Neuroplasticity and Behaviour Change – Dr Gabija Toleikyte

[Music] so real pleasure to be here and I have to admit the giving talks at the weekend University is one of my favorite types of lecturing because it's full of people who are kind of choosing to be here and I can see the difference now when I'm lecturing at university that it's not always the case true there is some truth to it so so I always like to start my talk with a little warmup raise your hand if you attended my seminars workshops lectures in the past so you know what's coming so I like to kind of get people moving I know you don't have that much space so be a little bit mindful don't don't bump into each other so do it as kind of as as as careful as you like and just think maybe I have a two kinds of warm-up so one is physical and one is social raise your hands if you would profess physical raise your hand if you would prefer social I think there was more physical soul ask you to stand up oh wow it's quite a few of you so this is going to be ridiculous guys okay so you don't expect anything really like profound this is a song and dance made by me okay so it's like it's not it's nothing to never too much to expect but the whole point is for us to move a little bit and to free ourselves a little bit later on you'll find why we did it as we did it okay so we're going to do as in a Boy Scout Girl Scouts British Army training I'll sing a line and do certain actions and you'll do it as synchronized as possible okay okay we all came here to learn about brain it's okay it's alright we are walking walking run a little bit run faster run even faster run as fast as you can jump up high squat down low shake your shoulders shake your booty jump on the rise jump on the left hand cheek one neighbor and and give a big big hug to another neighbor and grab a suit villain [Music] okay so later on we'll learn why did we do that jumping why was exercise silly and why did we cuddle each other okay and once you learn you can go and cuddle to your neighbor more if you like just just try to be a bit of appropriate some people you know complain about it so the point of this lecture is first to find the neuroscience answer on this dilemma raise your hands if you have a cycle new year's resolutions all right so my goal in 2020 is to accomplish the goals I set in 2019 which I should have done in 2018 because I made a promise in 2017 which I plan in 2015 all right so a lot of times we end up having really kind of really really clear ideas how we want things to be we start with a big enthusiasm and motivation and say this year is going to be different and in general pump ourselves a pool of energy full of motivation is going to change this and that and that and that our life is going to be very very different to cut the long story short what happens a month down the line a lot of us fall back to the old habits so in this in this lecture today we'll look at actually why what's needed for us to change what's needed was to create a change in our behavior and what are the what are the conditions needed for the brain to change and in particular for the brain to create a lasting change we'll look at five five different stages of change just a second I just have to bear is that okay now I'm gonna have three devices on me at the moment is it working cool we'll look at the five stages we need to go through in order for the change to last and that's the last word is the key lasting change that's that's what's tricky to achieve and that's why we need to go through a few different stages to create a lasting change in the brain and last but not least we'll look at why do we get stuck in certain of those stages and how to get unstuck and transit between those stages at the young I'll be I'll be ready to take your questions and and we could you know engage in debate but I will suggest that you make a note if you have a question during the talk and keep the question for that time so in order first to create a change with our brain is to change first and that's what we need to start with neuroplasticity what is me how does the brain work and what is needed for our brain to change so first of all as you can see brain is quite an ugly organ I actually have have a model of the brain here which I'm happy to send around this is a real science human brain by the way child's brain about five year old child's brain is very similar sized it doesn't change as much since then I'll send it around but then I'll I'll ask for it back at the end of it you can split it in two parts if you like by the way notice that you have Iain McGilchrist on the consciousness workshop so he talks a lot about right and left brain hemispheres he's brilliant but in terms of that is really really good work so brain consists of many many different parts and each of those parts is responsible for different function so right now for you to understand this lecture you need the frontal lobes in order to analyze and understand the concepts of we're talking specifically you know abstract thinking if you kind of have an urge to shout at me you can suppress it using the very very front of your brain and you can control your actions and you can have willpower also you can control your attention to specific things using the very very front of the brain also called frontal lobes or prefrontal cortex to be more specific in order to see the slides you're using the brain area at the back called occipital lobes of visual cortex in order to kind of analyze what visually what's on the slides in order to hear what I'm saying you're using this area in green temporal lobes right next to your tongue as the name implies which enables you both to hear what I'm saying and to analyze and understand the verbal language in order to read the slides you're using the area at the top in yellow called the parietal lobes and also you're using this area you know to feel the temperature of the room to kind of feel you to feel the hug when you cuddled each other so all of these areas and many many more all in action while you're just sitting here and watching this lecture and