thinking about your singing coach saying "just do it" you can think "okay, how do I change the neural connections in my brain so I'm hearing the right note?"
Stay tuned for more on re-learning.
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