Lawsagna

Brains Benefit From Multilingualism

Various studies have explored the link between the ability to use more than one language and improved cognitive function and thinking.  Now, for the first time, the research team appointed by the European Commission conducted an analysis of scientific literature, European and international, on this subject during the period of May 2008-June 2009 across all 27 EU Member States plus Norway and Turkey.  The findings are described in the report "The Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity" [PDF].

The inventory of research-based publications covered the following five hypotheses.

• There is a link between multilingualism and creativity
• Multilingualism broadens access to information
• Multilingualism offers alternative ways of organizing thought
• Multilingualism offers alternative ways of perceiving the surrounding world
• Learning a new language increases the potential for creative thought. 

The Science Daily article "Brains Benefit from Multilingualism" quotes David Marsh, specialized planner at the Continuing Professional Development Centre of Jyväskylä University, who coordinated the international research team behind the study:

"The research report brings forth six main areas where multilingualism and hence the mastery of complex processes of thought seem to put people in advantage. These include learning in general, complex thinking and creativity, mental flexibility, interpersonal and communication skills, and even a possible delay in the onset of age-related mental diminishment later in life," Marsh relates.

One of the central cerebral areas highlighted in the research report is the one responsible for memory function. People rely especially on the short-term memory when thinking, learning and making decisions.

"It is obvious that enhanced memory can have a profound impact on cognitive function, says David Marsh. -- This may be one reason why the multilingual shows superior performance in handling complex and demanding problem-solving tasks when compared to monolinguals. They seem to be able to have an advantage in handling certain thinking processes," March continues.

It was assumed earlier that differences in the brain would only occur if a person is bi- or trilingual, that is with a very high command of different languages. The recently published research suggests, however, that changes in the brain's electrical activity may occur already in the beginnings of learning a new language.

Perhaps, it's time to add learning a new language to your 2010 resolutions.  It seems that the benefits are there regardless of whether you learn to speak it proficiently. 

Related post: "Learn a language in 2009 and improve your brain"

How To Think Clearly Under Pressure

About a week ago, I was at a seminar conducted by David Rock, the author of the recently published book "Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long."  It was an engaging and thought-provoking presentation that challenged many of our typical work habits that we think serve us well.  One of the insights had to do with thinking clearly under pressure.  We've all been there:  when we need to come up with a solution fast in stressful circumstances, and our mind "freezes."  There's an explanation for that. 

The prefrontal cortex, the brain region implicated in planning complex cognitive tasks, decision making, and moderating correct social behavior, is easily overwhelmed.  We can process just about seven pieces of information in our conscious mind at any given moment.  The more data we have to deal with, the harder it becomes to think clearly. 

In addition, our frontal lobes consume lots of energy.  When we experience strong negative emotions, as when we are angry or under stress, the glucose goes to the amygdala in the limbic system of the brain, triggering the "fight or flight" mode.  The prefrontal cortex doesn't have enough energy to think clearly anymore.  That's how our mind "freezes." 

On top of that, our brain is more attuned to negative information and tends to perceive anything unfamiliar as a threat.  Uncertainty is a threat.  Change is a threat.  Loss of face is a threat.  This response has good evolutionary reasons, it helped our predecessors survive.  Most of the threats in our daily life, however, are not "life or death" scenarios, but the brain is wired to react to them as if they were that serious.  With all that negativity bias of the brain and the limited capacity of the prefrontal cortex, how can we think better under pressure?  The following three steps may help.

1. Become aware of the strong negative emotions and how they affect your thinking.  Self-awareness is the most important brain optimization tool.  Without it, you are prone to repeat the same patterns over and over again because the brain likes to conserve energy, predict your typical responses, and activate them automatically.
2. Label the negative emotion you are experiencing.  Studies have shown that labeling emotions with just a word or two reduces their effect.  Say the label out loud if you can.
3. If your emotions are triggered by a specific situation, try to reframe it in a less threatening way for the brain.  Your interpretation needs to make sense, and it must be believable to you.  One more thing.  You have just a few seconds to reframe before the prefrontal cortex experiences the energy drain.  Not a lot time, I know, but it's worth practicing if you want to learn how to think clearly under pressure.  Remember: things are rarely as good or as bad as they seem.   

Since your brain is most creative when it's well rested and not over-stimulated with data and distractions, for example, in the morning or during a walk in nature, it is a good idea to think about how you would deal with common stressors in your life while the waters are still calm.  It doesn't matter to the brain whether you see something with your eyeballs or in your mind's eye, so rehearse your reactions in advance.  Reframe your triggers and picture yourself handling a difficult situation with ease and grace.

Negative subliminal images are better detected than positive messages

According to Wikipedia, "[a] subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems."

A new study by a UCL team led by Professor Nilli Lavie provides evidence that people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images and are better at detecting negative subliminal messages.  ScienceDaily reports: 

In the study, Professor Lavie and colleagues showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on-screen for only a fraction of second – at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word. The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or 'emotional' (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.

The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words – even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.

"There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words," says Professor Lavie. "We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.

Professor Lavie explains that there are evolutionary advantages to responding quickly to subliminal negative information because those emotional messages may have helped us avoid danger. 

If you want to improve focus, ask these two questions

"What we call thinking is also a process whereby psychic energy gets ordered.  Emotions focus attention by mobilizing the entire organism in an approach or an avoidance mode.  Goals do it by providing images of desired outcomes.  Thoughts order attention by producing sequences of images that are related to each other in some meaningful way."
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "Finding Flow"

Back in the fall of 1997, I was getting ready to apply to law school.  As part of the application process, I had to take the LSAT exam.  All I remember about the day of the exam now is that it was beautiful and sunny, and I didn't look forward to spending most of it in a classroom full of agonizing law school applicants, like myself, trying to figure out logical patterns and compose essays.  The rest is murky in my memory right now.  What I also remember is that a couple of months later, I got a big yellow envelope in the mail, and I was very anxious to open it because I expected to see the results of my test.  To my surprise, the envelope didn't have my LSAT score.  Instead, it had a letter stating that I had an option of retaking the exam if I wished because something had happened during the test.  Apparently, a car alarm went off nearby while the exam was in progress, and the noise lasted for a while and distracted a number of test-takers.  They complained to the organization that administered the LSAT, which resulted in the option to retake the whole exam.  Interestingly, I didn't remember hearing any car alarm during the exam.  I wasn't distracted by it - it simply didn't register in my mind.  Nevertheless, I had a decision to make whether to take the LSAT again, in which case it would override the score of the earlier exam, and of course, I had no idea how I did on the first test.  I didn't want to take it again, so I opted out.  Fortunately, I did all right the first time around, so I didn't come to regret my decision. 

