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© 2014 Steven Campbell

Your Amazing Mind

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Sonoma State University

Presentation by Steven Campbell

www.Stevenrcampbell.com [email protected]

Narrative Slides

It’s interesting. Right now while I’m talking to you, you are talking to yourself about three times faster. When you’re alone, that goes up to six times faster. But what is even more interesting is that while you are talking to yourself, YOUR BRAIN IS BELIEVING EVERYTHING YOU TELL IT…WITHOUT QUESTION. No arguments! So when you say to yourself, “This is just too hard for me!” your brain says, “OK!” and then actually makes it hard. That’s the scary part. But here’s the wonderful part. When you say “This is so easy!” your brain simply says, “OK” and then actually makes it easy. Now…is what you are saying true? You know what? Your brain doesn’t even care!

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How do we know that? Well, one of the best books that addresses that subject is Phantoms in the Brain by Dr. V.S. Ramachandron from UCSD. “Phantoms” refer to phantom limbs that have been amputated.

So when a patient walks into a doctor’s office and says that his arm is itching and driving him crazy, the doctor may have to say, “Well, I wish I could help you, but I amputated that arm six months ago.” “I don’t care!” responds the patient. “You didn’t tell my brain that!”

So before we talk about what we can do with this information, let’s first look at how much the human brain can still learn and grow and change. We’ll use our daughter, Sarah as an example. This is her brain (without the labels).

And this is her brain when she was 2 years old in terms of what she knew about a “city.” Absolutely nothing. (She was raised in Rohnert Park and the closest thing to a city in Rohnert Park is the Raley’s Shopping Center.) So she started with a blank slate.


To teach her about a ‘city,’ I sat down with Sarah and read her a book about a city. When I did, her brain recorded this book (because it records everything) as a cluster of neurons, (i.e., a neural cluster). When I read her another book, her brain recorded that too.

However, in addition to the book, Mary and I introduced her to some city people. We also took her to various city buildings, drove around city streets, took her to parks, showed her lights, and drove among the cars. When she went to sleep that night, her brain went to work. It looked for similarities and created connections between all the neural clusters. Over time, it developed a ‘pattern’ of a city. So from now on, Sarah will ALWAYS understand what a city is. It is now a part of her long term memory. And how many patterns can Sarah’s brain hold? That is based on the number of connections has brain can hold. The human has about a hundred billion neurons, and each neuron is connected to about ten thousand other neurons. So the number of connections which the human brain can contain is about 100,000,000,000 to the power of 10,000. To write that out in long hand, you start with a “1” followed by 6.5 million miles of zeroes!!!!! Wow! It is a number our brains themselves cannot grasp.


But to make this real to you, let’s read this together. You CAN read it because your brain has created a pattern for every word you know. (There are also five misspelled misspelled words in the paragraph? Two of them are on the bottom line, Can you find them?)

So…. The primary element….that holds us back…from learning and growing and changing…

Is what we say to ourselves!


Now…even though this is true, your brain takes shortcuts. What does this slide say? (It does NOT say “A bird in the bush.” And yet your brain recorded this as if it DID read “A Bird in the Bush.” WRONG! In fact, your brain is wrong a lot….EXPECIALLY WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT YOURSELF. “Oh. I’m so stupid for doing this!” When you say that, what does your brain say?’ Oh…OK.” And when you keep saying “I’m so stupid” my dear friends, YOUR BRAIN’S JOB IS TO MAKE YOU STUPID!

Here is a second principle that is JUST as important as the first (which is that “The brain believes what you tell it.”) This second principle is that your brain locks onto what YOU deem as important.

Do you remember when you first learned to ride a bicycle without the training wheels? Your father, mother, brother or sister ran alongside while your hands desperately clung to the steering handles, the bike wobbling every which way. When they finally felt you were ready to ride without your help, they pointed out a rock in the middle of the dirt road 50 feet ahead, and warned you, “Now don’t run into that rock!” They gave you a little shave and off you went. And to keep yourself from running into that rock, you kept your eyes fastened to it. You know what happened! BAM! Right into the rock! THAT’S THE WAY YOUR BRAIN WORKS. (By the way, that is the reason that worrying is simply nothing but negative goal setting!)