they all have to work together in a really world time timed manner in order to function well if you were to damage any of those areas the effects of it the consequences will depend on which area you damaged and perhaps most of you know of this really really famous case of Phineas Gage this is one of the first cases to show that so-called brain specificity how specific function of different areas was so Phineas Gage was a very lovely man he was a manager at the railway company he was married had children and everybody liked him he was really funny guy really reliable really good manager to his team and back then they used they used fight you know they they all were quite involved in doing physical work you came back then they used to be quite involved when they were exploding the rocks in creating the the kind of new paths for the railways so what they used to do they used to use this big metal rod to make a big hole in the in the ground and fill it with explosives and use the same metal to stuff it up but of course we all know what happens if we hit metal to the rock right it creates heat a kid can trigger the explosion so unfortunately that's what happened to Phineas so him being like really hands-on and really team team player unfortunately backfired on him literally so when he was stuffing the explosives explosion happened and this metal rod flew up in the air cross his jaw cross his eye and got out at the top of his head you know needless to say was highly unpleasant for Phineas but to everyone's surprise he didn't die in fact he was on his own there so he stood up he walked to the hospital about five miles he had ministered himself to the hospital and even started shouting of doctors and people were amazed the rest they said there was a miracle of God that he survived but soon they realized that he was no longer the person he used to be they took this metal rod successful out of his brain and it was relatively healthy after that but his personality changed dramatically he became really really impulsive and he couldn't suppress his urges he couldn't focus on one task for a long period of time he kept switching he was really really quick to aggression and anger and he became highly promiscuous and and you know his wife kicked him out so right now Phineas was here if he got angry at one of you he would just go straight to you and try to punch you or if you liked you quite a lot he'll try to do something else so unfortunately he became quite a nuisance and that was to do with the damage to his very front of the brain the smartest area of our brain called prefrontal cortex which is responsible for us planning our actions suppressing our urges having willpower having kind of personality because how crucial centers of personality are there as well of course there is many many more areas to the brain and and and this is like to make the matters a little bit more simple we can group all of those areas into three major classes so the oldest areas we group into so-called lizard brain and as the name implies the reptiles such as lizards have very similar areas of the brain responsible for similar functions a bit more evolved and more kind of advanced areas we group into the mammal brain and as the name implies dogs cats cows have the very very similar areas as well and often those areas are studied in rodents to understand how they function and the most advanced area such as prefrontal cortex I just mentioned now responsible for analytical thinking and doing all the kind of advanced functions were capable of we can we group into neocortex or the human brain and it can be quite confusing human brain within the human brain but I quite like calling it neocortex for that reason now those three three compartments of the brain they kind of have different agenda for our life lizard brain only cares to keep your life it doesn't care about anything else about your dreams about your aspirations it doesn't give a so it only wants to make sure that you get enough food that you live the offsprings that your heart is beating and that you digest your food so it really takes care of those kind of essentials mammal brain also called the limbic system wants you to be safe it wants you to survive and it wants your family and the people who are important to you to survive as well and whenever mammal brain detects something but could danger endanger the survival it creates emotions emotions we usually hate such as anxiety fear anger to kind of create the behaviors to stay away from danger so so mammal brain doesn't quite care about you growing and developing and changing in fact it absolutely hates change it only wants you to do familiar things so you stay safe because mammal brain believes if you survived up till now doing the things you have been doing you're probably better off doing the same thing because it assumes that environment doesn't change which is of course not not not in many cases mammal brain is the brain area to thank for for having memories and being able to remember all the wonderful and you know not so wonderful past experiences but also mammal brain enable us to create habits which save time they save energy and enable us just to do multiple things all at once mammal brain is quite a selfish air area it mainly cares about survival of you and also about you know kind of safety and survival of your offsprings in particular human brain or neocortex is the only area in your brain which can change the only a view of your brain which cares about you being your best self about you reaching your full potential about you thinking to rationally what's the best for you about you having empathy for others and about being able to so called mental eyes or understand other people States another people's way of thinking mammal brain won't win the mammal brain dominant thinking we assume everybody is like us we've earned like us we think they should be like us now in human brain dominant thinking we can understand the differences we can accept the differences and in fact we can you know learn from others we in order to make smart rational decisions we