Angst or Awe? 41 – 50 of 50 Anxiety-Free Power Tools

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Anxiety disorders will likely be our next and most dangerous pandemic, experts fear! We know that worry and fear is on a fast rise and escalation of these toxins are already showing catastrophic problems that hamper people’s ability to cope with challenges. We also know that we come with chemicals that delight and wow us, just as we come with chemicals that fuel anxieties and worries.

This series first blog includes the first 10 anxiety-buster tools and is followed by the second blog with tools 11 – 20 with the third blog tools 21 to 30, the fourth blog tools 31 to 40 and below, the final blog tools 41 to 50 of our anxiety-free series. All five blogs offer proven exit tools for our personal escape to decrease anxiety in tough times, such as a pandemic or climate change catastrophes!

Tool 41 below, shows how the brain comes hardwired to overcome passivity or boredom that easily defaults to stress. By transforming pressured practices to stress-free solutions, we can reduce stress. We overcome anxiety by using mental tools to exchange facts into working solutions. Transfer is not automatic regardless of genius insights. Action creates change. Brains hold new facts for a short time in working memory and actions transform and store this data into usable skills.

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 41: How we see change will determine how we replace anxiety with anti-stress responses. 10 principles of change I’ve learned over 40 years and international experiences, that help us to alter talks or lectures into vibrant interactive learning and mutual mentoring opportunities.

Initiate change in small increments – mentally, physically and emotionally. We need time and support in order to temper con­cerns about stress and to build skills that will adapt new knowledge and contemporary challenges, such as a pandemic in a changing society. Change should more than test traditional pressured practices.  It should introduce a variety of brain based ways, such as mind-guiding and multiple intelligence approaches to live without anxiety.

Help others by doing projects with them, by working alongside. We activate one another’s interests and abilities to build innovative structures that counteract deeply ingrained, anxiety inducing approaches. As we work together, we bring unique responses to resolve common problems with stress-free solutions created to benefit all.

Respect human dignity. Rather than blame others for failure, we can draw on the experience and knowledge of each one to facilitate growth. When we hook new knowledge onto past ideas and expe­riences, we demystify complex new tactics that reduce. Growth begins with both knowledge and experience, so that we enjoy a role in the production of new approaches that incorporate unique abilities become our growth-producing engine.

Achieve innovation at minimum cost by using local resources. Often, the best resources are those closest to us. We are nourished and ener­gized through shared responsibility for positive changes. Experts may also bring specialized resources, such as the ability to use new technology effectively to help us resolve problems without anxiety.

Complete all tasks with excellence and evaluate each. Through performance- based assessment, or the direct observation and rating of performance, evaluation becomes an ongoing process. Brain based assessments of our progress include opportunities to apply new neural discoveries to real-life situations in ways that achieve stress-free and excellent problem-solving approaches.

Share what we learn with others. Unless shared, ideas and new approaches have little power to bring about lasting changes. Growth becomes interactive and active. Any setting can be charged with enthusiasm, when we offer folks a place at the helm of their personal growth. Stress-free practices may include Gardner’s eight ways of applying solutions through filters of music, dance, dining, industrial frameworks, art, historic re­ports, and samples of architectural designs.

Create both personal and group satisfaction. As we interact, we gain new appreciation and interest, not only in ideas but also in one another. Our circles benefit through group satisfaction that arises from this holistic approach toward growing and leading new stress-free problem-solving skills together.

Base innovation on wisdom, not mere knowledge. Many believe the process of lasting change is spiritual, not merely intellectual. Inuit leaders on Baffin Is­land emphasize that wisdom includes such distinct characteristics as kindness, hu­mility, caring, putting others first, and building community. These characteristics are often modeled by Inuit leaders and participants and in circles they build with in community. An overall observation I made while in the Arctic is that Inuit innovation draws more on participants’ beliefs and values and draws less on rigid facts from texts or water-tight answers.

Change takes buy-in and support to succeed, so we engage others at the onset, through two-footed questions, such as “What if …?” The best way to frame our inquiry is to ask a question that another person would most enjoy addressing.

Reflect to engage all! We cannot change others but we can change and grow ourselves to lead others toward growth with the kind of excellence and care that inspires leadership and participation from all.

Reflection after Tool 41 use: Most agree that change from telling to doing is rarely for the faint of heart, but here are 10 reasons to actively build stress-free problem-solving skills rather than listen to lectures about the perils of stress and anxiety. Below are 100 reasons to run from talks on anxiety reduction and build skills for calm.   

Have you considered lately how lectures, talks and delivering facts impact our ability to benefit from those facts? Below are 100 considerations.

When we believe anxiety describes a tough situation we’re stuck in today, we do little to avoid panic or seek new way out of our dilemma. If our beliefs about stress show anxiety as not normal and if its unable to demean our actions, we risk kind and hopeful responses, even in difficult settings.  Our beliefs about change and mental autonomy support freer actions and foster anti-anxiety approaches.

To see stress as an intruder is to seek ways to prevent its intrusion

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 42: We may feel frustrated by lack of  money, or lack of  support, and so we anxiously watch personal possibilities slip away, as our problem-solving skills seem to be inundated with anxiety laden problems.

Good news is here if we dip into personal mental resources.  Our brains come fully equipped with power-tools needed to step into a finer and anxiety-free future for ourselves and others we support.

Not that we can change others, or remove their stressful ways. We can’t. Nevertheless, regardless of the challenges we face, our brains are fearfully and wonderfully made to lead far finer directions forward than many of us realize. Our pathways can side-step chaos we encounter to create the calm we crave.

How so?

Let’s say we struggle with anxiety and feel unsure what causes our edgy concerns.  Check out brain-friendly choices that advance our autonomy to resolve whatever challenge we face. Use one of our multiple intelligences rarely used, and watch hopeful opportunities open to you.

Discover thankfulness in what we have, rather than focus on our limitations, and our brains shift gears into new possibilities. To the human brain spoken and lived expressions of gratitude reduce anxiety charged chemicals such as cortisol. See any opportunity here for mind-bending strength to march forward? Yes, in spite of obstacles we all encounter at one time or another.

Laugh at the little things and we lead others to laugh with us more. Laughter, even expressed in a casual smile will amp up the brain’s well-being chemical, serotonin. This aha hormone literally changes the chemistry of your brain. It fuels you mentally to tackle difficult challenges with renewed courage and problem-solving capability. Evidence of its operation, will be the rewards we take away from challenges we conquer. I learned this firsthand when I found myself left out on my own at 14, after my mother died of cancer. Change takes action, and action changes the brain, alters our beliefs about hope and showcases its evidence in mental wellbeing chemicals to fuel our way forward. Worth a shot?

Simply by the choices we make, we also inspire others to step toward delightful results in spite of challenges or chaos. How so?

For many years I tried to demonstrate that our education systems work against human brains. Then, I decided to create and make available  student-ready leadership and learning materials with fun brain based tools at my TpT site. By designing materials based on brain research I solved daily dilemmas secondary school and university faculty face, with neural solutions they use as tools.

Stubborn snags may sometimes slow us down, and broken systems resist change,  but our brains come equipped to link us to brilliant solutions we already possess. It’s merely a matter of connecting the problem to a brainy possibility.

Fail to connect to our brains and we may well miss an opportunity to bring about brilliance bits that power ourselves and others past daily traps. Let me explain. Let’s say somebody crosses us or we feel the need to correct a person we mentor. Sadly, we often lecture that person and therefore trigger a cranky chemical, cortisol in us and in the other person. Show kindness, smile and offer respect, even if we have to suck up an injustice though, and we woo ourselves and others into serotonin solutions!

Reflection after Tool 42 use: We could say we literally shift angry situations into peaceful solutions by tapping into personal DNA pools.

The opposite is also true. Lecture an already angry person and watch cortisol escalate rather than dissipate. Have you seen it when parents or teachers berate youth? Contrast that response with a parent who gets an upset child laughing and moving forward with confidence. It’s a brain thing…

Below are a few difficulties we all face from time to time, along with our brain’s ready-to-roll solutions to help reduce stress.

1. Lose keys lots? Try a simple memory tactic that outsources our keys to our working memory.

2. Feel bored? Capitalize on hidden and unused intelligences that awaken wonder.

3. Slip into loneliness sometimes? We all slip into loneliness – yet our brains come fully equipped to move us beyond lonely.

4. Struggle with anger? Snip our amygdala before it snipes us back. Here’s how.

5. Lack confidence? Play brain based games that boost confidence. with brainy alternatives.

6. Fear risks? Stack the deck for fun and creative risks.

7. Face unfairness? Discover what happens inside our brains when even-handedness goes missing in any day.

8. Stressed? Celebrate our social and emotional survival skills to take a step beyond stress.

Whatever the anxiety related problem, our amazing brains likely hold a custom-made remedy. It’s merely a matter of identifying the dilemma and accessing its neural stress-free solution within our amazing DNA. What do you think?

Just as we run from cynicism, we run from fear to remain healthy!

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 43: Spot a cynic and we see mental functions that also drive anxiety. Not that anxiety means we are cynics or bullies. Never! Yet the same chemical and electrical circuitry that drives bullies and cynics also pushes panic buttons and whips up worry! Yikes! Good thing we can do its opposite to see angst flee.

Only after we hit unethical walls raised by scorn from anxieties cynicism, do we value freedom flights toward its opposite brain functions – the curious mind. I’m speaking of that chronically negative, anxious person, who expresses disdain for innovative ideas, and who comes to expect that stressed brains rely on habit so that distrust reigns and delight hides.

For Russel Lynes, cynicism’s the pseudo-intellectual’s substitute for intelligence. For Norman Cousins it’s intellectual treason. For us? However you define it, the cynic’s anxiety ridden  brain leads a direction of disaster by tone that rushes to fuel and highlight the worst in us.  