Susie came to my office after the first day of my math class at USF to inform me that she was a “C student in math.” “What do you mean?” I asked? “I’ve never gotten above a C in math, so I’m a C student in math. So when she received an A on the first examination, she declared to me, “This is a mistake!” “I have never gotten an A on a math test, so this has to be a mistake.” When I told her that this was a genuine “A,” a big smile came to her face and she exclaimed. “Do you know what this means? This means that when I flunk the next test, I can still maintain my C!” “Susie,” I pleaded! “Just get an A on every test!” “Oh I can’t” she said. “Why!!!?” “Because I’m a C student.” And sure enough, she flunked the next test and got a C in the course. So I sat down with her and asked her what she would have done if she had gotten an F on this first test. “Oh” she said immediately, “I’d have to get an A on the next test to maintain my C.” “Susie,” I pleaded again, “just get an A on every test!” “Oh I can’t! I’m a C student!” My wife was an elementary school principal for 25 years, and she learned that when they must deal with extremely troubled students, you cannot complement them when their behavior significantly approves. The reason? They usually return to the old behavior. Their mind is simply making sure that their behavior lines up with their disruptive self-image. Can you see how much we limit ourselves!

USF


When I wrote my book, the original title was “Making Your Mind Your Mentor” but my publisher changed it. I like my title better. Do you know what a mentor is? A mentor is someone who sees more in you then you see in yourself. AND THAT IS WHAT YOUR MIND CAN BECOME! YOUR OWN PERSONAL MENTOR…YOUR VERY BEST FRIEND!

Now...if I stopped here, you would probably say that this is really great stuff. You would then forget about 80% by tomorrow, and 95% by next week. The reason is that It has been recorded on the left side of your brain where all the information is stored and often never used. But the right side contains the real YOU…your feelings, your passions, your intuition, your creativity, your desire to grow…the part that people see when they look into your eyes. So we’ll spend our last few minutes together taking what I have shared, tweak it a bit, and then place it in the RIGHT side of your brain where you can immediately take it to your classrooms, or to your homes, and begin using it. To do that, I’m going to give you “Two New Ways of Thinking.”


The first comes from a study out of Stanford University in the early 70’s, where they discovered that MOST of us….pass over our successes…too quickly and too lightly…for them to EVER become part of our self-image. So when someone says to us, “Good job!” our response is usually…”Thanks…but it could have been better.” or “Not really!” or “That’s just embarrassing.” or “That’s too egotistical! Or…”No, no, no! Not really!” Well when we say “No, no, no, not really!,” what does your brain say? “Ok!” and then makes sure that most compliments we are paid never become a part of how we see ourselves. How sad!

So here is your first “New Way of Thinking!” When someone looks at you and says, “Good job!” or “You look so nice today!” respond by exclaiming, “Thanks. I KNOW!!!” Can you hear the laughter around the room? I said the same to a group of 300 physicians two years ago when I was asked to give my all-day seminar to the Kaiser Permanente Group in Orange County down in Huntington Beach, and they nervously laughed the same way. But they loved me so much that on the way back to LAX, when I had stopped for gas, I looked at myself in the passenger mirror and said, “Steve…you are an AMAZING teacher” And my brain not only agreed, it also said , “And….you could be even better.” For it opened the gate for growth. Now…if I had said, “Well…you messed up here and you messed up there,” what would have happened to the gate? It would have slammed shut! And no growth could have taken place.


So I’ll make in manageable to you. When someone says, “Good job!” rather than saying, “Thanks, I know!” simply respond with, “Thanks. That makes me feel really good!” And then when you get home, WALLOW IN YOUR SUCCESS LIKE A PIG IN SLOP!

And finally…throw away “The List.” What’s “The List? “ It is when you make those big bonehead mistakes and you say to yourself, “How could I have been so stupid!” Your brain then responds, “I KNOW!!! DO YOU REMEMBER THAT STUPID THING YOU DID YESTERDAY, AND THE DAY BEFORE, AND A MONTH BEFORE, AND TEN YEARS BEFORE!?? AND DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU WERE THE SLOWEST READER IN THE THIRD GRADE!” And we pull out this mental list of all the dumb things we’ve done. BUT REMEMBER THIS! As you review The List, remembering your mistakes, your brain does not know that those memories happened a day ago, a week ago, or a year ago. It is recording them AGAIN…but this time as if they happened WHEN? RIGHT NOW! AND THEN YOU ARE CARRYING THAT STUFF AROUND WITH YOU ALL DAY LONG!

But here is some wonderful news!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THAT ANYMORE…STARTING WHEN?

RIGHT NOW!