You may be wondering by now why I am telling you this story, and I promise, it is relevant to what I am about to share with you.  The reason I was able to tune out the noise during that exam is not because I can focus so well or because I have hearing difficulties.  More likely, it was because I incidentally tapped into the secret ingredient of focus power.  If this ingredient is present, your ability to focus increases significantly.  When it's absent, your mind may be looking for a distraction or preoccupied with worry, doubt, or anxiety.

So, would you like to know how to turn your mind into a laser beam?  Getting the secret ingredient right is not always easy but well-worth a try.  It was discovered by psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and described in his book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" :

The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile….Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur.  The swimmer's muscles might have ached during his most memorable race, his lungs might have felt like exploding, and he might have been dizzy with fatigue – yet these could have been the best moments of his life. 

Csikszentmihalyi calls this state of engagement "the flow."  If you want to have a better chance to be absorbed in an activity, ask yourself the following two questions:

•    Is this too easy for me? 
If it is, you will likely become bored quickly and lose focus.  Your brain will look for something else to attend to.
•    Is this too difficult for me? 
If the activity is too hard, your brain will view it as a threat, triggering strong emotions.  In this case, you lose concentration because you feel anxious, stressed or full of doubt.      

The magic happens when you get it right, when you are challenged and stretched by what you are doing, but your mind perceives it as doable.   

That's what probably happened during my LSAT test.  I had practiced and believed I could do it, so it was a challenge that matched my skills, which helped me stay focused. 

As you go about your days, ask yourself the two questions above and remember that your power to focus lies somewhere in the middle between "too easy" and "too hard."

How to maximize brain power

"If we want to simplify and deepen our lives, we must simplify and deepen our minds. When we become more centered, clear, spacious, caring, and open, there is suddenly much more room in our frenetic lives for both others and ourselves."
— Lama Surya Das

How do you start your work day?  Do you jump right into your email inbox and get lost in the sea of unread messages calling for your attention?  If so, before you know it, your mind is probably racing from one thought to another, to another.  Unless your primary job function is to respond to email messages, email is a good example of how we give away the control of our schedule in response to other people's agendas and invite overwhelm into our day right from the start.  We also lose precious moments when we can maximize brain power.  How so?

When too much noise and input enters our brain, we become fuzzy thinkers.  In addition, overwhelm and information overload add to our stress levels.  Prolonged stress elevates cortisol, a stress hormone that appears to shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory and other cognitive functions. 

The point is that if we want to be efficient, productive and creative at work, we need to put more thought into how we start our days.  Much like we are better off taking the earliest flight if we want to leave on time because flight delays tend to snowball, we should spend our early work hours on some deep thinking because distractions snowball too. 

You can come up with your own empowering morning routine that can help you maximize brain power for your most important projects: 

• Set your morning agenda the day before.
• Think of a brain-friendly ritual that will signal the transition into the work routine.  You can choose to mediate, take a morning walk, listen to music or something inspirational that can put you in a good mood.  We think better when we feel good.  According to the research conducted by neuro-psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, positive emotions tend to broaden our focus, enabling us to discover more tools and solutions to life's challenges and making us more resourceful.    
• Limit the noise and distractions and spend your precious morning hours reflecting, writing, creating, strategizing, or trying out unconventional problem-solving approaches. 

What's your favorite mourning routine to maximize brain power?

States of consciousness: Who would you be without your beliefs and positions?

Who would you be without your beliefs and positions?  This is the questions explored in the article "Evolving Consciousness" by Kaisa Puhakka in the current issue of Shift.  It discusses how we settle into our beliefs and what it takes to shed them: 

Settling into positions and shifting out of them are both intrinsic to our consciousness. When the need to understand is satisfied by an authority we can believe in or by evidence or argument, the mind settles into a position. But our positions can unravel, either suddenly in a spontaneous aha! moment or gradually by painstaking, honest inquiry. Settling and shifting represent opposing tendencies, one inclining toward stasis while the other frees us up for movement. Neither is "good" or "bad"; they each have their value in sustaining human life as we know it. Settling into positions provides anchors for comfort and security. Without such settling, the structures of civilization and culture wouldn’t exist. At the same time, settling freezes positions and makes the capacity to shift more difficult — especially problematic when a certain kind of shift may be needed. Spontaneous evolutionary movement loosens these frozen positions and allows for shifting to take place.

As we develop fluid thinking that goes beyond the limitations of our perspectives, we become better equipped to find creative solutions to the complex challenges our world faces today.  But it cannot be done without awareness:

Awareness is needed to bring light to the shadows in our minds where the opposites of what we affirm lurk—threatening to cast doubts on our certainties. The challenge for awareness is that the modern psyche is complex and multilayered. The play of unconscious and conscious keeps the layers and compartments separate and makes it possible to hold contradictory positions unperturbed. Whenever we affirm a belief, for example, we tend to negate its contrary by banishing it from awareness. The force of the banishment can vary from drastic repression, where the rejected position becomes absolutely inconceivable, to momentary suppression, where the rejected position is set aside but still available for reconsideration and a possible return to awareness.

Click here to access the current issue of Shift and read about the three modes of consciousness that explain how we relate to our beliefs. 

Want to be a better problem-solver in your dreams?

"Ideas twinkle in dreams like bicycle lights in a mist." 
- Michael Michalko, "Thinkertoys"

Have you ever been caught daydreaming or doodling in class, during a lecture or at a business meeting?  While others could interpret it as a sign that your mind was meandering aimlessly instead of paying attention, neuroscientists now provide us with the evidence to the contrary.  It turns out that the daydreaming mind continues to solve problems, and doodling actually helps remember things better.  The advice to 'sleep on it' isn't a bad idea either. 

According to a recent University of British Columbia study, activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander.  Daydreaming activates both the brain's "default network," which is linked to easy, routine mental activity and the "executive network" - the brain areas associated with high-level, complex problem-solving. The findings support the notion that daydreaming, which can occupy as much as one third of our waking lives, allows us to shift our attention from routine tasks to work through more important problems in our lives.  You may not be able to accomplish an immediate goal if you daydream, but you can come up with a creative solution to a life challenge. 

If you feel the urge to daydream during a boring presentation and want to improve your concentration, try doodling.  It may seem contradictory to the common perceptions, but doodling while listening can keep you on track with a boring task and help you remember details better.  In a recently published study, subjects given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had a 29% improved recall compared to their non-doodling counterparts. 

In addition, nighttime dreams can also help you solve problems.  A study conducted by the University of Alberta and the University of Montreal of 470 psychology students revealed that dreams that occurred six to seven days after the remembered event often reflected "interpersonal interactions, problem resolution and positive emotions."  These findings suggest that people continue to work through personal difficulties in dreams. 