Consider the mental equipment active in brains cynics and you see what fuels anxiety.

1. Amygdala for the cynic is that tiny sac of neurons that remains agitated most of the time, overheats easily, and triggers turmoil as an emotional pattern. How do we tame an anxious amygdala?

2. Cortisol releases from cynics like falls over Niagara, as its potent chemical slams people into stress and panic that shrinks human brains. What tactics do we use to counter that cortisol surge?

3. Neuron pathways for cynics create disagreeable expressions of gloom, and habitual synapses can reshape anxious moods or jade perspectives into permanent panic as we face problems over time. See how today’s actions to avoid anxiety shape tomorrow’s mental and emotional health?

4. Plasticity rewires the cynic’s anxious brain nightly for angry responses, and deep seated frustrations. Outwardly, poor tone packs punches that cripple opportunities to prosper calm and enjoyable approaches. Rewire against cynicism and panic by doing their opposites, since every action we take today helps to reshape the brain as we sleep tonight.

5. Dendrite brain cells connect negativity to negativity in the mind of an anxious or cynical brain, to regenerate mental stagnation not seen in the curious or calm. Practice one positive act and watch chemical and electrical activity reboot us mentally for more of the same.

6. Basal ganglia, with its propensity to default back to ruts, stores and replays worst habits of cynical or anxious minds till others can cite our complaints by heart. That’s why we see some people locked into racism, sexism and other poisonous or panicked practices picked up and played routinely without much thought.

7. Working memory sits unused and often remains mute for the anxious or cynic, who finds no need for mental equipment that prospers the curious or leaps into action for calm, solution-bound minds. Focus on facts that build concrete solutions in contrast,  and working memory tools spring into action to solve complex problems out of bounds to the cynical or anxious mind.

8. Brain chemicals refuel retched moods in cynics, with decreased natural drugs for well-being, and increased hormones for negative or anxious behavior.  Cynicism and anxiety block serotonin, sometimes referred as molecule of happiness, and both stir up chemicals that accompany disdain.

9. Serotonin sinks lower in mind of the anxious or cynic, leaving the brain without resources against anxiety, disquiet, anger, or conflict at work. Each cynical act can lower a brain’s natural serotonin supplies. Increase serotonin through healthy foods, exercise, and many behaviors that spike sincere satisfaction.

10. Brainwaves of cynics or anxious minds, rewire daily to reshape our mind for more cynical and panicked performances. Organized by a hierarchy, electrical waves control how neurons communicate for better or for worse, and cynical or anxious forces can surge a brain’s circuitry for negative outcomes.

Reflection after Tool 43 use: Sadly, over time cynics no longer see cause for change, because anxious brains work against that possibility.  Anxiety and cynicism leave their victims craving attention and creating conflict much like addicts crave drugs or drunks cause oppression. In either case mental tools shut down. In fact, looking back at mistakes, the cynic often chills to bitter regrets, while rarely taking advantage of mental equipment tapped by curious minds who build finer futures. Know any molecular switch that could turn off cynical cravings or anxiety’s angst in our day?

The brain releases fear when it pursues love

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 44: In Touched by an Angel, Maya Angelou suggested, “love strikes away the chains of fear… it is only love which sets us free.”  Angelou affirmed neural and cognitive sciences call to flee cortisol-fueled fear by embracing serotonin-fueled love. Not tough love, but unconditional love. We may not be able to control stress that clobbers us, yet we can control our calm and loving reactions.

With each of the 22 average stressors that hit us on an ordinary day we will choose fear or calm, depending on learned reactions. To act fearfully is to stir up cortisol chemicals and shut down brainpower for the innovative answers many of us crave. We can learn to flee fear before it blocks mental courage and prevents new possibilities.

When fear causes reactions such as venting, these are stored in our amygdala, and they will surface again in similar difficult situations. Love locks in the tools we need to face reality with courage.

Let’s say we want to flee fear of losing memory for example.  Research supports common reasons that memory can fade through stress,  pregnancy or menopause, thyroid problems, long-term excessive drinking, normal aging, head injury, some drugs, concussion or depression.

If we sense memory loss we then  wire  for either fear or freedom. The opposite of rewiring for calm and inner love through inclusive tone skills, for instance, is to wire for gridlock, fear and compromise. The potential within caring tone tools from neuroplasticity – can rewire entire communities for emphasizing and attaining more positive, compassionate targets from deeper DNA pools.

The flip side of memory loss is to develop tactics that sharpen memory when we need it most. For example, hook a new fact onto something already known. Whenever we link ideas to something familiar, we hang new knowledge hats onto familiar hooks inside our cranium. See how new facts stick when we flee fear?

Reflection after Tool 44 use: When new facts hook onto known facts, our brain remembers where to find both. Take the lost keys, discussed earlier.  I hook keys in the same place daily and luckily haven’t had to search for years. What could we remember for a finer and fear-free day?

People far younger than me waste endless hours looking for lost keys, while new research about memory and aging brains brings amazing good news monthly for those who calmly use its tools.

Simple memory tricks magically free up our working memory  to focus on integrating new facts needed to solve real-life problems with life-changing actions. We are liberated to love and care rather than panic and fear.

We are freed to use more, working memory that holds new facts a very short time, so we may wish to  sketch the fact in a quick image or diagram next to its meaning.

Learned forgetfulness can be turned around today into a new brain based memory tool for tomorrow. New research about plasticity enables us to rewire your brain nightly as we sleep. It’s based on activities we do in memory’s favor that day. In other words, try any of the tips in this post, and that action alone will build new dendrite cell changes for remembering more and fearing less.

Try any of the new tricks below and jog our memory to calm down, develop inner confidence, and we’ll likely retrieve facts we need.

Start here just for the fun of remembering – and then try one tip to add zip that will stoke your day.

a. Eat light and avoid fats and sugars before a talk, presentation or a think tank.

b. Stay calm and link what we hear to what we already know so when we hear a name we link it to a feature on a person’s face. I once met a guy called “Harry Bignose,” who had a hairy nose the size of a country pump. OK – that one was easy.

c. Attach a small hook onto our keys and snap them onto a belt or bag, but make sure it is the same place repeatedly, so our brain grows new neuron connectors for finding keys in the same place.

d. Tell somebody else about these tips and tools to improve holiday memories. Did you know that to teach a thing at the same time we learn it, helps us retain 90% more of what we learn. Not bad returns for sharing a simple tip to help a forgetful friend.

e. Thank people around us for anything they do in our favor and our brain stirs in serotonin, a hormone that fuels well being. Not surprisingly, serotonin also opens the brain to peak memories, just as anger causes the brain to forget.

Did I just say we can teach our brain to forget?  OK, it’s true … and now the secret is out. Our brain operates more by how we use it for love rather than for fear, than by our age. Good news for those who plan more than gracious existence and expect to age voraciously – with memory in tact.

Teens also love to use these 25 brain based study skill tips to learn more, in less time, and with fun strategies, that draw more from their awesome brains.

It’s often a simple case of outsourcing core facts, to free up our mind to relax and enjoy a holiday, for instance. How so? Why not remember directions next time a person tells us three turns at main intersections – by outsourcing brief details into a list written to ensure our memory’s peak performance to get us there. Simply list three adventures you plan to do on your holiday. Then do them delightfully, whether alone or with others.

Emotional health often determines our change or stagnation, and new research shows how our emotions survive even after memories vanish.

Only low intrapersonal IQ can keep us stressed, alone or overwhelmed during a holiday, while others with higher emotional IQ seem to revel in festivity and fun. As discussed earlier, our brains hold enormous working memory tools for another run at an overcoming life in a healthier, more enjoyable lane.

When we live each day as if love could triumph over fearful setbacks, we also lift our capacity to live well when barriers appear. Scott Fitzgerald said it best. “It’s never too late to change and to choose new adventures that will replace old habits that hold us back for another year.”

Hope is our mental and emotional antidote to despair and distress

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 45: Hope is to our brains what a bright light is to a dark tunnel. It’s the mental energy to remain calm in stressful situations that seem impossible. With hope we survive difficulties and can support others in tough times since hope removes the veil over our perception and thought. No surprise that researchers such as Dr. J. Groopman also found that hope fortifies prosperity and raises our immunity to stress and sickness.     

In his book,  The Anatomy of Hope, Groopman stated, “Hope is different from blind optimism: it brings reality into sharp focus.”

My international brain based work showed hope to also fuel Intrapersonal IQ, which elevates our minds over panic or past anxiety and eliminates common fears by rewiring our brains through acts of courage. In fact, hope fuels multiple intelligences just as hopelessness tends to fade whenever we find courage for intrapersonal activities that increase thickness in our cerebral cortex, especially in areas of attention and sensation. Reconnect neurons of wellbeing, and we support neuron pathways to hope.

Check out a FREE Intelligence Survey Here  to see which go-to intelligences will reboot hope as our problem solving tool. Let’s also teach our teens and young adults to use their wider range of capabilities for engaging hopeful solutions in difficult times!

What if we targeted multiple intelligences to develop higher IQ for hopeful economic problem-solving in a pandemic season?

1. Mathematical or logical intelligence enables us to trace and engage new logical chains of reasoning to discern where solvable problems are rooted.

2. Verbal linguistic intelligence enables us to read, research and discuss accurate economic trends, as well as writing a plan for economic growth, and perhaps even proposing a possible new approach to our bank manager. If he or she hears and acts on our good ideas, we can be assured we are growing hope in this mental domain.

3. Musical or rhythmic intelligence enables us to compose musical solutions or emulate those who have expanded our world through musical interjections. Listen to words in the song, Lean on Me, and we begin to pull people together to find collective solutions, rather than divide or insist on getting our own way when trouble strikes.

