What a difference orientation makes.
For one of my courses, mandatory reading was, The Human Brain Coloring Book (Diamond, M.C., Scheibel, A.B., Elson, L.M., 1985). The Preface asserts that, “By replacing rote memory with the act of coloring, a visual-motor component is introduced into the process of learning, enhancing long-term retention…[as] one actively participates in the process.” This is true for all therapies and life in general. When actively engaged, even if simply sitting while in dialogue, over the long-term, greater understanding and knowing occurs—for longer.
All to say that as I studied and color-designed the brain section plates in the book, something new became clear…
Starting with the four general brain areas; the parietal, frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes, the authors explain that each lobe is, “characterized by unique functional capacities” (1-1). The occipital being the primary visual capacity; the temporal the musical; the parietal the abstract, mathematical, and the frontal our capacity for planning—of course all of these areas are interwoven and so they offer much more…
As I selected colored pencils (engaged), a series of questions arose that began with, if we believe we each choose and generate all of our thoughts,
which part of you knows to go to the music area to learn to play an instrument, or to activate the occipital lobe when coloring?
which part of you knows where to go to retrieve any desired information?”
could the process of thinking actually be incoming (an intrinsically-regulated phenomenon) versus a self-constructed mental activity? That would seriously change everything.
what if our understanding of how the process of thinking functions is no longer accurate—scientifically, or otherwise?
what if we’ve had a wrong orientation to our thinking for too long, therefore effecting how we understand ourselves too? Believing something was, “my idea” has mattered. We have a US Patten Office (USPTO) to attest to that.
what if a more accurate orientation around the process of thinking, could far exceed the benefits of our prior understanding that, “I” control my brain and all of its output from those four lobes? Do “I” really? And if I don’t know “I” do, then I am truly unconscious of my control it, and so I’m not.
If we then shift to watching all that incoming thinking, since we can observe it, become witness to it, and action could be taken from THAT orientation, what might that produce for ourselves and our communities—globally? These are some of the questions I am asking in my Ph.D. work…
What a difference orientation makes.
Have a great weekend.