Neuroscience - WOW factor

Exciting, fascinating, WOW! I have been reading “Your Brain at Work” by David Rock. The research done in the field of neuroscience in the past five years has been incredible. In his book, David Rock, has given me the science behind several of my life guiding principles.

1. My principle - write it down! I personally have experienced the power of writing things down and have shared this technique with my clients and friends. It is an amazing technique for remembering things, sorting things out and self-awareness.

How the Brain Works It was wonderful to discover the scientific reason this works. Briefly and in my simplified interpretation of Rock’s work, writing things down moves large amount of data from the pre-frontal cortex (which is energy intensive and has a limited capacity) to other large regions of the brain.

2. My principle -The brain is our most expensive real estate! Do not waste this valuable resource storing information, keep it organized and easily accessible for future reference. Yes, this is actually true.

How the Brain Works: the pre-frontal cortex which is our processing centre can get overloaded. Too much arousal means too much electrical activity in the pre-frontal cortex. Clear it out (my words) – Rock’s recommendations – write it down, take a walk. Read more about this in Rock’s book- fascinating techniques for discovering your “sweet spot” or being in the “flow”.

3. My principle - Sometimes we need to let ideas/thoughts cook for some time. Like preparing a good soup, add some ingredients and then let them slowly cook for several hours, the flavors integrate and boost each other. In the end you have a complety different taste then when you started.

How the Brain Works: Rock describes our thoughts as players/actors that come onto the stage (pre-frontal cortex) for processing. Some thoughts stay in the background and are called forward when needed; some are front stage, looking for their time on stage immediately. He describes a process called ARIA, Awareness, Reflection, Insight and Action for optimizing the processing power of the brain. At the Insight stage, there is a burst of gamma band brain waves, the fastest brain waves which signify brain regions communicating with one another. Insight is defined as recombining knowledge (the maps in your brain) in a whole new way.

Like the soup, there is a point where something new is created!

Note: these are my interpretations of Rock's work (,not necessarily Rock's words). Please read his book, How the Brain Works, to establish your own interpretations.

I have recently been struggling with a decision about my current employment. It has been a very difficult struggle; as Rock says, too many players on the stage and overload is the result, stress not clarity.

I have taken Rock’s suggestions to heart. Spent a weekend away in the mountains, star gazing and enjoying the peace and quiet. Started dancing again – Salsa and Argentine Tango. Dancing allows me to forget everything for a couple of hours.

Rather than travelling this Eid Al Adha holiday I have stayed in Oman. Time to catch up on some rest and some reading. Very nice!

Insights have been plentiful! I encourage you to find your unique way to clear the stage and allow the insights to emerge

Wonder what insights will come as I journey through the rest of his book? It is divided into Four Acts and I just finished Act One.

This connection between neuroscience and daily life is very affirming!

Creativity

No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the point of playing it is to reach the finale. The whole point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening. It is the same I feel, with our lives; if we are unduly absorbed in improving…we may forget altogether to live.
-Alan Watts

I found this quote on Lynda Klau's website, Life Unlimited: The Center for Human Possibility. It immediately caught my attention and brought forward a question - How do we balance setting goals and living in the moment? Does one preclude the other?

I think not. I believe they must both be present. Without goals/dreams we wander aimlessly, blown by the wind and without living in the present we never realize the pure joy of being blown by the wind.

To me, this is not an either or question. We must have both but be unduly absorbed in either. The goals/dreams set the structure of our moments and the moments combine to make our goals/dreams. The symphony (our life) will reach a finale but do we enjoy the journey?

I have been reading about creativity in Scott Jeffrey's book, Creativity Revealed - Discovering the Source of Inspiration.

In the foreword he states "Creativity is intrinsic to the evolution of life. It is the manifestation of the hidden substrate of all existence, termed "consciousness". "

Scott Jeffrey invites us to a new paradigm of thinking, from the linear to the nonlinear. In the above quote, the linear is about the improvement and finale of the symphony and the nonlinear is about the moments of playing and listening. It is a shift from understanding a process to experiencing the object. Jeffrey proposes Old Word Thinking is cause and effect, we must be able to see it and measure it or it is not real. New world thinking, instead of one thing causing another, is unfoldment, emergence when conditions are appropriate.