Sleep psychologists claim we have about six dreams each night during rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep).  We often forget our dreams, but there are things we can do to recall dreams better and capture any creative ideas that emerged in the dream state:

1. If you've been working on a problem for a while, bring it back into focus right before you fall asleep.  Think about a question related to your problem that you'd like to get an answer to in your sleep.
2. When you awake, don't get up immediately.  Instead, lie quietly as you reflect on your dream.  If you have trouble remembering your dreams, try waking up thirty minutes earlier. 
3. Have a dream journal next to you bed so that you could promptly record any thoughts that came to you after you woke up.  Don't censor, just write down anything that comes to mind.  Your ideas are often triggered by your dream even if you can't remember the dream exactly.  After all, the contemporary scientific method was first reveled to René Descartes in his dream, which he promptly recorded in his dream journal.
4. You can later go over your dream journal again to see if any patterns, ideas, or insights emerge from your dream entries.

Finally, if you want your dreams to be more positive, try smelling something pleasant while you sleep.  German researchers used specific volatile odorants with a negative or a positive smell ("rotten eggs" versus "roses") to stimulate subjects during sleep.  When the unpleasant odor was used, the subjects reported that the emotional coloration of the dream was predominantly negative.   When they smelled the pleasant odor, their dreams had a positive coloration.

Related post:  Take a nap

Body Movements Can Influence Problem Solving

Directed movements of the body can, outside of conscious awareness, guide higher-order cognitive processing, according to a new study, conduced by University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Laura Thomas.  PhysOrg reports:

In the study, the researchers asked study subjects to tie the ends of two strings together. The strings dangled from ceiling rafters and were so far apart that a person grasping one could not reach the other. A few tools were also available: a paperback book, a wrench, two small dumbbells and a plate. Subjects were given a total of eight, two-minute sessions to solve the problem, with 100 seconds devoted to finding a solution, interrupted by 20 seconds of exercise.
...
Some subjects were told to swing their arms forward and backward during the exercise sessions, while others were directed to alternately stretch one arm, and then the other, to the side. To prevent them from consciously connecting these activities to the problem of the strings, the researchers had them count backwards by threes while exercising...

The subjects in the arm-swinging group were more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem, which required attaching an object to one of the strings and swinging it so that it could be grasped while also holding the other string. By the end of the 16-minute deadline, participants in the arm-swinging group were 40 percent more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem.

"By making you swing your arms in a particular way, we're activating a part of your brain that deals with swinging motions," Lleras said. "That sort of activity in your brain then unconsciously leads you to think about that type of motion when you're trying to solve the problem."

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio said, "The mind is embodied, not just embrained."  This study demonstrates once again the important link between our mind and body, or "embodied cognition."

You can think on your feet quite literally.  So, next time you feel stuck trying to solve a problem, start moving.  Your body may guide your brain to an unexpected solution.  

This study is described in the article "Swinging Into Thought: Directed Movement Guides Insight in Problem Solving" by  Alejandro Lleras and Laura Thomas, appearing in an upcoming issue of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.  To read the full report and watch the videos of the problem-solving and exercise sessions, click here.

Life Metaphors: An Exercise in Creative Thinking

Life can feel like a roller coaster - the highs and the lows, the fear and the exhilaration - all coming in rapid succession.  Life can also be like an airplane - always self-correcting to stay on course.  To Albert Einstein, "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."

What would be a good metaphor for you to describe the way you experience life right now?

When we think in metaphors, we directly compare unrelated or dissimilar objects and situations.  Metaphorical thinking has benefits beyond the poetic and aesthetic value of metaphors.  Metaphors can improve our understanding and help us solve problems.

Metaphors expand meaning by transcending the literal and structural interpretation.  The whole meaning is greater than, and often different from, the sum of its parts.  According to research led by V. S. Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, a region of the brain known as the angular gyrus is at least partly responsible for the human ability to understand metaphors.  The angular gyrus is strategically located at the crossroads of areas specialized for processing touch, hearing and vision. 

Metaphors reveal subtle patterns that can otherwise fall beyond our perceptive powers.  But beware:  because of their ambiguous, emotive and nonlinear nature, metaphors can confuse as well as illuminate.  Be patient with yourself and the process.  The idea is to probe and peel the layers and be open to what you may find.

To experience the creative power of metaphors, do the following exercise, adapted from the book "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques" by Michael Michalko:

1.    Think of a challenge or a choice you are facing.

2.    Instead of describing it in words, browse some old magazines, newspapers or catalogs and cut out images that symbolize your challenge or choice.

3.    Move your pictures around, exploring different patterns and associations.  Continue until they form a collage.  

4.    Look at your collage and search for clues, insights and new ideas related to your challenge or choice.  Ask yourself the following questions:

    a.    What is my challenge/choice like?  
    b.    What does it remind me of?
    c.    What aspects of my challenge/choice are revealed through the collage?
    d.    What can I learn from this?

Mind illusions and portion control

"Habits are basic and foundational aspects of our mental lives.  Without habit, there is no calculation, no speech, no thought, no recognition, no game playing.  Only a creature with habits like ours could have anything like a mind like ours.  But habits, at least many of them, are situational or environmental.  A habit is like a trail laid down by our own repetitive action.  A habit is not merely a disposition to act or an automatic or unthinking tendency; it is a responsiveness to the environment in which we find ourselves.  If the trail is paved over or if familiar landmarks are removed, our habits can frequently be extinguished."

~ Alva Noë, "Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness"

How much of what you do is in response to things that are happening around you, your immediate environment?  A couple of days ago, I was putting together a collage of colorful images of fruits, vegetables, and herbs for my Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover coaching class.  One of the images was a picture of mint plants forming a bright green carpet.  Later, when I went to get some tea for myself, guess what kind of tea I chose…  That's right, I chose mint tea.   So, how does our environment influence our daily actions and decisions? 

Studies on habit formation reveal that as much as 45 percent of what we do every day is habitual, that is, we act almost without thinking usually because of subtle cues in our environment, such as "a specific location or time of day, a certain series of actions, particular moods, or the company of specific people."  For example, you may experience the urge to check your e-mail if you feel stuck in your current task.  Similarly, you may want to grab a cookie if you feel upset or bored.

On occasion, those cues in our environment can trick our minds into behaving in a way that is inconsistent with our goals and we may not even realize it.  Here are a few examples of mind illusions related to the issue of portion control.