use we use the human brain as well to collaborate to feel empathy and truly truly care for other people that that these areas are needed as well creativity and functions like that also originate originate in the human brain now within all of those areas there is multiple cells called neurons so in order for those areas to function well and do the job it's actually those tiny cells that make things happen and those areas consist of millions of those cells so neurons you know there is enormous amount of neurons in the brain as you can see 86 billion there was a huge debate is it a hundred billion or a six billion you know whichever way it's loads of them really enormous number of them I know it sounds like not such a big difference but actually it is quite a big difference between 86 and hundred neurons and these brain cells could have the continued information and they share information with one another they communicate by a small electrical currents called nerve impulses however when they in the connection between neurons there is a little gap and that gap called synapse electricity can jump through the gap so they need chemicals called neurotransmitters and whenever we talk about moods emotions mental well-being we often talk about neurotransmitters it's not the topic today but I spoken in one of the weekend universities about emotions why actually neurotransmitters a crucial crucial component to discuss all of those new brands connect with one another to form the the the networks called neural networks and in the brain each network has a specific function so right now to actually have to focus on the slides and try to understand the lecture you're activating so called task positive Network today dream and connect to your neighbor and feel like kind of you know warm warm connection between you you're using so called the folds mode network in order to drive a car you're using driving a car network so here in this in this picture for example different networks can be portrayed in different colors and in the brain there is loads and loads of those networks enabling us wide range of actions and wide range of skills and memories and emotions so in other words we can't do anything unless we we have created the network to enable us to do that activity so in the brain things I know that although the brain is quite a mysterious organ things are quite mechanical in in the sense that we have to create a network to do specific tasks now as we practice the tasks more and more and more the networks get stronger and stronger and stronger with repetition so time doesn't make things repetition does I heard a really good statement you know the the time doesn't heal the the past trauma experiences do and that's quite the case with a with a brain how the brain functions with the repetition and doing things a different way we create new networks and by repeating them over and over and over again we strengthen them brain networks which we use most frequently become so strong that we can call them brain highways it just means that our kind of brain goes that by default so imagine raise our hands with your proficient car driver if you've been driving for ages and you can do it without even thinking okay so lucky you you know you have really really strong brain highway for driving a car now but it was to sit in the car with me I wouldn't allow you to talk I wouldn't allow you to put the music on and you would not be allowed to ask me any questions okay the reason being I don't have such a strong brain highway for driving a car and it takes full focus and full concentration and loads of areas of the neocortex or human brain in order for me to execute the task successfully for people who've been driving for ages and ages and ages mammal brain especially areas called basal ganglia take over the function and make it much more automatic and much less energy consuming which we'll learn a little bit later why that that happens and you much better and faster to make decisions to do that the same happens with emotions the emotions we feel more and more frequently become almost our part of personality for example raise your hands if you used to be much more to missing and over the years it became much more pessimistic and skeptical as be honest let's be honest now raise your hands if you if you kind of used to be able to focus on reading a book as a child for example you're really good at just reading a book and going through loads of loads of material and now you really struggle to finish even one page right so the same the same mechanisms happens if you can't if we constantly keep switching our attention it becomes harder and harder to focus on one thing but if we keep on training our attention to focus on one thing it gets better again because those networks are plastic and the network's keep changing with with experience based on what we do most frequently so when we talk about neuroplasticity we mean quite a few different things so first of all we mean that the network's we use more frequently gets stronger also it means that we can form new networks and existing neurons they connect and connect in different different configurations to enable us different function also it means that actually the network's we don't use they die off we get weak and weak over time perfect example could be learning the language as any of you learned foreign language at school now how many of you have forgotten it and can't speak it fluently anymore right so that's that's perfect example of brain plasticity it's very very normal mechanism for it's basically your brain sense it seems that you then don't need that because to maintain each of those networks requires a lot of energy and I'm not wasting energy on the things which are not needed anymore but the same that happens with the memories which are no longer relevant we move on and we forget things forgetting is a very very crucial function of the brain is not at this function in some cases of course is dysfunction but most of the time it's just a normal normal way for the brain to say you know what it seems that you don't