In my work as a coach I am very conscious of the conditions we create and live in. What environment do you create at home? at work? with your family? How do you create these environments? I believe it is important to ask these questions, it is part of the unfolding of our lives. These questions allow us to adjust our lives to realize our dreams. But first the dreamer please!

Does the symphony of your life inspire you each day?

Adventure in Oman

Another delightful day in Oman!

This time it was a sea adventure. Just a reminder that Muscat is built between the Al Hajar mountains and the Gulf of Oman, 60 km long and 5km wide. So pick your adventure! Mountains, desert, city or sea.

This day I was delighted to be part of a sailing adventure put on by Oman Sail. What a joyous renewal! Sailing was a big part of my life in Saskatchewan, Canada for many years. I owned a small dinghy and spent many weekends and holidays sailing the numerous lakes in Saskatchewan. I remembered the bliss of the wind on your face and the smell of the waters. Although this time it was salt water!

My sailor's legs were a big unsteady but the passion for sailing and the sea were as bright and vibrant as ever.

Thank you Oman Sail!

Thank you Women's Guild for organizing the day!

Thank you Lois for the pics!

And next......a mountain adventure

This picture is taken from the ruins of the ancient village of Fanja, about 20 minutes from Muscat. What a view - date palms, the new village and the mountain!

I was invited to tour the remains of this ancient village with two locals and a tour operator interested in eco-tourism. One of the locals was a wealth of information on the area. Fanja is fed by natural springs from mountains and is lush and beautiful. The tour operator (a lady) and I took the opportunity to try out the local bath embedded in the mountain. It was a hot spring on a very hot day but was so refreshing! One of the ladies from the village provided us with sweet cool water from the mountain springs. It was delicious and a life saver in the heat of the day!

This may one day be the Venice of Oman!

Once again I am filled with gratitude for this beautiful country and the amazing opportunity to live and work here.

"All experience, to borrow an expression of the mystics, is bounded by the boundless. Every step on our journey adds to what we know but it also reveals there is no end to knowing."

James P. Carse, Breakfast at the Victory

It's harvest time and the dates are delicious! As the temps rise very high we are offered the special treat of fresh dates! Oh what an experience. For those of you in the West reading this blog here is a suggestion. A tasty treat from Oman. Wrap fresh dates in turkey bacon, a sweet and salty treat!

Living in Oman has offered many adventures in eating. In my latest book Man Oman: a Redhead in Arabia I share the following story:

Once, I went on a business trip to Salalah, about 1,000 km south of Muscat, but still in Oman. Salalah has about 250,000 residents. It’s rainy season lasts two months. The city gets more than a million visitors during that time, mostly from the Gulf countries and Europe.

The branch manager picked me up at the airport and was my host for the two days. At the end of the second day, after I had finished my interviews, we went out for lunch before heading back to the airport.

He drove to a special place – not a restaurant – where six men were working intently over a fire pit. My host was very excited to take me there. He said it was the best meat, the babies. I asked for clarification and he told me he was talking about baby goats. Okay – I could almost deal with that, would try and be a good guest and at least sample some of the meat. Just as that thought went through my head, didn’t he just have to go and point out that they were at that very moment bringing in another kid for slaughter? I looked, and there was the cutest little baby goat, wrapped up in a blanket, being carried to the slaughter room!

Inside I was screaming, but I remained outwardly calm. We waited quite a while for the meat to cook, then it was brought to us in a package of tin foil. My companion threw the package in the back seat of his SUV, and I thought I had been saved; I wasn’t going to have to eat it after all.

HA!

We proceeded to a restaurant, and he brought the package of meat in with us! He asked for an extra plate and began to happily eat the meat. Several times he invited me join him. After the third or fourth time, I accepted and somehow choked it down. I said I simply could not eat anymore, and my fellow diner accepted that.