You may have heard that it is helpful to use smaller plates if you want to eat less.  The following experiment illustrates this point.  If you cut a sandwich into two same-size portions and you put one half of the sandwich on a small plate and the other half on a large plate, you will create an optical illusion.  People will perceive the half-sandwich on the small plate as bigger than the half-sandwich on the large plate.  Moreover, if they eat the half-sandwich on the small plate, they will feel fuller compared to eating the sandwich on the large plate.  Thus, physical objects around you can affect your appetite. 

The second example explains why all-you-can-eat buffets cause people to eat more.  Researchers investigated how variety influenced consumers' quantity perceptions. "Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" they asked.  It turns out that we tend to underestimate portions if there is greater variety.  People poured larger portions when there was variety of food without realizing it.

You don't even need to go to a magic show to experience the power of mind illusions in your daily life.  

What triggers hide in your immediate environment?  How can you eliminate or minimize those that sabotage your goals?

Don't turn off your brain when receiving advice from a financial expert

A recent study into the neural mechanisms through which external information, such as professional advice,  is integrated into financial decision making may shed light on how Bernard Madoff was able to deceive so many people.  ScienceDaily reports:

A study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that expert advice may shut down areas of the brain responsible for decision-making processes, particularly when individuals are trying to evaluate a situation where risk is involved.
...
Study participants were asked to make a series of financial choices between a guaranteed payment and a lottery while undergoing fMRI scanning. During portions of the testing, the participants had to make decisions on their own; during other portions, they received advice from a financial expert about which choice to make.

"Results showed that brain regions consistent with decision-making were active in participants when making choices on their own; however, there occurred an offloading of the decision-making process in the presence of expert advice," says Jan B. Engelmann, PhD, Emory research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and first author of the study.

The lesson is... don't outsource your critical thinking, especially when you talk to an expert.

Click here to read the full article.

Barbara Fredrickson and Sharon Salzberg on "Positivity"

Last Sunday, I attended the discussion between neuro-psychologist Barbara Fredrickson and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg as part of the Brainwave series at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.  The topic was how positive thinking influenced the mind.  Specifically, they talked about the effects of lovingkindness meditation practice on positive emotions and about the results of Dr. Fredrickson's research, described in her new book "Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive."  

The conversation began with the question about the roles of positive and negative emotions.  Psychologists have known for a long time that negative emotions are so salient and effective in seizing our attention because our survival has depended on them.  The fear of a tiger, the disgust at the sight of rotten food - those negative emotions have been there to protect us.  But why do we need positive emotions and how can we experience them more often?  This is the inquiry of the positive psychology. 

Dr. Fredrickson's research points out that positive emotions tend to broaden our focus, enabling us to discover more tools and solutions to life's challenges and ultimately making us more resourceful.  When we experience negative emotions, our focus is narrow.  This tunnel vision precludes us from switching perspectives and seeing creative solutions.  Positive emotions let our minds open, or "bloom."  In Dr. Fredrickson's study, the lovingkindness meditation practice has been shown to increase the frequency of positive emotions.  In the lovingkindness mediation, you gather your attention around words and phrases of love and peace that you repeat rhythmically and direct to yourself and others.   Those participants who saw a bigger increase in positivity from the start of the program also showed more benefits after three months of practice.  In the long term, positive emotions result in more resilience and life satisfaction.

All emotions are transient.  The point is not to try to be positive all the time, but rather to increase the frequency of positive emotions.  Dr. Fredrickson discovered that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative ones makes people more resilient and creative in meeting life’s challenges and achieving their goals.  You can find out your ratio and get other online tools at Dr. Fredrickson's website http://www.positivityratio.com.  As Sharon Salzberg beautifully said, what counts is the willingness "to begin again," to redirect the mind towards more positive alternatives.       

An interesting question was raised during the Q&A about the cross-cultural variance with regard to positivity.  Culture influences what we consider a positive experience.  For example, in cultures where individualism is praised, people feel positive when they stand out and accomplish something on their own.  In collective cultures, feeling connected to a group, fitting in, may be more important to increase positive emotions.  Reflecting on my own cross-cultural experiences, I wonder if the broad focus also facilitates cultural adjustment.  It would be interesting to see studies on this.

The practice of joy and happiness

Do you notice the stories you are telling yourself?  How do they make you feel and act?  Do they  leave you inspired, joyful, clear, and confident?  Or do they generate negativity, doubt, or resistance?  Many of us take whatever our mind conjures up as the truth and don't challenge our thinking even when it is not working for us.  What would you need to tell yourself to feel joy and happiness? 

In the Yoga Journal article "Joy Story," Sally Kempton is describing a practice of happiness that can help us cultivate the inner states of joy and content that are often missing in our busy, hectic lives.   

Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt really happy. Then take yourself into that moment. See if you can get a feeling-sense of yourself in the situation. Perhaps you'll do this visually—by remembering where you were, what you wore, who was present. Perhaps you'll do it by invoking the feeling, asking yourself, "What did that happiness feel like?" and then waiting until the feeling-sense begins to make itself present in your body. Stick with it until you actually feel the happiness—even if only a little.

Then remove the memory of the scene or situation and just feel the feeling. Find the place in your body where the feeling is centered, then let it expand until it fills you. If you're very visual, it might help if you give the feeling a color—a warm one, like gold or pink. Or you might work with the breath, breathing into the feeling and letting it expand on the exhalation.

Sit with this feeling of happiness. See if you can hold it. See if, for this moment, you can let the happiness become your primary feeling. This is a glimpse, however small, of your true reality.

If you want to learn about the four meanings of happiness, read the rest of  "Joy Story."

Mindfulness in Movement

If you want to bring more mindfulness into your daily life, consider matching your mindfulness practices to your dominant intelligences.  According to the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, and discussed in his book "Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century," there are eight different intelligences that describe the ways people relate to information.   Your preferred ways to process information are your strengths or dominant intelligences.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I begin with the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence today and proceed with the rest of the intelligences in the upcoming posts.

We engage our bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when we express ourselves through movement and use movement to process information.  If you have a strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, it may be easier for you to concentrate when movement is involved.  There are many ways to develop awareness through movement.  In fact, many types of physical exercises can help you get into the zone, a state of mind where you feel focused, your senses are heightened, and time tends to disappear.  So, you can choose whether you want to do yoga or rock climbing to practice mindfulness in movement.  Your physical sensations, your breath, the rhythm of the movement, the flow of energy through your body are all good anchors for your attention that can help you get beyond the mental noise.  Sometimes, simply being mindful of your posture and remembering to relax your shoulders or do a few shoulder rolls can be a centering technique that can teach you to pay attention to your body signals.  Here are a few more examples of kinesthetic practices:

Yoga offers an excellent way to strengthen your mind body connection.  We are often concerned with changing, toning, shaping, sculpting, building our bodies.  Yoga allows us to experience our bodies and learn to respect their needs.  Focusing on the breath, movement and physical sensations helps to quiet the swirl of thoughts in the head and develop better awareness.