4. Visual spatial intelligence enables us to create or use images, graphs, or visual portrayals to understand and explain economic problems and possibilities. We grow this domain of our intelligence when we use visuals to see and act on hopeful pathways forward for ourselves and others.

5. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence enables us to engage in movement, building and handling materials in ways that deepen understanding about past economic challenges. This unique capability enables us to rebuild our surrounding to accommodate more hopeful opportunities.

6. Interpersonal or social intelligence enables us to discern and respond well to moods, temperaments, motivation, and desires of different people as they relate to economic bust and boom. Are we surrounding ourselves with people who rebuild for hopeful solutions, and avoiding those who seem to delight in doom?

7. Intrapersonal or introspective intelligence enables us to show self-knowledge, act with integrity and discriminate between good or bad personal choices for our benefit and the benefit of others around us.

8. Naturalistic intelligence enables us to use mental tools that draw on patterns and designs in nature as a way to see real world problems and propose nature-related solutions for growth.

A new look at the brainpower within multiple intelligences helps us to improve problem-solving – by targeting more brainpower for hopeful possibilities and better results going forward.

Reflection after Tool 45 use: Let’s say we activate mental and emotional reward centers through music that inspires hope for instance. In this way, we can boost moods as well as improve neural survival well past those challenging obstacles. 

Our brain operates hope as its power tool to rebuild after trouble (such as coronavirus pandemic) strikes. Unfortunately however, our brain also slides into despair, a pre-condition that prevents us from accessing hope’s best benefits at times. Did you know for instance, that laughter sets the brain’s stage for hope that heals us from hardships?

Luckily, we can change approach, whenever past problems or pre-conditions leave us feeling hopeless, or ready to blame others for stressors that strike. In fact, our IQ or capacity to construct hopeful solutions is less fixed than once believed. Furthermore, intelligence is more fluid, and hopeful solutions more mentally available in trauma situations, than once realized.

Not surprisingly the creator of our first intelligence test taught that intelligence can be increased. We assumed our IQ score answered the question, “How hopeful are you?”

So why do so many of us tend to feel inadequate when faced with coronavirus challenges? Why do we fear that intelligence we are born with appears to limit our hope-filled capabilities now that we face so much loss?

When we understand the elastic fluidity of our intelligence we answer to a very different question, How are we hopeful? In similar ways we engage the question, How are we smart? rather than, How smart are we? Simply stated, tangible ways exist to be more hopeful and smarter. Luckily, our brains come equipped to open mental access into hope’s problem solving skills that will improve our situation.

For those of us who enjoy the fluidity of intelligence, we reboot constantly to show evidence of hope’s growth and change across multiple mental domains. How so?

Henry Ford summed up the brain’s hope tools when he said, “Whether you believe you can do a thing, or fear you cannot, either way you are correct. Believe IQ is fixed, and we fix past mental outcomes of despair when storms strike, as well as limit our performance to one familiar watermark. Believe IQ is fluid, however, and our brains are more apt to run with hopeful possibilities in ways that help us to perform at mastery levels. We now know that our collective IQ increases about 3 points every decade. Hopeful? Yes, and we then ask, what would it take to increase hope for ourselves and others in a pandemic today?

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 46: Start with our talents and we end with productivity and emotional wellbeing. Let’s consider this inventory one item at a time to see how we identify and activate talents that sidestep panic and stress.

First, see how I completed each Interest Inventory item below by adding my personal responses after every statement. Then following the inventory I created tasks that use a strength or talent I possess. Hopefully my example will help you to uncover a few hidden talents you possess.

1. Three words that describe me are… Writer, Curious, Fun

2. Things I like to do most are … Golf, Discuss new ideas, Invent

3. I’d love to learn more about … How to create cool videos

4. Someday I’d really like to… Be part of learning change at work and home

5. Learning is fun for me when… All speak up and feel heard

6. If I could improve anything about school, it would be…Add fun

7. I like to get praise for…Caring deeply about others

8. When I do something well, I like … To be thanked

9. I wonder a lot about… How the brain can benefit more people

10. I like people who… Laugh at themselves, stay open minded

11. Sometimes I worry about… Our world losing its kindness

12. One thing that really bothers me is… Leaders who dominate

13. Something that really challenges me is… Helping others well

14. One thing I know about me is… I am a possibility thinker, and I tackle most problems with possibilities in mind.

Our talents come in delightfully unique shapes, sizes and colors. In this interest inventory task, our talents become our tools against anxiety in difficult situations. Brains cannot exercise strengths and engage weaknesses such as worrying, since that will bottleneck our abilities. So we simply choose strengths to go after and anxiety begins to fade in response.

Reflection after Tool 46 use:

1. Words that describe me such as Writer, Curious, and Fun also offer opportunities to sidestep stress in this way: I will pass along my written ideas here to support to a good friend who may be struggling under the weight of worry today.

2. Words that describe things I like to do most, such as Golf, Discuss new ideas, and Invent also offer opportunities to sidestep stress in this way: I exercised to get ready for my golf league game coming up. The stretching exercises brought me serotonin and removed any reasons to waste my time worrying.

3. Words that describe me such as, How to create cool videos reminded me to look up and reflect on a video I created to describe serotonin at this site

4. Words that describe me such as, Be part of learning change at my daily setting, offered me the chance to suggest on a twitter discussion, a new approach and blog that suggests learning that adds happiness.

5. Words that describe me such as having fun when all speak up and feel heard, gave me the opportunity to brainstorm with a friend how I will start hosting dinner dialogues at my home to facilitate diverse voices on hot topics.

6. Words that describe me such as improve anything about my setting, include the fact that I would like to add fun, and so today I will post a fun new way to leave others appreciated and ourselves more victors than victims.

7. Words that describe me such as liking to get praise for caring deeply about others lead me to the task of planning my upcoming foundation, which will offer resources directly to single moms who often get left behind by charities.

8. Words that describe me such as what I like when I do something well, are to be thanked, and that reminds me to openly thank all those who stepped up to help people who felt isolated during this pandemic scare.

9. Words that describe me such as I wonder a lot about… How the brain can benefit more people, left me ready to embrace curiosity and define more clearly what I can do here to ensure all benefit from less angst and more wonder expressed today.

10. Words that describe me such as I like people who laugh at themselves, and stay open minded, remind me that I can laugh at myself during the upcoming move that left me a bit stressed.

11. Words that describe me such as sometimes I worry about our world losing its kindness help me to list a few ways that would motivate more kindness to encourage myself and others when the chips are down.

12. Words that describe me such as one thing that really bothers me is leaders who dominate now challenge me to write and post about the brain based traits of leaders who welcome diverse voices, as compared to those who dominate.

13. Words that describe me such as something that really challenges me is helping others well will challenge me to redefine how I can help more in ways that draw from my personal cache of strengths rather than from guilt about others’ lists of help needed.

14. Words that describe me such as one thing I know about me is that I am a possibility thinker, and I tackle most problems with possibilities in mind, now have me challenged to list one problem today (such as finding a new place to live) and taking the first step to a solution that I launch as a result.

Do my inventory responses help you to see how we can turn strengths or talents into an engine for shifting away from angst and moving toward awe? Yes, even in the wake of this pandemic or other personal traumas. What does your interest inventory reveal about your strengths and their opportunities to sidestep stress? What task will you pursue today to move the dial?

COFFEE CONSIDERATION 47: To nudge any skill from novelty to norm we change our inner narrative from can’t to can. Incredible  ideas often begin with novelty that drives up dopamine support, yet sadly some of these end up as familiarity or boredom that increases cortisol. Sheer delight of opening to a new concept can impart the wonder of a youth’s capacity for novelty even to a skeptical senior. It happens to those who refuse to let wonder go to waste over time. With higher serotonin and dopamine, we crave novelty, discovery and new experiences. With higher cortisol we crave familiarity and cling to safer spaces.

Nature tends to prefer novelty that keeps us guessing its outcomes of rain or shone, storm or calm. We wire for novelty with its surprise and discovery, just as we wire for fear with its frustration and boring familiarity. For those who choose discovery and surprise, novelty becomes the handmaiden of joy and wonder. As researchers we gain a sense of novelty, even if we expect small differences in familiar patterns. Novelty may be fascinating to those who value new discoveries, and yet it also requires a healthy sense of mistake-making as an invaluable part of the process.  

Reflection after Tool 47 use: If we become children again, every single second is packed with thought and sheer novelty. Novelty tends to come with a threshold though, and if pushed beyond it precipice can hurdle us over a cliff. Novelty has us bringing different skill sets and experiences just as habituation has us rejecting new ideas that result. The pure joy and freedom of being able to see diverse thinkers express many facets of one hot topic, gives novelty its reputation of sheer delight.

Novelty rarely involves Russian-Roulette-randomness, and yet top advantages open when we embrace the unexpected.  I saw the wonders and woes of novelty’s risk in action on Baffin Island, near Greenland. At high arctic flow edges, amazing opportunities opened to skilled Inuit friends, who triumphed over startling changes and risked the unknown. It’s a matter of choice.

Leap toward any novel opportunity, and our brain’s hippocampus releases a shot of dopamine in response. Researcher Anthony Grace discovered a feedback loop that stokes chemical and electrical responses between dopamine chemicals released in the brain, and novel or unexpected ventures. Prepared to take advantage of your brain’s equipment for new heights?

Novelty requires rejuvenated skills, to act on the thrill of fresh experiences while avoiding risks that can come near life’s edges. Elders traditionally Inuit taught youth to navigate killer white-outs, and build temporary homes on rugged ice flows. To survive flow edge dangers, hunters watched for signs the lip of an iceberg was calving.  They distinguished roars from ice-cracking or chunks falling off a glacier. They avoided tumbling into icy seas by hearing sounds and watching patterns of iceberg warnings. To not hear or see resulted in tiny crafts toppled over 15 foot ice edges tossed and billowing in frigid ocean graves, when dangerous blizzards struck.

