Habits of the Mind 1
(Monday)
Context:
During one’s adolescence, the thinking patterns you develop will become ingrained for the rest of your life. Your pattern of thinking will greatly influence who you are and what you do for the rest of your life.
You will want to become aware of the pattern of thinking you’ve developed. Then we want to identify and reinforce positive thinking and patterns, while at the same time identifying and preventing negative thinking patterns from developing.
If you are still in school, your brain is transforming. It’s growing and developing in areas of logic, decision-making, and processing emotions. You can leave the transformation of your brain to chance. Or you can take control and make terrific transformations.
What it is: Habits of the mind refer to the pattern of ingrained reactions that your brain develops during adolescence. With each and every decision comes a choice. However, a pattern of thinking can cause us to continually choose one path over another.
Why it’s important: Over time the pattern can actually be making decisions for you. For example, if you have the habit of choosing the easy way out of any situation, or avoiding difficult situations, over time those can become a pattern. You always take the easy way out or avoid difficult situations.
Over time those habits can form a pattern in your mind. If later in life there’s a decision where the harder choice is the best course of action or an action that will be difficult, the habits of your mind could cause you to make the wrong choice.
If you have the habit of just doing what you’re asked and nothing more, in the workplace your habit of doing the bare minimum could impact you negatively when layoff time comes.
On the other hand, if you have a pattern of taking on challenges, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done correctly, even taking steps that have not been defined or are difficult for you, then you will become an extremely valuable employee in any company you work for.
Primer Questions
Do you always choose the easy way out of difficult situations?
Are you iritated when other people ask for help or for your time?
Do you take responsibility for your mistakes or do you always try to place the blame elsewhere?
Can you identify any negative habits of the mind that you have developed?
Write down your answers and observations in your journal.
Your brain is your most important and valuable asset for surviving and thriving in the future.
As it begins to transform and grow, if you don’t help shape the development of your brain, your surroundings will.
Don’t leave the development of your brain to someone else. Be aware of the habits your mind is forming now, and have a hand in making your brain’s transformation something terrific.
How Do You React?
Are you known as someone who has a bad temper? Impatient? Or are you known for someone who is patient and level-headed?
How you are viewed, based on your decisions and reactions to stressful circumstances, is tied directly to your use of your PFC.
Watch the video then answer the questions below, or discuss them with others.
Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC)
Do you control your brain? Or does your brain control you?
You program your brain, which can then subconsciously influence your actions.
Watch the video then answer the questions below, or discuss them with others
This video is produced by NeuroscientificallyChallenged.
Meet the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC):
The part of the brain that is key to reasoning, problem-solving, comprehension, impulse control, creativity, and perseverance.
Functions of the PFC:
Focusing one's attention.
Predicting the consequences of one's actions; anticipating events in the environment.
Impulse control; managing emotional reactions.
Planning for the future.
Effective communication.
Empathy.
Scenario: You get anxious in your science class because you don’t do well on tests. The majority of your grade in this science class is based on tests and quizzes, not homework.
You’ve been ingraining the pattern of feeling stress and anxiety when you go to science class for half of the year.
How would you use your PFC to break your negative thought cycle about your science class?
Use the following questions to help you engage your PFC for this scenario.
1) Would it help (would I be less anxious in science class) if I asked a classmate to help me understand my homework?
2) Could I do extra studying on my own, to make the subject more interesting?
3) Is my grade really so bad?
4) Am I trying my best? Or is there more I can do to help me understand what I’m learning?
5) Would it help if I research how what I am learning is used in the real world?
6) Does this stress help me in any way? Do I really need to put myself through all this anxiety?
7) Is the stress I’m causing myself really going to make a difference in my overall success in life?
What Pattern are you Programing into Your Brain?
TRY IT: Identifying what you are feeling, then using your PFC to logically lower the emotional intensity can help with anxiety and stress related to school and life.
It is difficult not to ‘stay’ in an emotion. Sometimes we feel the same way in a specific situation so many times that we may believe there’s no other way to feel, act or respond to that situation.
In those instances especially, use your logical PFC to determine if there is an alternate, better way to react to that situation.
Metacognitive Goals
For the next few days, try to notice if you have a different view of learning in school, in the classroom, versus learning something on your own.
Do you learn easier when you choose the topic, manner of learning, and time to learn? If you are interested in a subject in school does that help?
Overall, what is your view of learning? Is learning something that you enjoy? Or something you dread?
Thought of the day.
"Any fool can know. The point is to understand. "
- Albert Einstein