need that information anymore I need to free space for new memories and new experiences also unused neurons I can die if they are not needed anymore that's not very frequent but it particularly happens if there is any any kind of damage going on in the brain but quite quite a quite novel and we quite recently discovered mechanism is that also we can get new cells in the brain for a long time it was thought that that's that's not possible for adults that the only happens for children and the reason being scientists thought that because brain size doesn't seem to change since we're children but apparently a lot you know it's a lot more complex than that that we can get new cells in the brain and one of the first evidence is in humans so first evidence and animals was when we had a scientist had rodents it was similar time it was at in 1999 or 2001 in that period scientists who were studying rodents they compared the brains of rodents who were invisibly boring environment you know they were on their own in basically empty room with the brains of rodents who were who had basically like a playground there they had a lot of things to engage in they had a lot of mates to play with and they found that in those rodents in so-called enriched environment they had new cells being born and they were excited but they thought there was no way it's how it happens for humans but now we now know that that's not true in fact this study then actually in London is very famous study and quite an old study but it was the first study to show that that can happen in humans as well so the way was initially shown that Eleanor McGuire really wonderful scientist in Queens gran London she was interested in navigation as I was in my during my PhD and she said you know what however we compared the science of the brain structure crucial for navigation and memory called hippocampus in well drivers and black cab drivers because being a black cab driver is much much harder you have to learn so many especially in London right they have to go through really rigorous training and we see whether the hippocampus are same size or different science what do you think they found of course black cab drivers hipa much much larger and then Alana was thinking you know what but that still doesn't rule out maybe the ones who have bigger hippocampus hands a better navigation just become a black cab drivers and the ones who whose that area is not working as well have no other choice but become a buzz driver right so what what they did is logical isn't it what they did they actually tracked people who were doing the knowledge training to become a black cab driver as you can see it requires this is the the kind of the the you know the what it takes to become like a driver you need to learn enormous amounts of routes enormous amounts of objects so you actually are going through really really intense training and once when I was like when I took black cab I was a running late for the train and I was chatting to this black cab driver he's done it PhD in physics he's raised three children and he said going through this knowledge training was the hardest thing he has ever done in his life so you know if you ever want a real challenge for your brain do that for me but it wouldn't be very possible with my driving skills although having driven with some black cab drivers I think maybe it would be still possible so they have to kind of really go through boot camp for the hickey hippocampus they really have to each have to kind of train it really really hard and what Eleanor found they actually to her everyone surprised that the brain changed in three years it changed dramatically but only and only for people who successfully passed the exam for people who didn't learn enough to pass the exam it didn't change and you can see that here so this is the kind of difference between before the training and after training as you can see there is big increase in size of that that area of the brain and for people who have not qualified it hasn't changed much and in these are control so people couldn't go through the training so she just can the brains you know at one point and then three years later just to see whether just naturally brain keeps on changing the randomly so this was one of the first times when the so called activity dependent plasticity was were shown in humans the brain changes in quite short space of time if only we keep on doing things over and over again now we know that that that happens when we learn your instrument to play a new instrument when we learn new language when we exposed a lot of new information when brain plasticity happens special in hippocampus hippocampus is the area where there is one of the few areas in the brain where new cells can be born one of the crucial components first to have plastic brains is the molecule called BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor this molecule is crucial for plasticity and and the one of the key functions is for that molecule enable the neurons and connections to survive because in the brain when the child's brain is developing there is loads and loads of connections that's called hyper connectivity everything basically is connected with everything and only the connections where there is BDNF they survive other connections die off and that's called pruning now the risk conditions in the brain where the pruning doesn't happen successfully and that happens when autism when the brain stays hyper connected and that unfortunate leads to the big overwhelm of the brain with it with a world and were the stimulation BDNF in adult brain is crucial for memory for constant learning and first being able to change the existing networks as well for higher cognitive functions such as you know good performance productivity prioritizing we need BDNF as well because we need constantly changing plastic plastic networks we then that increases when we exposed a lot of information but most interestingly BDNF also increases when we are actually doing physical exercise but only and only if we actually are enjoying that exercise true so this