Don’t expect stellar or novel skills from conventional organizations, that latch onto yesteryear’s methods like greedy CEOs cling to greenbacks.  Lessons for me, emerged from the midnight skies, as darkness is closed in on Igloolik, for instance. Month after month, the curtains of night closed off the sunlight and I awoke morning after morning to a midnight sky.  It took new skills to avoid  gloom and to delight in magically clear, dark skies that sparkled with crystalline stars and northern lights.

When novelty’s sun hides its warmth, new moons tend to narrow daylight’s gap, when we embrace spectacular shows out of the ordinary.

Discover genius from novelty’s vantage points. One frigid morning I sat in my living room sipping tea early, and watched amazing pink hues dance against the twilight sky. From my front row seat I saw skidoos move along the road pulling a long wooden sled.  A woman and man dressed in sealskin clothes, moved against a sky blended in rose and palest lavender. To the right I spotted Venus, the last of the stars, twinkling like a dozen stars clustered into one, and dancing in spotlights of its own. What a reminder of lights’ glory in dark places.

Then summer sun circled our tiny arctic community, without setting,  as darkness gave way to another continuous summer. Brilliant orange, purple red and yellow sprigs shot up as if to stir spring into the Arctic tundra and into my arctic adventure. I hummed the Beatles’ song, Here Comes the Sun, in appreciation for sunlight and warmth that propel life beyond everydayness.

Passion for novelty starts with a simple a choice. It advances though, when newly skills equip us to embrace adventures that roll out promise, purpose and passion.

Surprisingly, anxieties often comes from the ways we reward and thereby train our brains – often by default – to think more like slugs than superheroes. Frustration tends to follow, whenever we’re expected to perform like a race horse, and yet seem to head from the gates with the brain of a doorknob. Rewire to prevent anxiety before it strikes, by seeking good health in a few basic areas.

1. Eat a heavy meal before we give a talk and we’ll have to call our brain back to attention, for every bite it’s now working hard to digest. We just assigned our brain to the busy role of digesting. With a brain’s shifted focus, how can we expect facts to pop up simply because we’re next on the speaker’s list.

2. Panic when key words flee, and we teach our mind to misfire or defend  panic, more than to create new neuron pathways to memories we need. Still looking for keys to open that door? One way to remember, is to hook keys onto the same familiar place. Panic may seem far faster on a busy day, but it robs brainpower from remembering?

3. Flip our keys into any corner nearby, and our brain fails to record the chaos created from constantly changing locations. Disorganized people may see tossing things around as part of getting on with their day. Unfortunately, disorder shapes our basal ganglia defaults into confusion – so it’s no wonder we fail to remember the last dark hole’s location.

4. Tell ourselves that memory leaks out with age, and watch our brain abandon dynamic plasticity and live up to our expected loss. Predict doom, and our brain abandons its natural proclivity to remember risk and adventure, in favor of an easier role of the slug we’ve just assigned it. Remember, brains are shaped by what we expect, and memory’s limited each time we perpetuate memory misconceptions. Eventually a new reality hard-wires in and we’ll forget what’s needed to keep our brain fueled and well oiled. We’ll forget that memory’s more about use it or lose it than about age.

5. Blast somebody near us for our lost keys, and our mind fills with the stress hormone, cortisol, that precludes remembering where they’re hiding. Cortisol comes with angry words, and shuts down the brain’s help to remember. Anger leaves us alone to find our damn keys again, on our own – without memory’s keen guidance. Has it happened to you?

What one new idea could bring the sheer delight of opening to a new concept and imparting the wonder of a youth’s capacity for novelty today?

Two footed questions as engines forward into new possibilities

Two footed questions offer an inquiry, that amplifies our interests and abilities, shifts our focus from angst to wonder, and works across both sides of our brain to animate new goals. They reach beyond our default to ruts or rigid routines, and sidestep boredom at the gates. Simply ask: What benefit could today offer through a different approach or a wider lens? Sincere responses will advance curiosity, propel us forward and set the stage for new skill sets to reboot after setbacks.

Questions are two-footed by asking what people want to respond to on specific topics. We learn more when guided by two-footed questions that draw us in. Let’s say the topic is cloud formation during a rainy dank week. Build interest and sidestep frustration by asking: If you were a cloud – how would you impact nature this week? Or launch a discussion on the civil war with: If you had been in charge of leading the civil war, what would you have done differently?

Let’s say our topic shows historic change from hunting to farming. Ask this prompt: If you were a hunter, what advantages would you find in farming? A science topic on distance, speed and nature might start the discussion with, What dance would best illustrate distance, speed and nature’s interaction? We’d encourage a person’s project by asking: What do you see as your best result?

Help a person see new possibilities by asking: How would you advise a best friend in the same situation?

Gain insight about how to help by: In a perfect world what’s the best support you could see?

Grow imagination by asking: What would it look like if everything stacked in your favor?

Or spark fun conversations with youth by asking:

How would you survive in a world where vines are the only vehicles?

If you could live forever, how would you live today differently?

What’s your opinion of airplanes we could each own and fly?

What three animals would you like to own if they could talk?

If there was a party to celebrate you, what would we do?

What’s your idea of the finest magical ability?

What digital game would you like to create?

What would you choose as only sport left on earth?

What one animal would you give the gift of talking?

What’s one question would a talking cloud ask a jet?

What if rainbows formed a pathway to a pot of gold?

What’s one invention do you envision in 25 years?

What movie would you like to be a character in?

If you were in a top mood what song might be playing nearby?

What one pet peeve you have with learning something new?

How fun loving is your family?

If you could take a friend one place where would that be?

What’s one thing that gets far too much attention in life?

What’s the silliest thing you ever did?

What one word describes your good friend?

What makes a person humorous in your eyes?

When was the last moment you felt fully motivated?

Do most things happen because of choices or fate?

What three words describe you best?

What makes you most different from other people?

If you could befriend a stranger what would you ask first?

What five words or less should be on your tombstone?

What’s one thing that scares you half to death?

What one warning would you give a happy child?

When cool questions appeal to our interests and abilities. I call these two footed questions because our curiosity walks us forward with delight in response!

Holidays and emotionally driven elections can add stress and even threaten to tip our tiny vessel into their unpredictably choppy seas. Such charged events also open new possibilities to heal the humanity within each of us, beyond campaign wrangling, in spite of family feuds and past national regrets. Ask, for example: What fun new tradition could we start to benefit everyone here?

Luckily our brains come with practical tools to re-shape our hearts on the other side of grief.  Fortunately, we can focus our minds in ways that rebuild a caring culture through empathy we’d like others to see in us. We unleash the brain’s hidden and often unused ability to shift directions when we question options on the other side of where we stand, in ways that awaken new possibilities. Even one step can activate the brain’s chemical or electrical engines to propel us into new domains we’d otherwise miss. Ask a grieving friend: What do you need today that I can give?

Did you know that our brain makes new connections and forges life-changing neuron pathways toward each step we take in a different direction? Ask: What do we need to launch the best change here?  

No denying, we often differ on mind-bending topics. As much as day differs from the night that tags along and nudges its way in sometimes before we’re ready. In fact we support and encourage such disruptions that tend to come in unexpected melodies.  Our unique questions though propel us to spot new insights and learn from differences on the other side of fixed mindsets. You could say we tether our wagons to a shared star, which holds wellbeing for all – and ignites a full range of intelligences  along the way. It works best if we ask: What unique offering would you like to make to our shared goal?

One graduate student from Palestine stretched imaginations further,  when he asked, “What question could create and sustain peace in the Middle East?” Almost without hesitation a peer shot back, “How could each person at the table begin to see and clearly articulate the other’s point of view from that person’s eyes, in the interest of building peace together?” That’s it! In fact, it led us to wonder,  Could such robust empathy also help to heal our deeply divided nation?

Two-footed questions help us heal human hurts by prompts such as –

1). How would you design a model group in which all benefit, given the challenges we face?

2). What beliefs do you hold that show others how you value and celebrate their unique beliefs?

3). What would you like the rest of us to know about your beliefs or goals and what would you like to know about other’s beliefs?

In valued leadership circles that juncture (of caring about the other side with compassion for humans who embody it) launches delightful new directions, again and again for every participant. Notice that I did not say we have to agree with those on the opposite side, in order to care about them and learn from them. To that end, we’ve discovered that it’s far easier to choose a respectful rhetoric when articulating meaningful insights from an opposite side with a question such as: How could we listen more with our brains?

The simple reach for clarity, tends to toss new motives into the mix, such as  compassion and a deep desire to understand any hurt each person feels, who expresses hopes on another side of our beliefs. Ask: How would you communicate this topic to a child you loved deeply?

In any group (or nation) our two-footers help us to step beyond the notion that there is one “good” and one “bad” side, and we stand on the “good” side while other folks  flaunt the “bad.” Only then can we begin to grapple with why so many hurting people feel left behind, ignored or misunderstood as a nation races past them or families forget to care. Have you seen or experienced hurt feelings that a different approach could correct?

In my leadership classes, toxic rhetoric is unacceptable on any side, ALL topics are welcomed at the table at all times, and 2-footed questions help us to “see as well as articulate clearly stated issues through each person’s eyes.” It works well for us and it might be worth a shot at cobbling empathy for those who stand on all sides of issues we treasure passionately. From the brain’s perspective, passion simply calls for a question such as How do we tame our amygdala that makes space for empathy in hot topic discussions.