A meditative walk not only gently introduces even the most sedentary folks to a more active lifestyle, it can also calm the nerves and clear the mind.  You can gain more self-awareness, energy, relieve stress, improve your body image and your mood – all while walking.   As you walk, train your attention by noticing your breath and bodily sensations or observing the surroundings.  You can also try walking the labyrinth.  Here's how Daniel Pink describes his labyrinth walk in his book "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" :

"This labyrinth, which I walked one morning not too long ago, is composed of four-inch by four-inch brick squares.  Eight concentric circles, formed from similarly sized white squares, orbit a center space that's roughly two feet in diameter.  Along the outer edge a few squares have single words stamped onto them: Create, Faith, Wisdom, Believe.  Visitors often choose one of these words, and then repeat it, like a mantra in meditation, as they circle to the center.  I began my labyrinth walk by heading left and walking down the first ring.  As I looked around, I saw a few Medical Center buildings on one side and a parking lot on the other.  Nothing transcendent about this.  It felt as if I was simply walking in a circle.  So I started again.  To avoid distractions, I looked down.  I focused my sight on the two curving lines that formed the outline of my path, and I began walking – as slowly as I possible could.  The lines curled around me.  And after a while it felt a bit like driving on a long empty road.  I didn't have to pay much attention, so my mind slipped to a different place – and that had an unexpected calming effect."

Dancing is another great way to practice mindfulness by noticing how your moods, ideas, and emotions are expressed through movement.  I have to admit that I am biased here because Latin ballroom dancing got me moving throughout college, helped me manage the stress of law school, and allowed me to meet my most wonderful friends for years, including my husband.   Dancing is an excellent tool of self-expression.  Even if it's just you alone in the room, turn on the music that speaks to you and try expressing what you feel at the moment through movement.  No specific structure or choreographed routines – just your emotions flowing through your body.  

Hobbies that require you to work with your hands, such as pottery, woodworking, knitting, or cooking, make it easier to focus your mind on the process and away from nagging thoughts. 

The rhythmic movement of prayer beads in prayer, meditation, or simply during the repetition of affirmations can also be helpful to people with dominant kinesthetic intelligence. 

Do you have any kinesthetic or tactile habits, such as pacing the room when you need to think things over, tossing up a pen, playing with a stress ball?  Next time, use these habits as reminders to take a few moments for yourself and clear your head by focusing on the movement. 

What kinesthetic practices help you to be more mindful?

Constructive thinking during meditation

Many people find it difficult to quiet their minds when they meditate.  Some erroneously assume that they are supposed to eliminate thinking altogether.  The article "Thoughts on Thinking" by Edward Espe Brown, a Zen priest and author, offers tips on how to engage your thinking constructively when you meditate. 

Rather than eliminate thinking, you could say that one of the basic skills to develop in meditation is to be able to hold and sustain contradictory thoughts—calming the impulse to eliminate the opposition. One obvious example has to do with sitting still. You want to sit still, so can you have the thought to move and go on sitting still? Or do you have to do what the thought says?

The first strategy is to focus your thinking on posture and breathing.  For example, your thinking may enable you to count the breaths or keep your spine straight. 

The second strategy is to give your thinking a task.  For example, you can ponder Koans to break traditional thinking patterns or take mental notes of what's going on, such as "thinking," "judging," "labeling," "feeling happy," etc. 

The third strategy is to ask your thinking to leave you alone for now and promise to check back later.  The author recounts the advice he received from a speech consultant when he had trouble expressing himself at meetings:

"Tell me what you wanted to say," she prompted.

"I can't." When she wondered why not, I explained: "My thinking won't let me. It says it won't be good enough."

She offered some instructions: "Ask your thinking to go into the room next door while you talk, and promise that you will check back with it when you are done."

"It won't go."

"There's a television there."

"It doesn't believe I'll check back."

"Promise."

"It still won't go," I lamented.

"Close the door! Force it shut!" she insisted.

Finally, I told her what I had wanted to say at the meeting. "Now, let's ask your thinking what it thought," she said. My thinking was pleased and relieved to be consulted: "That was rather good," it told me. But my speech consultant wasn't finished. "And now let's ask your thinking if it has any suggestions for improvement?"

My thinking was so pleased and politely responded, "You might have tried this or emphasized that a little more."

This was a fundamental shift from the more habitual approach of simply telling my thinking to go away and not "bother" me. Here, I asked my thinking to be quiet so as to closely observe what was happening—and then tell me about it.

You can read the full article "Thoughts on Thinking" by Edward Espe Brown here.

"Q-tools: An approach for discovery and knowledge work" by Dave Gray

In the world of rapid information flow, asking the right questions is often more important than knowing the answers.  Dave Gray offers an interesting paradigm of questions to help us process information:

A prism is a question that divides information into smaller groups. The purpose of a prism is to break down information into categories or subgroups…

A razor is a question that divides information into two categories, based on relevance. The purpose of a razor is to define a boundary which can be used to sort any incoming information, and determine whether it lies inside our outside the boundary…

A generator is a question that has a potentially unlimited number of answers. The purpose of a generator is to explore new or unknown territory and to find knowledge that may be hidden and make it explicit…

A peeler is a single question that, when repeated, drives attention to deeper and deeper levels, like the peeling of an onion. The purpose of a peeler is to penetrate beyond superficial levels in order to get to the heart of the matter…

A flanker is a question that seeks patterns or ideas that are similar. The purpose of a flanker is to think laterally and find an analogous situation that may help you think about things differently…

A splicer is a question that combines information, or sets, into groups. The purpose of a splicer is to find larger categories and simplify collections of information…

A pointer is a question that has a well-defined or broadly agreed-upon answer, or set of answers. The purpose of a pointer is to gather specific information…

Check out the full article for the visual representations of the question types and specific examples of their use. 

"The Opposable Mind" by Roger L. Martin

If you like to think about how you think, you may want to read Tim Milburn’s review of "The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking" by Roger L. Martin.  The book discusses the concept of integrative thinking:

The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.

For lawyers who are used to fighting out the opposing ideas, this book may offer a refreshingly new perspective.  I imagine, mediators may find it useful too.  I've just added the book to my Amazon wishlist.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 20:  Learning to learn

What distinguishes best lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. from the rest of the crowd?  What do they know or do that others don't?  One possibility is that they are very proficient in using certain meta-skills that can be applied to multiple tasks and contexts and supercharge whatever these experts do.  Effective learners invest time and effort in developing the skills that help them learn and perform to their best potential.  What could those meta-skills be and how can we develop them?  Here is what I've brainstormed so far:

Extracting only relevant information. Being able to zero in on the essential elements saves time and brain power.   

