| Tweet | | | | the centre of our brains, we conduct our unconscious |
| Share | | | | thought. |
| How do we tune in to the rhythms around us? How | | | | It was only in October 2005 that a study at MIT found |
| do we synchronize our frequency with the changing | | | | the location where our habits are stored: the basal |
| frequencies in time? | | | | ganglia, located next to the cerebellum in the inner brain. |
| It has only been in the last twenty years that modern | | | | They found through a series of experiments that at |
| scanners and experimentation have taken | | | | critical moments when a familiar situation was |
| neuroscience to a level where we can now know with | | | | encountered, a lost habit could be automatically |
| more certainty what cognitive functions are taking | | | | re-activated from within our unconscious. |
| place in which parts of the brain. | | | | Dr Ann Graybiel, Professor of Neuroscience at |
| The four sides of the Wealth Dynamics Square, a | | | | MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, |
| profiling system used by over 30,000 entrepreneurs to | | | | said: "It is as though somehow, the brain retains a |
| find their flow, match the ‘four sides’ of the | | | | memory of the habit context, and this pattern can be |
| brain: our frontal lobes (located on the front and top of | | | | triggered if the right habit cues come back. This |
| the brain) are the centre of our creative thinking and | | | | situation is familiar to anyone who is trying to lose |
| intuition; our parietal and occipital lobes (located at the | | | | weight or to control a well-engrained habit. Just the |
| centre and back) are the centre of our sensory | | | | sight of a piece of chocolate cake can reset all those |
| function; our left hemisphere is responsible for analysis, | | | | good intentions." |
| with one input at a time; and our right hemisphere is | | | | Our actions are fired much faster by the more |
| responsible for our relationships, with multiple inputs at a | | | | primitive, unconscious inner brain, responsible for our |
| time. | | | | automatic actions, than by the outer, conscious brain, |
| “The brain is simply a collection of neurons and | | | | responsible for pattern recognition or memory. But to |
| other cells, Gathered together in one place to simplify | | | | ‘program’ our habits at the centre, we need to |
| the wiring.” - Helen Phillips, New Scientist | | | | first create patterns through our experience. To know |
| If our brains are all so similar in size, and if wealth | | | | and not to do is not yet to know. |
| appears to have little to do with intelligence or talent | | | | We learn to drive a car consciously by using our |
| (with fortune eluding many of the most intelligent and | | | | cerebral cortex, until it becomes an unconscious |
| talented amongst us), what is the process by which | | | | process accessed through the cerebellum and basal |
| our brain turns success into a habit? | | | | ganglia. A footballer learns through practice but scores |
| All of our actions are based on either a conscious | | | | in the game through instinct and habit. We gain our |
| action, based on mental calculation, or unconscious | | | | greatest learning through conscious thought, but at our |
| action, based on reflex. Breathing is a reflex action, | | | | critical moments we achieve our greatest actions |
| whereas intellectual argument is a calculated action. | | | | through our unconscious thought. |
| Yet when we see a great athlete in action, it is often a | | | | “We are what we repeatedly do; Excellence, then, |
| reflex action at a critical moment that wins the game. | | | | is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle |
| “In the same way that I tend to make up my mind | | | | Tuning in is a process of conscious learning, leading to |
| About people within thirty seconds of meeting them, I | | | | unconscious habit. The more we play the same game, |
| also make up my mind about a business proposal | | | | the better we get at that game. Where do we |
| Within thirty seconds and whether it excites me.” | | | | experience flow? Is it a pattern or a habit? Is it |
| - Richard Branson | | | | conscious or unconscious? Hidden in the very centre |
| In 1997, researchers at John Hopkins and the University | | | | of our brains, (above the cerebellum and the basal |
| of Maryland using a PET scanner found that we all | | | | ganglia) lies the pineal gland - about the size of a pea. |
| learn new skills through our outer cortex, but then in | | | | The pineal gland, which controls our melatonin levels, |
| repetition these physical skills are stored and accessed | | | | looks after our sense of rhythm with nature, |
| through the inner brain, within the cerebellum. | | | | synchronizing our internal biorhythms with nature’s |
| Conscious thought operates on the outer layer of the | | | | cycles. |
| brain. We are masters of pattern recognition and we | | | | This tiny pea in the unconscious, automatic part of our |
| experience the world by comparing our experiences | | | | brain has been recognized for thousands of years as |
| to the patterns formed by our past history. This is | | | | the doorway to our flow. |
| where we conduct our conscious thought. Yet within | | | | |