Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”
{
Formation and the Brain
Theories of Intelligence
Entity
• Incremental
•
Expertise Studies
•
Malcolm Gladwell Outliers
•
10000 hour rule = 5 years full
time practice or 10 years parttime practice
Your Brain
•
•
All human brains have the same basic
systems.
But no two human brains are identical
because every experience, every
memory, everything we learn changes
the wiring of our brain.
Pathways to Memories
•
Campus map
Neurons making a connection
Give yourself as many
door handles as possible
to get the memory
connected in multiple
ways.
You are creating a constellation of neurons that
shimmer with information.
Damage to the neural network
The Brain’s Workarounds
•
•
•
•
Marie Ponsot and the Lord’s Prayer
Olfactory cues as a way to learn in situations where connections
have been lost or never made
Incremental Theories of Intelligence do not ignore possible
structural limits, but do not focus on those as limits in the
process of learning. The brain is amazing for figuring out how to
learn.
Give the brain a task and it will try to learn the most efficient
way to do it. The brain wants to use its energy efficiently.
How long can a human go without food?
How long without water?
How long without oxygen?
Care and Feeding of Your Brain
•
Oxygen is going to your brain and
absorbing toxic free radicals which
could poison the brain in less than 5
minutes, causing brain damage and
death.
Care and Feeding of Your Brain
•
•
Exercise increases the number of
blood vessels and also helps your
body work in the energy/oxygen
business more efficiently.
Our brains were developed while
walking 12 miles a day to find food
and water.
Care and Feeding of Your Brain
•
Aerobic exercise 30 minutes, 3 times a
week. In 12 weeks, brain function
increased 90% in 27 year olds. Stop
the exercise. Brain function drops.
Care and Feeding of Your Brain
•
•
Exercise also strengthens a part of the brain
which adds in memory formation.
If you exercise you are 50% less likely to have
troubles as you age, including Alzheimer’s. But
even then, regular exercise does provide a
marked improvement to people who already
have dementia.
Care and Feeding of Your Brain
•
Your blood (oxygen, glucose) pools in
your rear after 20 minutes. Stand up
stretch and your brain now has 15%
more blood flowing to it. You will
feel more attentive.
Prescription for Success
Stretch
• Drink a glass of
water
• Eat a piece of fruit.
•
Your brain does not multitask
higher level functions.
Steps to shifting attention:
1.
Shift alert
2.
Rule activation for task #1
3.
Disengagement
4.
Rule activation for task #2
Task
Surfing
Task Surfing
•
•
•
Multitasking takes 50% longer to complete the task.
50% more mistakes.
Driving while texting = Driving drunk
It is exciting, but over time, the high from doing a lot
of different things at once is:
•
•
•
Burned out short term memory
Less opportunity for long term memory to form
Practiced into distraction.
•
•
•
•
Dopamine—It feels good.
The brain likes novelty.
The brain likes to do a task as efficiently
has it can, to save energy. It is made to
create habits.
Habits can be made, and broken. The brain
is extremely flexible, but it takes time to
build habits or undo old habits.
The Internet
•
•
A formation in distraction
F-shaped reading
Why are distractions when
reading/learning a problem?
•
Short-term memory/Working memory
•
Long-term memory
Read
Repeatedly
Reflect
Rest
Dialogue
Stress
Our brains have trouble telling the difference between a real
saber-tooth tiger and a metaphorical one.
Sleep and Learning
• We sleep to live.
• If you get 4 hours or less of sleep a
night, function drops 30%; for two
nights, 60%.
• But here is the important point: 5
nights, sleeping 6 hours or less is
equivalent of going without sleep for 2
days.
Willpower
• Willpower is a limited resources, best
first thing in the morning.
• The more decisions you have to make,
the less willpower energy is available.
• This leads to end of day indulgence.
• To support your willpower, remove
temptations.
Attention and Reverie
• Focus is important for learning, but
creative insights often come through
relaxation of attention.
• The brain is better able to make crossbrain connections during a relaxed
state.
• Allow periods of rest in your learning.
Soma Pneumatikon
• The spiritual body
• 1 Corinthians 15:44: It is sown a physical
body, it is raised a spiritual body.
• Any practice, such as memorizing
scripture, consistently choosing to love
or forgive, serving others in love,
prayer, worship—with attention and
intention—changes us physically over
time.
• God’s grace and love are being
incorporated into our bodies.