Curiosity awakens that hope for deeper understanding, when we ask two footed probes. We simply toss in another possibility to address disappointments folks feel after an election that goes against our beliefs. Two-footed questions also transform holiday gatherings from war zones, into robust empathy with two feet forward to care. Ask: What one top takeaway can we expect if the coming year goes well?

When we crave more kindness we may ask, for instance:

What one specific thing or quality did you value most about your mom or dad and why did you appreciate that?

What one lesson did you enjoy learning most from your son or daughter and how do you use that positively in your life?

Before Lessons – Two-Footed Questions Build Curiosity

For a class titled, A Day in the Life of Inuit Students, ask for example, What do Inuit students see when they first awaken, that you’d likely not see from your bedroom window?

You might also ask: Which part of an Inuit school day would most interest you and your friends?

From Teacher-led to Student-led Questions

Display scenes embedded in this Inuit Inuksuk art created by my daughter, Tanya Weber, and challenge students to create their own two-footed questions.
Ask, What image etched into this Inuksuk would you like to learn more about? Students also enjoy concreting their own questions from visuals, and will come up with queries that pique their unique interests.

You might define the Inuktitut word inuksuk (which means “like a human”) and have students recreate an inuksuk rock pile as Inuit do to mark locations or to adorn a significant scene.

Guide students to step one foot into Inuit facts, and the other foot into their own interests.  They may investigate, for instance:

  • What would it be like to be a seal in the high arctic?
  • How would you and your friends stay warm in an igloo?
  • How would you prevent permafrost from freezing your house on Baffin?
  • What would it be like to travel in an Inuit amauti or hood?
  • How would you raise a winning dog team on Baffin Island?
  • How would you plan ahead if you knew only one supply ship arrived yearly?
  • How would you teach a younger peer to hunt at the arctic flow edge?

Two-footed queries invite us to grapple together as we try on a few new possibilities that will uphold truth, insist on fairness for all, and promote understanding and goodwill together for the greatest number of people. Even before neuro discoveries affirmed that brains change and develop only as we apply and act, Leonardo Da Vinci stated, “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Ready to do what it takes to become the care-focused renewal most humans crave in any circle? My recent book of 256 two-footed questions covers 64 popular topics that my  circles value most. You?

Most of us hope to move from where we stand at that moment, into a better place for our future. At some time or another we also follow predictable schedules that hold back our ability to inch forward.

Have you noticed that strong traditions rarely yield to finer approaches at work, for instance?  Even though rejuvenated practices would prove superior, traditions compete for human

Question Ruts with Multiple Intelligences as Tools

1. How would you sequence the top five priorities for an action plan you’ll do this week? Mathematical or logical questions enable you to thread through chains of reasoning to discern where ruts are rooted.

2. What would a log of your winning ways over one week tell about your best plan to raise a specific strength up to new levels? Verbal linguistic questions include reading and discussing communication trends, as well as writing a plan for new growth, and perhaps even proposing it to your mentor.

3. What musical selection you play or compose would show where you’d most like to be in one month? Musical or rhythmic questions enable you to expand life through personal or experts’ compositions.

4. What visual would most inspire your next adventure? Spatial questions invite investigations through images, graphs, or visual portrayals that diminish ruts simply by illumining inspired visual possibilities.

5. How would a long walk alter your answer to the question – “What could you do differently this week with life-changing results? Bodily-kinesthetic questions engage you in movement, or building in ways that deepen understanding about past and future challenges as well as opportunities for new directions.

6. What would a respected friend or colleague suggest that you do next to move ahead in a dynamic new direction? Interpersonal or social questions would help you to discern and respond well to insights of different people as they relate to your change question.

7. What advice would your teenage self offer you now, about your best options for change that could  transform the coming week? Intrapersonal or introspective questions tap into your self-knowledge, integrity and discrimination for good or bad choices that relate to you.

8. Where in nature does your highest life goal reside and what does it look like? Naturalistic questions give you mental tools to draw on patterns and designs in nature as a way to see real world problems and propose nature-related solutions for growth.

In each question we’ll generate opportunities for responses from different areas of the brain. Ask three or four two-footed questions listed here, or create your own multiple intelligence questions to move past ruts. Whether you go after new directions as detailed here, or other ruts you face, expect mental barriers to fall, and get ready for a new shot at your dynamic journey ahead. It cannot help but happen when you ratchet up brainpower through diverse questions. Which intelligence will launch your next trek?

Have you considered how asking and responding to questions, reveals the state of your brain. How so?

1. Take your amygdala – or seat of emotions. An  amygdala for the jubilant person is that tiny sac of neurons that remains open to wonder most of the time. If yours rarely overheats,  it triggers delight as an emotional pattern passed to others. How could you questions in ways that tame another person’s amygdala by adding supports and curiosity-builders?

2. Your cortisol withholds its dangerous toxins from people who laugh and play.  Imagine team meetings that motivate new mental approaches for team solutions. Questions from a person fueled more by cortisol, on the other hand,  will likely be cynical or critical. Cortisol fueled questions tend to focus on fault finding rather than solution-driving.

3. Your neuron pathways create habitual synapses for jubilation to reshape moods for those who favor fun over frowning. Can you see how each step toward a new possibility also shapes novel questions that bring about positive change, and motivate support?

4. Plasticity rewires the playful brain nightly for further joyful responses.  Deep seated contentment finds novel opportunities to prosper, by simply doing what you want others to see in you. Questions become that playful segue into change that reboots plasticity a finer outcome.

5. Dendrite brain cells connect positivity to positivity for those who celebrate mental rejuvenation – from stagnation to curiosity. Practice one positive act and watch chemical and electrical activity reboot you mentally to question for further regeneration.

6. Basal ganglia defaults to playful habits, replays celebratory practices and routinely laughs at the little things with those who rejoice more. Questions stated by folks who run from change will likely be more traditional and will elicit familiar responses.

7. Working memory keeps you focused on new facts that build concrete solutions worth celebrating. Your working memory tools spring into action to ask unexpected questions that lead to solving complex problems in innovative ways.

8. Brain chemicals refuel positive moods, increase natural drugs for well being, and add hormones for humor and play.  Serotonin, sometimes referred as molecule of happiness, stirs up chemicals to win. Questions tend to shape according to brain chemicals emitted.

9. Serotonin spikes sincere satisfaction, and a healthy sense of confidence in those who capitalize on celebration. Questions fueled by more serotonin will be encouraging and will open possibilities.

10. Brainwaves organize by a hierarchy, control  neuron communications and alter the brain’s circuitry.  Celebrate positive tone for circuitry that builds goodwill even in war zones, and questions will reflect peace and generosity rather than blame or violence. Yes, even among those who disagree with you.

What if our molecular switch stoked wonder – through questions that lead people just to the other side of stalemates from compromise or gridlock?

Imagine if we lead with questions – across both sides of the brain.

See further facts about brainpower in two-footed questions at:

1).  John Hopkins University:

2). Stanford University:

Compare Regular Questions about Personal Growth – with  2-Footed  Kind:

Regular  question: What feedback did you get back at work?

Brain based two-footed question that leads to innovative action might ask here: What key suggestion might a brilliant supervisor make to help you benefit more from today’s feedback?

Foot one: relates to content (or the feedback in this case) Foot two: relates to your engagement with the content (as it leads to innovative action.)

Regular question. How could you be more vulnerable so others will help you?

Brain based two-footed question or follow-up might ask here: If you could open up more in return for perfect wisdom to support personal growth, what would you do differently today?

Foot one: relates to content (or the wisdom sought in this case) Foot two: relates to your engagement with that content (as wisdom leads to innovative action.)

Regular question: What was your best contribution to the team?

Brain based two-footed question or follow-up might ask here: What contribution did you make that inspired your team to grow personal strengths today?

Foot one: relates to content (or your specific contribution in this case) Foot two: relates to your inspired implementation of that content (as inspired acts lead to innovative action.)

Regular  question: What can you do to collaborate more?

Brain based two-footed question or follow-up might ask here: What task would improve my team building tasks today, and how will we all benefit?

Foot one: relates to content (or your  collaborative task in this case) Foot two: relates to your  team building tasks that improve the team’s outcomes (as collaboration leads to innovative team gains.)

Regular question: What one thing could the team improve from your work?

Brain based two-footed question or follow-up might ask here: What specific improvement from team suggestions would improve your offering and how will that propel your group’s project?

Foot one: relates to content (or your team offering that needs improvement in this case) Foot two: relates to your prediction about what others might suggest so that you can better grow intrapersonal intelligence as you go forward.)

Regular question: How could you  affirm more talents and accomplishments of each teammate?

Brain based two-footed question or follow-up might ask here: What specific task would affirm team members’ strengths and how will you ensure it happens with dividends for all?

Foot one: relates to content (or your encouragement task in this case) Foot two: relates to your encouragement offered to improve the team’s outcomes (as genuine encouragement leads to innovative team gains.)

2-Footed Questions  Create Curiosity to Invest in Answers:

Regular questions tend to activate one side of the brain only, and 2-footed questions engage both sides of the brain. Rather than limit your brain’s working memory or stick to tired traditions 2-footed questions offer brilliant new approaches that trigger responses stubborn problems? Did you know, for instance, that two-footed questions move people to see problems with Einstein-like-curiosity for vibrant answers that raise IQ.

Rejuvenating  brain studies show surefire ways to grow and retain brainpower through regular workouts. Add to mental fitness – questions that engage curiosity through multiple intelligences.

Einstein enlisted curiosity through questions, as a guide to mind-bending performances, and so can you. Like a good engine in winter, curiosity needs to be revved a bit by actions questions cause.

Consider problems identified below:

1. Problem identified: Confidence is weakened.  Curiosity sparked: It takes intrapersonal intelligence to recharge money decisions. Not surprisingly, that confidence diminished with each negative news cast believed. Bad news erodes your intrapersonal intelligence, preventing you from handling finances with integrity, motivation, well-being. It robs intelligence needed to mind-bending risks for mutual dividends in every circle.