So what do you say instead? “The Next Time! The next time I’ll do it this way. The next time I’ll do it that way.” And when you say “The Next Time” you are saying three things. 1.) There IS a next time. How many next times do we get? As many as we want! 2.) When you say The Next Time you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. When Thomas Edison was asked how it felt to fail 999 times looking for the filament of a light bulb, he said “I did NOT fail 999 times! I simply found 999 ways that didn’t work!” 3.) Finally, when you say The Next Time, you are saying, “I will NEVER…EVER…give Up. Ever!” And when you say this, what does your brain say? “Oh. OK!” Is it true? “DON’T CARE! All I care about is what YOU….tell me!”

And all of this is a process! Neither Mary nor I will ever forget when Abbey took her first step. She turned to us, with such a look of joy and anticipation in her eyes, took her first step, and fell flat on her face. She then looked up at us, with little tears in her eyes, and said, “Well dad…mom...I guess I was never meant for walking!” Did she say that? Of COURSE she didn’t! She got up...took two steps…and then she fell! Three steps and then she fell! Four steps and then she fell. She’s 39 years old! Is she still falling? YES! Because FALLING IS A PART OF WALKING!


One morning when I was waiting to get on the freeway to go to work, a kid in a brand new, very hot, SUV drove next to me. When he looked down at me and I looked up at him, I knew what he was going to do. Sure enough…as soon the light changed, he went peeling out in front of me…showing me the power of his SUV. And then he raced up the freeway showing everyone else the power of his SUV. And as I watched this whole scenario, I had an epiphany. How many cars are already in front of HIM? Thousands! And how many cars are behind him? Thousands! So maybe it’s not a matter of “How fast you get there.” Maybe it’s a matter of GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. And...sometimes you run out of gas…and sometimes you get a flat tire…and sometimes you even lose you way. But you know…you can BUY some more gas! You can replace the tire. You can get a map!

And the whole time, do you know what your brain is saying? “Oh…OK!” Is it true? “DON’T CARE!” “ALL I CARE ABOUT IS WHAT YOU…TELL ME! YOU SAY IT, I BELIEVE IT. AND THEN WHEN YOU LOCK ONTO IT, DO YOU KNOW WHAT’ I’LL DO? I’LL DO EVERYTHING I CAN…TO MAKE IT TRUE…IN YOUR LIFE!

WOW!


I am concluding my message by sharing what I think are the three most exciting psychological breakthroughs in the history of psychology. 1.) Your brain believes what you tell it. When you say, “I cannot do this!” your brain believes you and then makes sure you can’t! HOWEVER, when you say I CAN do this, your brain believes you just as quickly, and then does everything it can to make sure you do. 2.) Your feelings follow your beliefs. Another way to say this is that your feelings don’t come ‘willy nilly’ from somewhere out in the ozone…they are coming from your beliefs. More specifically, they are coming from what you are saying to yourself about yourself…and your life. 3.) You can change the way you think. THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING ONE. You are only a victim of your circumstances if you say you are! However, you can change that thinking…right now. And your brain will say, “Ok!” It what you are saying true? “Don’t care! All I care about is what YOU….TELL ME!

WOW AGAIN!


A Partial Bibliography - In order of Importance

1) Making Your Mind Magnificent – Flourishing at Any Age, Steven Campbell, MSIS

Compiles discoveries in cognitive psychology and brain physiology to help you learn and grow and change at any age.

2) A Guide to Rational Living, Albert Ellis, Ph.D. and Robert A. Harper, PhD.

Sets the standard for cognitive psychology; not only do our brains believe what we tell them but that our feelings come from those beliefs

3) Phantoms in the Brain, V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D.

Our brains believe what we tell them, whether what we tell them is true or not.

4) Learned Optimism, Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D.

How we can replace our mind-set to an optimistic one. 5) The Brain that Changes Itself, Norman Doidge, M.D.

Our minds are rewiring themselves as we learn and grow 6) Get Out of Your Own Way, Robert Cooper, Ph.D.

Why do we shoot ourselves in the foot? 7) Welcome to Your Brain, Sandra Aamodt, PhD. And Sam Wang, Ph.D.

Why you lose your car keys but never forget how to drive, and other puzzles

8) What To Say When You Talk To Yourself, Shad Helmstetter, PhD,

More than 50% of our self-talk is negative, or working against us. Shad Helmstetter shows the reader how to erase and replace past mental programs with healthy, new programs that can be positively life-changing.

9) Self-Talk, Key to Personal Growth, David Stoop, Ph.D. 10) Brain Rules, John Medina 11) My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. 12) Brain Sex, Anne Moir, PhD, and David Jessel 13) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

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