When we come to understand what settles and soothes our own nervous system, or support others to understand, we create the ground for creative and innovative ways of working. If we continually forget things or get confused, will we beat ourselves up, or criticize someone else, or will we bring curiosity and connection to grow conscious awareness of how the brain and nervous system are working to protect? 

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We can learn from the latest neuroscience, and from careful observation, what creates the optimal conditions for learning what we choose to learn. Mind, body, spirit and emotions, are all involved in learning and teaching. Our nervous system can take us away from ourselves in the present, leaving us unavailable to learn, lost in high energy reactions, or numbed out and passive. Either way, with careful conscious awareness we can explore how to reach a state where the brain can change, where we can stay present enough for new learning to take place.

 

As an educator, counsellor, or change ally of any sort, formal or informal, we can support that conscious awareness, creating conditions where the whole being can open to learning. Then startling success is often possible. Even when success is not possible right then, then there is no blame, no avoidance, and another attempt can be made later, when what is possible may change utterly, if the conditions externally or internally are different.