has been shown in rodents as you can see those those two happy mice running on the treadmill so the ones who were doing no exercise they had the same amounts of BDNF before and after that kind of training protocol the ones who were forced to exercise but didn't want to exercise didn't have any increase in BDNF either and only the ones who are volunteering a running about and really enjoying and having a great time they increase them bid enough to the great extent and and we assume that that happens in humans as well we don't have direct way to measure we can't just you know take your brains out measure it as directly we can measure indirectly afterwards but but it's kind of it's crucial component is doing the exercise which feels good to you and we all have different exercise for somebody gardening feels amazing well for somebody you know rock climbing or cycling or running or walking in the nature feels the best kind of exercise so what we know that we know that actually brain is plastic and it changes it stays that way throughout the life of course the plasticity is the highest and effortless during the childhood you know but that's still we have we have quite a good plasticity rate throughout the life however plasticity is a plastic process which means that depending on what you do you'll have more brain plasticity if you're sitting at home doing exactly the same thing your brain plasticity will be reduced because your brain says you know what you don't need that I'm not wasting those huge resources on keeping your brain plastic and constantly learning if there is nothing to learn however if you're physically active exposed to new information attending new lectures all the time meeting new people Plus this is really really high and it stays that way throughout the life so our brains have unlimited potential to learn and change so you'd ask me Gaby ok it's all well but how come I still keep doing these things the same old way how come it's still so so hard for me to stop eating croissants in the morning or to - to know to quit smoking cigarettes or to stop arguing with my spouse well of course it's a little bit more complex than that in order to create a new networks and to reduce activity in the existing networks we need to go through quite a lengthy process and that takes energy by the way now probably send you the slides you'll have a copy of the slides but I can put all you can get picture now if you like see that a lot of people want that so we have to go through so-called five stages this is just one of the models by the way I find a model quite helpful when we think about change we have to go through five distinct stages and each stage we need to get things done kind of which are relevant for the stage in order to transit to the next stage we can't speed things up so first of all we need to enter so called precontemplation stage what we're really kind of and that's where most of us are when we just start the change when we kind of keep still doing things the same old way but we start building the satisfaction with that we start building desire to do things differently because without that you can't change just because you have to have a reason to change the brain doesn't do random things because you just kind of say oh that would be nice and I do know it has to have real reason to do that in contemplation stage we start to think what is it specifically that we want to change and how do we want to change that in preparation stage we get really kind of you know ready for the change and we free up the space and time for that change to happen and only then when we prepare through all these three stages we take action and later stage which is the the most common stage to miss is maintenance so we do action for long enough till it becomes the brain highway hila become so strong that they become second nature for us now most common change involves contemplation action quitting right so so we'll we'll go through each of those stages and I'll give you a pragmatic tool what could you do to transit in that stage implicant inflation stage we do the things the same old way and the reason being that most of habits most of all habits are already run by our mammal brain why does that happen so different brain centers conceive different different amounts of energy and I'd like to portray that by kind of using different metaphors of different vehicles so lizard brain is like one of those annoying Vespas right one of those annoying little motorcycles it doesn't doesn't need much fuel like it goes it doesn't go very fast but it just keeps on going all the time and all these functions like breathing hardly digestion they don't require much energy and brain always finds energy for it mammal brain is a bit more expensive it's like a car it requires it's active most of the time when we are awake but when we're sleeping certain centers are active while others are resting hippocampus is active obviously by the way and hippocampus is processing the things you learned that day when we sleep so if we don't get enough sleep the the that processing doesn't happen effectively and we are much more likely to forget what we learn so after the lecture take a nap before the next lecture and and also like a mammal Ben is responsible for emotions habits and all the old skills and requires more energy than lizard brain brain but not nearly as much as the human brain human brain is like a plane it requires enormous amounts of energy and it's active only and only when we do the tasks which require that functioning but also when we have enough energy for it if we're stressed or tired or look exhausted we will act sleep there is not enough energy for effective functioning of that and as a result we naturally when we are tired or in a bad emotional state we naturally revert back to the mammal brain driven old habits it because that requires much much much less energy requires much less of the the active willpower as well so in that state it's unrealistic if we are constantly tired or experience chronic levels of stress can we actually create change the answers