       What to do: 

1. Learn the basics well.  Applying meta-skills takes up working memory, which is very limited.  When you have to think about the basic content and try to use your meta-skill, your working memory gets overloaded.  You have to know the foundations well in order to filter any additional information.
2. Clarify and simplify.  If you have clutter on your desk and somebody leaves an important piece of paper there for you, you may not see it.  But if you have a clean and well-organized desk, anything new will jump out at you.  The same applies to your head.
3. Practice "selective ignorance."   In this day and age, we consume much more information than we really need.  It's not always better to read and learn more.  Making sure you pick the best in the ocean of information is important, so become selective.  Each piece of information you consume should have a purpose and application.
4. Learn to prioritize.  Prioritizing forces you to make decisions about the relative importance of things.  The ability to see the essential will strengthen with this practice.
5. Use effective reading strategies that allow you to get to the important information quickly.

Recognizing patterns easily.  If we can connect pieces of information into a pattern, we are able to use our previous knowledge and experience more effectively.  Once something falls into a familiar pattern, we know what to do because we encountered a similar situation before and we can draw from the past experience. 

       What to do: 

1. Compare and contrast things.  You will teach yourself to notice important differences and similarities. 
2. Reflect on your past experiences.  As you do so, look for patterns in actions and outcomes. 

Memorizing. Working with our memory means being selective about what we need to memorize and why.  It is also about choosing the right strategy to retain information. 

        What to do:

1. Learn how memory works. 
2. Find memorizing strategies that work best for you.
3. Ask yourself why you need to remember something.
4. Choose the appropriate strategy and give your full attention to the material you need to memorize.

Analyzing and comprehending information.  We constantly rearrange our knowledge base to integrate new information.  How do we know that we truly comprehended something?  It fits into our big picture of how things work. 

        What to do:

1. Summarize and synthesize what you have learned.  Make sure you know how the concepts fit together.
2. Ask questions.  Questions help to reveal blind spots in your knowledge, challenge assumptions, expand your thinking.  Opt for open-ended questions, which start with what, who, how, why, when, where.
3. Teach what you have learned to others.  It will help you master the subject matter. 

Occasionally, we analyze something incorrectly, hence the next point…

Verifying and testing the knowledge.  Effective learners are able to test and adjust their mental maps continuously.  They are not afraid to put themselves out there because that is how they receive feedback and make improvements.   

       What to do:

1. In the ideal world, you encounter a problem and ask yourself what you need to know to solve it.  Then, you go and learn what you need in the easiest and fastest way.  It is called "just-in-time" learning.  It ensures that your learning is relevant and valuable.  You apply it right away and gain competence in the process.  In the "learning-in-advance" scenario, look for opportunities to practice what you have learned.  If it is a skill, try transferring it to a different context and use it there. 
2. Learn collaboratively.  Share your ideas with others.  Talk through your thought process. 
3. Capture your ideas in writing.  Writing makes things clearer.  If somebody reads it, you may get feedback as well. 
4. Be adventurous and get out of your comfort zone.      

Reviewing. Assessing past actions is a crucial step if we want to achieve mastery.  We need to figure out what worked and what didn’t and adjust the behavior.

        What to do: 

1. Develop a habit of looking back at your actions and evaluating how well they served you.  Did you get the outcome you wanted?  Can you think of a better and faster way to achieve the same result? What would you do differently in the future?
2. Always search for ways to simplify, speed up and improve the process.
3. Ask people for feedback and once you’ve received it, consider it carefully.

Self-monitoring. Here, we have to assume the roles of the doer and observer at the same time.  We assess the performance in the moment, react, predict, and make adjustments as we go.  Such self-regulation offers a big learning advantage because we are attuned to instant feedback and can correct our course of actions accordingly.

        What to do: 

1. Practice mindfulness.   
2. Think about your thinking.
3. Pause and reflect on what you are doing.  Eventually, you will be able to monitor yourself without having to stop what you are doing.  It will be like a second layer of awareness that will allow you to stay attuned to the relevant clues in the context and adjust your actions as needed.

Maintaining the right attitude. Cognitive skills are important but they are not everything.  Emotional intelligence is needed as we navigate through our lives.  Think about how much information is encoded in people’s emotions and attitudes.  We have to be "emotion detectors" to succeed.  Read my earlier post on "How to develop your emotional intelligence" for more tips and resources. 

How do you develop your meta-skills?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines
Step 19:  Learning holistically

Mind on a Diet

"If we want to simplify and deepen our lives, we must simplify and deepen our minds. When we become more centered, clear, spacious, caring, and open, there is suddenly much more room in our frenetic lives for both others and ourselves."
—Lama Surya Das

This is the season when many people talk about losing a few pounds here and there.  As you decide what to feed your body, take time to think about what you feed your mind.  Here are a few things to consider.

1. Avoid empty information calories.  Just like junk food is harmful to our bodies, junk information dulls our minds.  (Here's the link to the post about my "Information Impact Quotient" approach).
2. Look for fresh ideas that forge new pathways in the brain.  Try new approached to old problems.  Evaluate situations from different perspectives.
3. Appreciate diversity.  Develop a curious mind that wants to wander and explore.
4. Make healthy thought choices.  Ban toxic thoughts.  Cherish positive, invigorating ideas.
5. Look beyond the packaging to discover the essence of things.
6. Don't feed on spoiled leftovers.  Let go of the notions that don't work for you anymore.  Release the attachments.
7. Be mindful as you consume information.  Slow down.  Take time to reflect on the meaning and usefulness of what you read and hear and integrate it into your existing knowledge base.

   

Cognitive Fitness

From "Cognitive Fitness" by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts, Harvard Business Review (need subscription, you can preview the summary of the article on the order page):

…advances in neuroscience suggest that there is no reason why your brain at 60 can’t be as competent as it was at 25. That would not have been news to thinkers such as Socrates, Copernicus, and Galileo, who were all still at the peak of their intellectual powers in their sixties and seventies. Nor would it surprise business leaders such as Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett, and Sumner Redstone. These icons and others like them have intuitively understood that the brain’s alertness is the result of what we call cognitive fitness—a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change. Cognitive fitness will allow you to be more open to new ideas and alternative perspectives. It will give you the capacity to change your behaviors and forecast their outcomes in order to realize your goals. You can become the kind of person your company values most. Perhaps more important, you can delay senescence for years and even enjoy a second career.