2. Problem identified: Decision making is marred. Curiosity sparked: The brain’s chemical fuels are hampered by the incessant doom that fills discussions about our losses. For example mental chemicals that guide good decisions include serotonin, which is reduced by this emphasis on negative financial newscasts. In contrast the stress and anxiety caused by failing finances creates more cortisol chemicals, which reduces our ability to move forward successfully.

3. Problem identified: Stress is increased at harmful levels. Curiosity sparked: Long term stress will literally shrink the human brain, shorten life spans, slow down thinking, and lower the immune system.

The list of mental losses goes on, as each negative emerges from our interactions, and creates an equally or more potent negative in the human brain’s machinery. How could we expect to improve the fiasco financial landscape in such a weakened intellectual state?

Perhaps this is a  smaller start than most make, but I plan to begin a renewed conversation today that will trigger brainpower to improve my own and others’ financial well being for the day. How so?

Relying on the brain’s natural supply of plasticity:

  • I’ll strengthen my intrapersonal intelligence by ensuring integrity in my accounts.
  • I’ll raise and maintain my serotonin levels for good decisions,  by looking more at solutions than problems.
  • I’ll run from the stress and fears over lost finances, and instead  walk along  the Erie Canal today, as I review my own life-changing financial targets.

You? Here are 256 fun, unique two-footed questions, one for every weekday of the year. Enjoy!  There’s also a graphic organizer to show evidence of each response in real live improvements or applications of each question/response. Take what you learn into what you live in a new way through these adventures!

During Learning Sessions – Two-footed Questions Animate Targets

Let’s say a learning goal for an arctic unit targets Inuit hunting practices that support isolated communities. Learners may research a narwhal hunt for instance, and then make decisions about the dangers young hunters face.  Perhaps they’ll illustrate how to navigate Baffin’s frigid waters that rush and rock in unpredictable rhythms against fifteen foot ice chunks.

Use this two-footed question to keep learners engaged: What preparations would you make to hunt at dangerous arctic floe edges where polar sea adventures take place on Baffin Island?

Learners respond with their left brain’s logical abilities as they sequence arctic hunters’ skills.  They also awaken right brain story-telling abilities when they capture and share Inuit hunting tales as they see or might experience them.

Do your students enjoy ocean life? If so, challenge them to compare arctic narwhal sounds to familiar whale communications, by asking: How would you compare narwhal sounds to beluga sounds  and what do these sounds tell you?

Answers will vary but may include the fact that belugas make more human like sounds and mimic vocals in heavily populated areas, while narwhals’ clicks, squeals, trills and whistles help in navigation and hunting adventures.

Concluding Lessons – Two-Footed Questions Fuse Art and Science Takeaways

It’s a bit like splashing radiant colors onto canvass so that both sides of  your own brain leaps into life. Two-footed questions convert ordinary minds into expert problem solvers, by engaging both sides of the brain. Simply stated they unleash beauty within art and unpack discovery within science.

Your students will challenge both intellect and emotions, as they interweave differences across their brains in ways that rock both science and art into action. The two-footed questions simply set the stage for problem-solving, invite ambiguity and elicit discovery, as illustrated below:

One foot asks: What are the main points, functions or problems? – which invite students to consider, compare or analyze content. The answers to one-footed questions provide facts to engage, but fail to engage the learner’s interest to apply innovations that draw on these facts.

Would you agree that’s why significant change rarely occurs from some typical lessons learned?

Foot two asks:how will these facts jumpstart your own actions? You could say that the second foot jump starts adventure.  How so?
Check out the questions in this post to see action is generated from new facts or concepts. It’s quite straightforward, yet it requires a two – pronged design to draw from both sides of the brain.

To design two-footed questions for any unit or lesson, ask yourself:

  • Will the question lead to investigation and original applications?
  • Will challenges lead to novel actions that can be evidenced?
  • Will responses integrate arts and sciences, much as inventors do?
  • Will students find good motivation to sustain future investigations?
  • Did the question motivate personal involvement to answer?
  • Will students care enough to invest curiosity and enthusiasm?
  • Will responses include and engage opposing views?
  • Will the query lead to further reflections, such as “where to from here?”
  • Was there opportunity to play with, What if possibilities?

Additional 2-footed questions for your Inuit lifestyle unit:

  • What parts of an Inuit community could unlock new adventures in yours?
  • What dreams might an Inuit student share with you and your friends?
  • What climate concerns do you share with Inuit leaders?
  • How would you prepare a typical Inuit meal for your friends?
  • What music would you and Inuit students most enjoy together?
  • What do you share in common with Inuit students and how do you differ?
  • What would you want to learn first before moving into an Inuit community?

In conclusion, how would you answer the two-footed challenge: Do your questions compel students to answer and apply content in real life adventures? Adventure-driven questions for instance, create simplicity out of complexity, and draw students into dynamic innovations with mind-bending outcomes.

What will you ask to spark wonder in your next class?
Yes, you may have guessed – I actually lived and taught in Canada’s most isolated high arctic communities, where winter weather can plummet to 90 degrees below zero, where the sun fails to rise for weeks in the winter, and where Inuit residents engaged me in endless adventures in response to my double-sided queries.

Ask a new kind of question, “What hidden or unused assets could help launch a new and winning venture?” for instance. Now our brain leaps to reflect briefly on the past, while building new neuron pathways forward into renewed prosperity. Have you noticed this transformation works best when we follow our brain’s natural proclivity to resolve puzzles.

The opposite of chasing curiosity and risking new directions is to stress over problems. Sadly, research shows that stressed brains rely  more on habits that lock you into boring ruts, that hold you back.  Ready to progress with winning innovations today?

Rather than limit your brain’s working memory to run with new ideas rather than cling to tired traditions 2-footed questions offer brilliant new approaches to flat-line stubborn problems? Simply look at problems with Einstein-like-curiosity and you’ve already stepped in the direction of vibrant answers that raise IQ.

Rejuvenating  brain studies show surefire ways to grow and retain brainpower through regular mental  workouts. Add fun to mental fitness in questions that engage curiosity through multiple intelligences.

Einstein enlisted curiosity through similar prompts, as a guide to mind-bending performances, and so can you. Like a good engine in winter, curiosity needs to be revved a bit and oiled by actions that well crafted questions inspire.

Can you see sparks for learning through curiosity for new approaches to problems you and others care about? Ready to propose answers that benefit all concerned?

Take the economic crisis many of us currently face.  From a brain based perspective, you might reboot your thinking with this two-footed question:

How could I take the first step to bailout from financial losses and target brainpower for financial growth, in spite of bad economic news?

This two-footed question raises new curiosity to fuse financially sound facts together –  into solutions that could turn your financial disasters around. Yes, in spite of a national problem that also needs a reboot! Simply start with you and step in the direction of a solution.

While messages of mistrust and cynicism jump out of computer screens daily, to rob both our coffers and our brainpower, two-footed questions offer a road back to prosperity. How so?

Consider problems identified below:

1. Problem identified: Confidence is weakened.  Curiosity sparked: It takes intrapersonal intelligence to recharge money decisions. Not surprisingly, that confidence diminished with each negative news cast believed. Bad news erodes your intrapersonal intelligence, preventing you from handling finances with integrity, motivation, well-being. It robs intelligence needed to mind-bending risks for mutual dividends in every circle.

2. Problem identified: Decision making is marred. Curiosity sparked: The brain’s chemical fuels are hampered by the incessant doom that fills discussions about our losses. For example mental chemicals that guide good decisions include serotonin, which is reduced by this emphasis on negative financial newscasts. In contrast the stress and anxiety caused by failing finances creates more cortisol chemicals, which reduces our ability to move forward successfully.

3. Problem identified: Stress is increased at harmful levels. Curiosity sparked: Long term stress will literally shrink the human brain, shorten life spans, slow down thinking, and lower the immune system.

The list of mental losses goes on, as each negative emerges from our interactions, and creates an equally or more potent negative in the human brain’s machinery. How could we expect to improve the fiasco financial landscape in such a weakened intellectual state?

Perhaps this is a  smaller start than most make, but I plan to begin a renewed conversation today that will trigger brainpower to improve my own and others’ financial well being for the day. How so?

Relying on the brain’s natural supply of plasticity (or ability to change itself):

  • I’ll strengthen my intrapersonal intelligence by ensuring integrity in my accounts.
  • I’ll raise and maintain my serotonin levels for good decisions,  by looking more at solutions than problems.
  • I’ll run from the stress and fears over lost finances, and instead  walk along  the Erie Canal today, as I review my own life-changing financial targets.

You?

These brain based questioning tools help learners and leaders to form teams, complete projects, test prep, raise character, write well, interview peers and experts, and analyze – all without yielding to stress.

Have you ever heard a well-placed question light up a table? Or have you seen young people beam from questions that invite their talents to sparkle in ways that benefit all?

While just about anybody can learn to ask questions, it takes practice to wield them well. In other words, not all questions are equal.

Great questions tend to have two feet – one foot steps up ideas and one foot steps up people’s capabilities. Two-footed questions engage both sides of the brain.

Questions are often more talked about than engaged well, as I stated at John Hopkins University.

Why ask?

Gary Cohen interviewed 100 leaders to harness new power from questions in his book, Just Ask Leadership. He concluded that when you question rather than merely tell, you extend people’s options and enhance their initiatives.

The opposite is also true. Question less and you arrive at dead-end streets paved with water-tight facts, and delivered to bored passers-by.

Who cares?

If questions then, drive beliefs into operations, what would inspire you to support a new cause where you work? What question would beam you up from water cooler resister into inspired rejuvenator?