I can still see that cute little baby goat….

This was truly being 10 times bolder for me!

Inspiration

"I’m writing a book right now called Inside Out: Discovering Your First Person Point of View, and I think what I’ve been able to do in the last year for myself is to quiet the noise and to listen to the whispering voice on the inside of me. I’ve often told people that that voice only needs to whisper because it’s powerful. Power does not need volume to have an audience, and the audience that is really important right now in our lives is the audience of one – you. " Phillip Gornail

I came across this piece from LinedIn - The Get Inspired Project by Jim Reese. I was inspired and thought you might find it inspiring also.

Being quiet to be powerful struck me as intriguing. I realized that the moments in my life when I have felt connected to a power most often occur when I am out in the quiet with nature. Kayaking across a still lake on a warm sunny afternoon. Having my breath taken away by the beauty of a garden or a mountainside covered in flowers. Listening to the waves crash on the seashore. Listening to the call of the loon. Sitting in the sunshine reading. Watching the clouds float across the sky.

The whispering voice in me caressing my soul, instructing, reassuring and inviting. All is well with the world at these times and I come back to the busy city life renewed, refreshed and inspired!

When do you hear the whispering voice inside of you?

It's Not Like The West

I heard it again! "It's not like the West" Aaagh!

How many times have I heard this since moving to Muscat? Too many! This time, I was invited to be a guest speaker at an International Women's Conference and it showed up during the refreshment break. And once again, it made me stop and ponder - what is the "West" like?

What is Canada like? Surely Canada is the "West" they are speaking about.

In my home city of Winnipeg, it is not uncommon to hear 28 different dialects being spoken on the streets in one day.

In one week I would go to an Indian restaurant for butter chicken, a Thai restaurant for red curry coconut chicken soup, a Japanese restaurant for Sushi, an Italian restaurant for pasta and perhaps end the week with perogies and sausage at a Ukrainian restaurant. The weekends were often reserved for hour of eating Dim Sum in Chinatown. A culinary delight!

Oh at times I do miss the multiculturalism of Canada.! Balanced with this is how thrilling it is to be learning a great deal about Arabian cultures! As an added bonus, there is a very large expatriate community of Indians here and I am learning a fair bit about Indian cultures!

Till we meet again,

In'sha'allah (God Willing)

Perceptions

Two worlds in a week!

One - Sri Lanka, war torn, poverty, expansive natural beauty. I was overwhelmed with the abundance of flora and fauna in this country. On our climb up Adam's Peak there were men, women and children of all ages, completing the climb barefoot, with smiles as wide as their faces and eyes as bright as the sun.

The other world - I was ever so fortunate to be invited to an Arabic ladies wedding in Oman, the marriage of a young man and a young lady from very wealthy and powerful families. It is the Oman tradition to have first the mans wedding and then the ladies wedding. This seems strange to Western ears I understand. I again was overwhelmed with the natural beauty but this time it was the beauty of the women. Words cannot explain the array of gems both on the women and their gowns. Unfortuantely pictures were not allowed. A different world, but women of all ages gathering, sharing friendship joy and laughter. Different costumes and yes, soon the shoes were gone and the ladies were dancing barefoot! Smiles as wide as their faces and eyes sparkling like diamonds!

Different circumstances, different life experiences but my perception was the same - I saw pure joy in each. I am happy to say I got beyond the appearances of both, the rich and the poor, and got to the light and love shining from inside!

How do your perceptions influence what you see?

Welcome to my first blog.

Welcome to Coach Approach subscribers. I hope you enjoy the new format.
Welcome to new followers. I hope you enjoy the blog.
Just got back from Sri Lanka. From the desert to the jungle in four hours! WOW!
My son, Joey, and I climbed to the top of Adam's Peak, a four hour climb up very steep steps and four hours down the same steep steps. The reward: watching the sun rise over the mountains with Buddhist monks drumming and chanting in the background. The reward: we survived! a very tough climb!
What would you do if you were ten times braver?