The article goes on to suggest steps you can take to stay cognitively fit and discusses some implications of the brain research to learning.  For example, the study of mirror neurons, which "aid the speed and accuracy of our perception by mentally simulating objects and actions in our environment," helps us understand how we can learn better through observation and indirect experience. 

The authors encourage play at work because play "engages the prefrontal cortex…nourishing our highest-level cognitive functions – those related to incentive and reward processing, goal and skill representation, mental imagery, self-knowledge, and memory, just to name a few."  They suggest playing games, such as bridge, chess, sudoku, solving challenging crossword puzzles, doing improvisation, reading funny books.

Searching for patterns is another way to maintain your cognitive fitness:  "First and foremost, challenge your existing mind-set, enlarge it, and make it more complex."  The authors encourage executives to "[l]isten to different viewpoints, read new kinds of articles and books, and visit places with a focused set of learning objectives."

Those who seek novelty and innovation through continuous learning benefit from neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and enhance its performance.  The article suggests learning a new language, musical instrument, or new technology.

VizThink Conference '08

VizThink Conference '08 will take place on January 27-29, 2008 in San Francisco.  Even if you cannot attend, you may want to visit the conference website and check out a number of available podcasts and webinars on the topic of visual thinking.  They also have a blog and a wiki with additional content.   

"VizThink is gathering visual thinkers from all corners of the world to create the first global community dedicated to the use of visualization in all forms of learning and communication."

“Innovate Like Edison” Podcast from Theater of the Mind

If you are interested in creative thinking, you may want to check out the podcast “Innovate Like Edison” from Theater of the Mind.  In this podcast, Kelly Howell, founder of Brain Sync, interviews Michael Gelb, the author of “How to Think like Leonardo DaVinci:  Seven Steps to Genius Every Day,” about his latest book "Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor" co-authored with Sarah Miller Caldicott, the great grand niece of Thomas Edison:

"This show discusses how you can use the creative principles of Thomas Edison to bring your ideas into reality."

My wellness mindset newsletter

I have some exciting updates to share with you.  I’ve been busy cooking up a few new things for 2008.  One of them is the launch of my weekly wellness mindset newsletter “Well-Aware.”  I publish this newsletter for my coaching clients and other busy professionals who want to create a healthier lifestyle by building a wellness mindset.  The focus is on effective thinking.  Some of the topics I’ll be exploring are:

• How to develop a mindset for health and well-being.
• How to overcome limiting patterns of thinking and behavior.
• How to maintain a positive mental attitude.
• How to generate more “A-ha” moments and better insights.
• How to listen to your body and your intuition.
• How to discover your unique sources of wellness and vitality.
• How to limit negative thoughts.
• How to get yourself unstuck and moving in a powerful new direction.
• How to use your mind for effective self-regulation.
• How to persevere and reach your wellness goals.
• How to leverage the power of proven methods for managing stress.
• How to use mindfulness to change unhealthy patterns in your life.
• How to figure out and focus on what’s important to you.

If you’d like to subscribe, just complete the form in the right-hand column of this blog (under my picture) or on my coaching page. 

I also plan to focus more on the issue of wellness in the legal profession this year.  It pains me to see that so many talented and highly motivated people, who are very good at serving their clients, have trouble making decisions when it comes to their own life and well-being.  I know the traditional law firm culture often makes it difficult for lawyers to take care of their own needs.  But the bottom line is that the change starts with individuals, and we all need to stay well in order to work and live well.

I’d love to hear what your biggest challenges are when it comes to wellness.

 

Creative thinking in conflict resolution

I like thinking frameworks.  Even though they sound restrictive, I’ve found that in fact, they often help to generate more innovative ideas than the free-form brainstorming.  In his article “The Joke Model of Creative Thinking” at Mediate.com, John Cooley shows how the structure and formulas used to create a joke can be applied in conflict resolution: 

It is the quality and the timing of the punchline that comprise the creative act and speeds the joke to a satisfying resolution. It is this same kind of punchline -- specially selected new information -- that must be injected into the mediation process at the appropriate time in order to yield highly satisfactory, optimal, or even super-optimal, solutions. A point deserving special emphasis, which may indeed serve as the punchline of this article, is as follows: It is the mental process which occurs in joke processing in a microsecond--at the time of and just before surprise--that must be replicated in the mediation setting in order to achieve super-optimum solutions; it is as if that mental process of reframing be viewed under a microscope and in slow-motion to be effectively discerned and applied.

The substantive steps of reframing in the joke process may be replicated in mediation on a gross scale and at a cosmically decelerated rate of speed. Two questions present themselves: First, what are punchlines in mediation? And second, at what stage of the mediation process should they be introduced?

You can read the article here.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 14:  Asking Good Questions

Questions are the power tool of learning.  They drill through the surface into deeper layers of meaning and understanding.  They shape and guide our thinking.  Asking good questions of yourself and others is an important skill of life-long learners.  It is even more valuable than knowing the answers because answers frequently change in our fast-paced world.   How do you make your questions more powerful?   

• Anticipate.  Use questions to propel yourself forward.  Look into the future and play with “What if” scenarios.   
  Example:  What if we did the impossible?  What would happen then? 
• Ask open-endedly.  Open-ended questions are more engaging.  They expand rather than limit your thinking.  Get comfortable with WH-questions:  Who, What, When, Where, How, Why.
  Example:  How can I do it differently?
• Change Assumptions. Ask questions to make a leap into the unknown and push yourself to the edges of your comfort zone.   Rebel against your own linear thinking.  Connect the opposites, flip the assumptions, mock the established theories.   
  Example:  How can we do the impossible?
• Seek relevancy.  Ask questions that are relevant to your life and your unique situation.  You want the knowledge gained from your questions to have a direct impact on you.
  Example:  What is the most important thing we should be addressing right now?
• Be authentic.  Ask authentic questions that reflect your values and aspirations.   When we connect to the subject matter on the emotional level, we feel more engaged, and as a result, we learn and remember better.   
  Example:  Why does it matter?
• Practice empathy.  Step into the shoes of someone affected by the question.  What are their fears and hopes?  Use questions to bridge the gap between the opposing points of view by revealing common interests, values, goals.  Questions promote collaboration while assertions may lead to unproductive conflicts. 
  Example:    How do you feel about...?

What are your favorite powerful questions?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development

How do you create value?

How do you think about the value that you bring to your clients?  We often measure what we do in terms of numbers, projects accomplished, hours billed, etc.  But what is the real human value behind those numbers?  In the hustle and bustle of the day, it is easy to lose track of why we do what we do, and then we feel undervalued, unappreciated, insecure of our own abilities. 

How often do you remind yourself of the true value you create for the people around you?  How do you know your value?   