Your questions build trust at work when they reach across differences and build goodwill – even among those who disagree.  Ask your next diverse gathering for instance:

What next step would you add to this process and what can we expect as a result?

Offerings will suddenly soar much like interesting icons fly onto PowerPoint screens. Why so?  People speak and feel heard in response to great questions.

Fly out of gates to win

To learn how to ask  so people care, you just have to look at how you navigated your last difficult situation.  Did you pose queries other people want to build on?

In innovative ventures questions become an incentive to whisk curiosity out of the gates at the start. They drive productive outcomes and land you in a winners’ circle at the other end.

But what about those choice questions that sustain ongoing wonder here? We’ve all seen those  sprints that start with promise but then fizzle out like a campfire on a rainy night.

What question prevents mental stagnation and what questions add steel?

The brain on questions

Imagine starting your day tomorrow by looking at the first part of the day with a what-if kind of questions.

Then see your day end with a where-to-from-here question.

If we agree that enthusiasm will likely follow, we’ll also see how serotonin adds wellbeing to brains that question.

Now consider how your brain shuts down with cortisol – that dangerous chemical that rushes in from gotcha questions.

No wonder new opportunities open to you with 2-footed questions – and shut you out when you exclude right or left brain.  No wonder all questions are not equal.

What question could launch your day into a winner’s circle?

Spot any gaps in your life, where  adventure leaks out like water trickles through a sieve?

Your brain’s working memory leads you to spot faulty traditions at work, or to see speed bumps that slow down progress in your day. But there’s more to change than finding flaws.

For instance,  two-footed questions can catapult you beyond bureaucracy’s boredom into Einstein-like-curiosity. Vibrant answers often raise a group’s IQ and open opportunities to advance, simply because you posed a challenge. How so?

Einstein enlisted curiosity through questions that jump start multiple intelligences and so can you. Perhaps questions below that led change for others, will also prime your mental chase for a finer approach. Could the following two-footed questions, add adventure to improve your day?

What question could compel curiosity into your day and lead ethical changes for a paradigm shift, or even one renewed practice?

These whole brain questioning tools at secondary, college and beyond help learners to form teams, complete projects, test prep, raise character, write well, interview peers and experts, and analyze.

Most people hope at some time or another to move from where they stand at that moment, into a better place for their future. Especially if following predictable schedules is holding back personal progress.

Yet have you noticed that strong traditions rarely yield to finer approaches in at work?  Even though rejuvenated practices would prove superior, traditions compete for human brainpower.  The results?

Research shows that stressed brains rely more on habit and remain longer in ruts? Fortunately, there are effective ways to tap into different intelligences for innovative brainpower that moves past potholes that hold you back.

Not sure where you’re stuck? Then ask a trusted friend, to remind you what topics you tend to speak about or focus on most.  In that place, both your ruts and growth edges will likely reside.

Look at ruts from inside your brain, and you’ll likely see how you default to your basal ganglia. Experts call it your mental storehouse. Less sensitive people may remind you it’s where every rigid routine, life failure and annoying habit gathers. Along with every experience you’ve ever encountered, it’s also the place that promotes and prolongs annoying ruts. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The key is to build new neuron pathways that will help you bridge the difference between rigid routines and rejuvenation. Whenever you operate new parts of the human brain you also trigger your working memory which is that area that helps you learn and do life in different ways.  Unlike your brain’s basal ganglia that defaults into habits and routines and slides you into ruts, the working memory springs you forward to triumph in life-changing opportunities.Working memory positions new information up front, so other parts of the brain can use it to problem solve. It’s what allows you to keep intelligence fluid and to raise IQ across a wider range of capabilities.

Ready to ask questions that leap beyond old habits, and open new windows into multiple intelligences? OK, let’s say you’d like to move forward in new directions that add zip to your leadership. It’s simply a matter of engaging your brain’s amazing plasticity to develop, grow, and use new dendrite brain cell connections. You’ll replace ruts with new adventures when you tap into the smart skill tools for asking questions that activate your unique mix of intelligences.

Question Ruts with Multiple Intelligences as Tools

1. How would you sequence the top five priorities for an action plan you’ll do this week? Mathematical or logical questions enable you to thread through chains of reasoning to discern where ruts are rooted.

2. What would a log of your winning ways over one week tell about your best plan to raise a specific strength up to new levels? Verbal linguistic questions include reading and discussing communication trends, as well as writing a plan for new growth, and perhaps even proposing it to your mentor.

3. What musical selection you play or compose would show where you’d most like to be in one month? Musical or rhythmic questions enable you to expand life through personal or experts’ compositions.

4. What visual would most inspire your next adventure? Spatial questions invite investigations through images, graphs, or visual portrayals that diminish ruts simply by illumining inspired visual possibilities.

5. How would a long walk alter your answer to the question – “What could you do differently this week with life-changing results? Bodily-kinesthetic questions engage you in movement, or building in ways that deepen understanding about past and future challenges as well as opportunities for new directions.

6. What would a respected friend or colleague suggest that you do next to move ahead in a dynamic new direction? Interpersonal or social questions would help you to discern and respond well to insights of different people as they relate to your change question.

7. What advice would your teenage self offer you now, about your best options for change that could  transform the coming week? Intrapersonal or introspective questions tap into your self-knowledge, integrity and discrimination for good or bad choices that relate to you.

8. Where in nature does your highest life goal reside and what does it look like? Naturalistic questions give you mental tools to draw on patterns and designs in nature as a way to see real world problems and propose nature-related solutions for growth.

In each question you’ll generate opportunities for responses from different areas of the brain. Ask three or four two-footed questions listed here, or create your own multiple intelligence questions to move past ruts. Whether you go after new directions as detailed here, or other ruts you face, expect mental barriers to fall, and get ready for a new shot at your dynamic journey ahead. It cannot help but happen when you ratchet up brainpower through diverse questions. Which intelligence will launch your next trek?

Below is an example of a list I created using right brain capabilities

To use more left brain list all of today’s priorities and then add in one key hour to improve an innovation at work. For instance I listed below common events in “A Day in the Life of Our Brain”

I started with a question WHAT WOULD ONE DAY LOOK LIKE FROM INSIDE OUR BRAIN IF WE USED IT WELL?

Have you ever considered what today looks like from inside our brain? Take a look and we’ll also improve our communication and sharpen several mental  skills.

We can capitalize on what we see  inside to improve our overall well-being.

OK, so it’s 6 AM and we awaken ready to play ball or slay a buddy. Our brain decides.

            We’ll feel groggy if we awaken our brain in the middle of one of its sleep cycles and rhythmic patterns, which last for 90 minutes. Patterns of sleep for the normal brain generally progress through three 30-minute sessions. Complete cycles tend to last 1 hour and 30 minutes, and don’t do well when they are broken or interrupted.

·       In the first 30, we sleep rather lightly.

·       In the second 30 minutes during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, our brain restores levels of oxygen to the cornea, while we dream.

·       In the third 30 minute phase we move back into a lighter sleep. We will shorten the REM stage through stuffing ourself, drinking just before bedtime, or taking some medications, but we can enhance our wake up time

If we plan our sleep in 90 minute chunks  we’ll feel better when we wake up. Set our alarm for 20 minutes earlier, rather than  start into a new cycle and then have our alarm go off like a fire engine at a slumber party. Sleep in a darkened room and we’ll have  a better chance of our brain releasing enough melatonin to get the rest we need, so we awaken refreshed, rather than feeling like a truck hit us.

We’ve probably noticed that when we sleep for the same amount of time each night, that we will no longer need the alarm since our brain has its own built into alarms or circadian rhythms, once it learns our patterns.

7 AM

            Forget where we put our keys again? Our rote memory is at its sharpest here, so we can take advantage of this  alertness by reviewing those three facts we need to know about the car engine we plan to repair or the tricky recipe we expect to create for dinner. Run over three key talking points in bullet form to prepare for a Rotary meeting today, and we’ll be surprised how poignant details stick to our brain to help us make our points when we arrive at the meeting later today.

Our pulse rate and blood pressure rise sharply at this point in the day also.  If we rested well, our brain rewired itself overnight and it is completely ready to go! We are now poised to have some real fun, while we learn about and express our world in at least 8 distinctive intelligences or perspectives. Ask ourselves how we plan to use a few of these intelligences to throw something fun or silly at a serious job we plan to do today, and watch creativity kick in! Look ahead, and tell our partner to look forward to a swim together at the park after work, or throw an aerobics tape on and get the blood hopping for a few minutes.

Interestingly, blood clotting problems can occur more frequently in this period of a day, so we may want to exercise and drink lots of water to give our health a heads up before we start our routines.

8 AM

            Stuck in a rut, or leading the pack? Our best mental tools are our multiple intelligences and they will flex and flourish more and more as we use and play with them.  Expect new answers to old questions, and start with an issue or event that piques our curiosity and stirs some wonder.  Remember, overnight our brain completely rewired itself, and we grew new dendrite connector cells, which allow us to move forward faster now with the inspiration we stockpiled yesterday.  So imagine ourselves going after that special project or plan we’d like to achieve today, with the same determination Tolkien’s hobbits went after their  precious ring in, Lord of the Rings.

9 AM

Travel the same road to work or try a new route?

           We’ve likely enjoyed moments here and there when we think and act different from others.  Moments when our approaches to knowing and expressing our world show how our brain is fearfully and wonderfully made.  Look daily into new rooms in our brain for a new way of solving an old problem, and we’ll also spot resources and spaces that successful people enter into and make use of daily.

 It is clear that when we use multiple intelligences during any day, that we add a degree of flexibility to our brain, so that it works harder for the results we desire. We’ve learned to value these differences in ourselves and others, so that our brain becomes much more effective as an integrator of ideas on the one hand, and of communicating more effectively with many people on the other.  See ourselves in win/win situations today and then use multiple approaches to make that happen whenever new opportunities arise.