Optimists in Law School

Dave Shearon, whose work focuses on the application of positive psychology to law and education, wrote an interesting article about optimists in law school for Positive Psychology News Daily.  The article discusses Breaking Murphy’s Law by Susan Segerstrom, who examined the research on optimism and its effects on immune system.  Shearon writes:

Segerstrom studies future-oriented optimism. Such optimists hold more strongly to expectations of future good events than to expectations of future bad events. In general, optimists have stronger immune system functions than pessimists. However, Dr. Segerstrom found in her research, beginning with that for her doctoral studies, that this relationship was not nearly as strong for law students as in most other studies. On further investigation, she found that the optimists split into two groups, one that had the expected strong immune system, and one where the immune system was somewhat suppressed.

Read the article to find out more about the two groups of optimists.  One important lesson from the book is that it is not just your thoughts that count, but rather how your thinking causes you to act.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 12:  Focusing on how you think

Learning to see the structures within which we operate begins a process of freeing ourselves from previously unseen forces and ultimately mastering the ability to work with them and change them.
- Peter Senge, “The Fifth Discipline”

There is no learning without thinking.  Effective learners know how to engage different types of thinking and how to think systematically and strategically.  Thinking about your own thinking is a meta-skill: it enables you to use your other skills in a more productive way across different disciplines and subject areas.  The Thinking Portal at Wikipedia includes a long list of thinking-related topics:

Abductive reasoning, Abstract thinking, Analogy, Attitude, Calculation, Categorization, Cognition, Cognitive restructuring, Cognitive space, Cognitive style, Common sense, Consciousness, Concept, Conjecture, Concrete concepts, Convergent thinking, Critical thinking, Deductive reasoning, Definition, Divergent thinking, Estimation, Evaluation, Explanation, Gestalt psychology, Heuristics, Historical thinking, Holistic, Hypothesis, Idea, Identification (information), Inductive reasoning, Inference, Instinct, Intelligence, Intelligence amplification, Intentionality, Introspection, Intuition, Knowledge management, Language, Lateral thinking, Linguistics, Logic, Logical argument, Logical assertion, LogoVisual thinking, Meaning (linguistics), Meaning (non-linguistic), Meaning (semiotics), Mental calculation, Mental function, Metacognition, Mind's eye, Mindset, Multiple intelligences, Morphological Analysis, Multitasking, Nonlinear, Pattern matching, Personality, Picture thinking, Prediction, Premise (argument), Problem finding, Problem shaping, Problem solving, Proposition, Rationality, Reason, Reasoning, Reasoning event, Self-reflection, Sapience, Semantic network, Semantics, Semiosis, Semiotics, Six Thinking Hats, Speech act, Somatosensory, Stream of consciousness, Syllogism, Synectics, Systems intelligence, Systems thinking, Thinkabout, Thinking, Thought act, Thinking maps, Thinking Processes, Thought experiment, TRIZ, Visual thinking, Working memory, Writing

There is obviously a lot to learn about thinking.   To keep it is simple, let’s begin with just a few types:

Convergent thinking - This type of thinking is cognitive processing of information around a common point, an attempt to bring thoughts from different directions into a union or common conclusion.

Divergent thinking - This type of thinking starts from a common point and moves outward into a variety of perspectives. When fostering divergent thinking, teachers use the content as a vehicle to prompt diverse or unique thinking among students rather than a common view.

Inductive thinking - This is the process of reasoning from parts to the whole, from examples to generalizations.

Deductive thinking - This type of reasoning moves from the whole to its parts, from generalizations to underlying concepts to examples.

Critical thinking - This is convergent thinking. It assesses the worth and validity of something existent. It involves precise, persistent, objective analysis. When teachers try to get several learners to think convergently, they try to help them develop common understanding.

Creative thinking - This is divergent thinking. It generates something new or different. It involves having a different idea that works as well or better than previous ideas.

To hone your meta-skills and to bring more focus and clarity to learning through a structured thought process, try applying the above types of thinking to a topic you are studying.  Pay attention to how you think about the subject matter, as opposed to what you think about it. 

Do you have favorite thinking models?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy

The brain of a leader

Thursday’s issue of The Wall Street Journal includes an interesting article entitled “This Is Your Brain on the Job” by Phred Dvorak and Jaclyne Badal.  It reports on the efforts of an Arizona State University management professor, Pierre Balthazard, and a neuroscientist and EEG expert, Robert Thatcher, to map the brain activity of visionary leaders.  They hope to use the data to train others in leadership skills:

Mr. Thatcher says preliminary analysis of 50 brain maps shows some big differences in activity between managers who rate high on a psychological test of visionary leadership, and those who rate low. The visionary leaders had more efficient left brains, which deal with logic and reasoning, and better connected right brains, which are responsible for social skills.

Maybe, the phrase “to think like a lawyer” will soon have its visual representation as well.  What do you think?

Foster your creativity

Many law students and lawyers have a creative bend, and it turns out, there are lots of good reasons to continue fostering your creativity.  Online Guide to Mediation offers an insightful review of the Boston Globe article "Art for our sake: School arts classes matter more than ever - but not for the reasons you think".   The article reports on a recent study indicating that art teaches a “specific set of thinking skills,” or what the researchers call the “studio habits of mind”: 

One of these habits was persistence: Students worked on projects over sustained periods of time and were expected to find meaningful problems and persevere through frustration. Another was expression: Students were urged to move beyond technical skill to create works rich in emotion, atmosphere, and their own personal voice or vision. A third was making clear connections between schoolwork and the world outside the classroom….

Each of these habits clearly has a role in life and learning, but we were particularly struck by the potentially broad value of four other kinds of thinking being taught in the art classes we documented: observing, envisioning, innovating through exploration, and reflective self-evaluation.

Art teaches us to look beyond our own expectations, which may cause inaccurate perceptions:

Seeing clearly by looking past one's preconceptions is central to a variety of professions, from medicine to law.

And for some, creativity can bring a big pay-off literally.   Just read the story of Scott Jordan, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur who invented the Technology Enabled Clothing, designed to keep your favorite gadgets hidden but easily accessible when you need them.

Where do your thoughts live?

Thoughts come and go.  We may not like all that check in, but we surely don’t have the vacancy problem in our heads.  Some hosts attempt to screen their thoughts by turning away grumpy and disruptive guests.  Others welcome them all but hope that the good ones stay longer.  Still others are in danger of being overrun by a bunch of negative characters who move in, invite their friends and have a party in complete disregard of their hosts’ sensibilities.   

How do you enforce your house policies?   What kind of place would you want to run and what guests do you want to attract?  Do you like to engage in thinking that is formal, casual, modern, eclectic, or traditional?