10 AM

            Do others see confidence and caring in us? While we will have emotional reactions to people and to events, we can work these in our favor if we lead with our strengths, and if we take a few steps to reduce cortisol (That limits our confidence) and raises serotonin (that increases our chances for success). These chemicals, called neurotransmitters, seep through clefts in our brain. They convert to electrical impulses and effect emotions. They also impact learning for good or bad, and they help us to create a safe learning environment for ourselves others at home or work.  Remember the last time we created satisfaction and reduced panic for ourselves and others. While stressors will differ daily for all of us, nevertheless, the pathways to living a life of confidence, without stress look remarkably similar.

11 AM

Leading with our strengths or losing ground?

            Building on how to lead with strengths, boldly step forward to try a new skill today to help us achieve a complex task that comes our way. If cortisol seems to pop up and we feel panicked or anxious, play slower Baroque music in our background. Laugh at ourselves, or at something we remember, and tell the joke to somebody we know.  Choose one new intelligence to sprinkle spice into our day and then throw in three or four small activities that let us play with the experience. If we play music, also practice humming a silly tune, and listen to the sounds all around us without speaking for 5 minutes. Share this intelligence with somebody else and find out what they enjoy most about using different domains of their brain.

12 Noon

            Take two folks from other cultures to lunch and ask how conflicts among different people could become solutions when we add multiple ways to knowing and solving problems together.  Discuss how we could set a higher target for a project we could do together, then brainstorm ways to achieve that target through partnering with others and using multiple intelligences.

1 PM

            Our brain wave speeds have much to do with how successful we feel and what we accomplish.  Try shifting our brain wave speeds to solve a problem that faces us. Slow down our Beta waves by daydreaming about a boating trip we plan.  Take  two or three minutes to picture the boat and hear the engines, as we feel the waves rocking us. Then speed up our Delta waves by imagining ourselves standing in front of an opponent to defend our beliefs that differ dramatically from his.  What is our opening punch line?

Create a great tone for this defense  and we probably have moved our wave speed again to empower our mind for successful results. So we are ready to stand on our soapbox, but we also have a new desire to listen and relate to our opponents.  We’ve simply rewired our capability so it’s no surprise we’ll get compelling results that turn our day into a series of new adventures.

2 PM

            Watch others around us with a new interest to know and be known by them.  Ask questions about how they differ from us, and how we can both benefit from these differences? What can we learn from the other gender about a problem we face? Can we think of one way that women’s and men’s brains different brain patterns can enhance our day today?

Since each brain is wired differently, we can challenge ours at the moment with a question about how to optimize those differences for an interest we have.  How does our observation lead to more unique contributions welcomed across cultures, genders and individuals?  What will we do differently today because of this deliberate observation of others around you.

3 PM

            Grab a 20 to 30 minute nap and we’ll be surprised what we can do for our brain at this point in the day. It’s best not to nap in the evening, and we’ll want to avoid snoozing beyond that 30 minute-stage of our sleep cycle. Once we pass the 30 minutes though, it’s best to sleep for 90 minutes and then we’ll wake up refreshed and ready to take on the world with new gusto!

4 PM

            We have both chemical and electrical impulses which can help us move into the latter part of our day with new creativity and expectation for better experiences. We increase our curiosity about a topic we enjoy through asking a question about its merit, to a fellow worker or a friend. Rather than sit around passively take a brief walk and think about one talent that we could use to enjoy our evening more.

5 PM

            Plan an hour alone and get to know our self at a new level. Become friends with ourselves and our brain will build many neuron pathways to success just like the greatest thinkers of our time do when they spend time alone. Imagine places we’d like to travel. Play music we enjoy. Build a table in the garage, just for fun. Pour a glass of our favorite wine and watch the scenes beyond our back deck for fifteen minutes to see what they can teach us about ourselves!

6 PM

            Our brain will benefit from dinner more if we take our time, stretch out the experience and eat lightly. Enjoy others at the table and get to know what they did for fun today. Avoid unpleasant topics because our brain helps us to digest food better in a relaxed mode.

            If dining alone, plan to make dinner an extra special occasion. Read a favorite book or take in a light article from a trade magazine that describes our interests. We might even enjoy listening to an upbeat CD and planning how we will spend an evening alone.  Will we play computer scrabble, enjoy a video we’ve wanted to see, or call a good friend and go dancing? Whatever we decide, expect to enjoy the evening and our brain will multiply personal benefits from all the fun and adventure we plan.

7 PM

            We might reflect on our day by listing the three most significant events to the left of a paper and jot down our response to the right.  Return to our thought this morning, and reflect on how the three bullets we created added an exciting angle to  our day. Use either words or simple sketches if  preferred. How might we do things differently, if we were to add a new intelligence into the mix?  For instance, if we welcomed a lesson from a past mistake  made, what might have happened as a result? If we met a conflict from a fellow worker, and we told a joke that laughs at ourselves, what would have been the consequence?  Celebrate where we used music to find inspiration, or where we walked briskly for a few minutes rather than sat for too long in a chair. Look at our day through a new lens and we will try new approaches for better success the next time we are faced with challenges at home or work. Play a game with a young child, and start by asking the child what they like to play most. Then encourage the child to take the lead and  follow along.

8 PM

            We can increase our hormones for fun and well-being and we can decrease hormones that lead us to panic or make us feel afraid or anxious. Play with some of the activities suggested here and we’ll begin to control both states of our mind so that we feel satisfied and content in almost any situation.  Then try another path to something we do well, so that we sit in a different chair to relax, read a paper from another city or write a letter to encourage a community leader.

9 PM

            In this part of our day our brain does best to laugh at the Jay Leno show, relax with a good book, enjoy friends, or prepare for the coming day. Listen to inspirational music or romantic music from Schubert, Chopin, Tchaikovsky or Schumann. I like to play Debussy, Faure and Ravel’s impressionistic music  in the evening, as we find this music puts us in touch with our inner beliefs and desires, and then we might discuss a book read recently with our partner.

 Music in the evening adds peace and grounds us in the moment, and so it evokes quiet and affirming images in our mind.  Laughter  increases our ability to enjoy life and makes us feel better because the simple act of laughing at a silly thing we did, or at a joke we heard releases health-inducing enzymes into our brain.

10 PM

            We often sleep better and dream about positive images if we imagine actual physical movements before  sleep. Visualize a pro skiing down the highest peak ever seen, or  skaters on their final run at the Olympics, and we will sleep with fewer nightmares. The reason we dream is that we allow our brain to drop into zero management control as we sleep. Brain scans show no activity in the frontal areas of the brain, where we plan our day and enjoy deeper thoughts about life. Dreams are simply uncontrolled images, which bounce off each other and perceptions which activate without our help, during REM sleep.      Researchers sometimes liken the dream state to be similar in ways to the mentally ill state, where we have poor control of memories and images. The difference of course is that dreams occupy only a brief and restorative mental state, and  our mind will hand us back controls when we awaken, while  mental illness prevents that control from happening at any time.

            Want some exciting new insights to help the coming week? Ask a specific question about something a plan for tomorrow.  Expect your brain to search and find some new insight overnight, from it’s capacity to rewire and to teach us new approaches to success while we are in Delta, the slowest brain waves, where enlightenment often happens.

To use more right brain, sketch a map or bird’s eye view of the big picture and then draw in key details that show your planned direction toward a goal. The goal below, sketched by using more right brain, was to ensure a mental makeover for our leadership. It worked wonders because we all had a hand in creating the map, and all shared a common goal. We certainly came at that goal in different approaches which made it far more fun too!

Writing or designing with flow takes a healthy dose of right brain action. How so?

It’s more about playing with ideas so they flow freely, before we begin to  organize these ideas or spell them correctly.

Only at  first, that is. Our free-writing prevents the left brain from dominating and literally blocking new insights.

Check out the remarkable example below of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor who learned the power of her right brain only after the left side literally shut down during a stroke!

Why wait for  disaster before we engage our right brain hemisphere?

What can we do to ratchet up  our right brain, before the left side kicks in to critique our good ideas?

In his book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, best selling author, Tony Schwartz reminds us that the right hemisphere of our brains tend to be under-developed. Can you identify?

Jill Bolte Taylor’s mind-bending experience shows strong left brain dominance until after suffering a near death stroke.

Schwartz’  numbers  show under-developed right brains:

  • 80% don’t feel fully engaged at work every day.
  • 60% get away from their desk for lunch less than twice per week.
  • 40% leave at least one week of vacation unused.
  • 70% check their email on vacation or days off.

To spark our creative process:

Schwartz suggests things anyone can do to spark the right brain and work better right now.

1. Break every 90 minutes to renew and recharge.

2. Eat small portions of energy rich foods every three hours.

3. Avoid frustration or anxiety when stressors hit, by breathing deep.

4. Tackle important tasks first thing in your day – when brainpower is high.

The idea is  to engage both sides of the brain, to increase innovation.

Develop Right Brain Creativity for Writing in the following ways:

1. Refuse to note errors while free writing on your topic for at least 5 minutes.

2. Brainstorm  topic by sketching ideas you have and those you’d’ like to add.

3. Use your free writing approach to create an outline for your final draft.

4. Refer to your rough draft to organize ideas and complete a logical  outline.

5. Read the work aloud to ensure transitions work to connect parts well.

Only at this point is it a good idea to allow the left brain’s critical side to improve our writing or creative designs.

While the right brain unleashes amazing insights we rarely know we possess, the left brain also has an ongoing job to do as  it will help us to spell correctly, organize ideas sequentially and do other tasks noted in the previous section.

What will you do or write to ensure your right brain develops and supports you again today?