we all we all try that haven't we we can't it's just not possible because it's like every person you know who broken broken the leg and is trying to run a marathon you can't you need to wait till your leg heals first before you can run so first advice in this change is really being aware and being mindful that in order for you to change anything in your life any habit you want to change you firstly need to sort out your energy consumption we need to reduce mental load and get less busy we perhaps need to prioritize that the tasks and make sure that we are not wasting energy on things that are not important to you by the way prioritizing consumes a lot of energy as well does anybody write to-do lists in the morning raise your hands if you're right to-do list how many items do you normally have on to-do lists 10 okay raise your hands if you have ten or more you're wasting quite a lot of energy on that because your brain constantly is comparing them it can't stop comparing so one of the most useful things I kind of discovered for myself a while ago was I right only one item on to-do list and asked myself what is the most useful thing the most crucial thing for me to get done today and only and only when I get that task done I asked was the second most important thing for me to get done today once I get that done as was the third most important thing because what happens then I start with the action which is already you know top priority for me because if I have really long to-do list bringer's overwhelmed with that and it wants to start with which action the easiest or the most fun which is not always the most important and a lot of times the things which are truly meaningful and important to us they cause certain level of anxiety and fear Nos there was a good book about that it's not a neuroscience book but this popular popular book called feel the fear and do it anyway it's basically how the fear tells us about what's important to us so we need to really start short our energy consumption first and really look at our to-do lists and look at we're doing actually spend time and energy and which of those tasks are not that important which tasks can we actually stop doing or delegate of you know they have they're not even important to us at all the second stage contemplation in the contemplation stage we start to think I feel a little bit dissatisfied with my life what is it that's not working what is it that's not working so that's usually quite emotional motive to it and emotions is just the brains mammals brains way of telling you what is working for you what's not emotions kind of try to stay you to situations which are better for you you know in the evolutionary sense which are good for your survival and survival to this of the species but in more modern way which give you pleasure and which give they try to stares away from situations which give us pain so we're naturally when we associate certain actions with pain and effort and work what do we want to do with them we don't want to do them we want to go as far away from that as possible now whenever we associate any action with a pleasure immediate or in future again as you know achieving something what's important to us when actually want to do that so when when we when we think about things and whoa which would give us pleasure and in fact we feel pleasurable to do our brain chemistry and body chemistry changes completely we act with so-called parasympathetic nervous system the molecule in the brain your transmitter in the brain which causes pleasure is called dopamine and different things give different amount of dopamine so for example if you eat a nice nice snack you get let's imagine like a certain amount of dopamine when you listen to the interesting audiobook you might get as much or more or less depending on how how you know important the learning is to you when you spend time with people you love you get quite a good boost of dopamine or if you do the job which feels meaningful and interesting to you you get to open it as well but also we get dopamine actually when we switch between tasks and procrastinate and that's the reason we really do that when we keep on checking our phone for new new kind of you know news feeds and new messages we get a kick of dopamine so a lot of time dopamine steals our attention as well with all the distractions and procrastinations so dopamine is kind of just natural way for our for our brain to get motivated by feeling pleasure in doing things but when we do activities we like not only we get more dopamine we get more of so called oxytocin in the body and in the brain oxytocin is also called the molecule of trust or molecule of attachment molecule of love specially we are a firmly around the people we like who also around people whom we feel are consistent in terms of their behavior and what oxytocin is probably one of the most pleasant molecules to experience because it creates a nice and warm glow you know if you holding a nice fluffy puppy or kitten or like a you know little baby in arms oxytocin is naturally released or if you cuddle cuddle each other you know and if that felt nice you got oxytocin now what oxytocin does it dilates blood vessels in your brain so in the given time there is more oxygen and more glucose arriving to your neocortex your smartest brain areas so that makes us action intellectually emotionally perceptually smarter so when we are doing the things we enjoy in fact not only it feels good but we are much more capable we're much more much sharper and much more capable to do things you know the best possible possible way also we can make the best decisions in those situations and only then we can truly care for other people and we can be creative because then there is loads of energy to your neocortex when we experience pain or stress quite a different things happen in our body we get adrenalin and in the brain we get exactly same molecule but between the neurons is called Noor adrenaline and they actually contract the blood vessels in the brain and dilate blood vessels in your muscles so basically in the stress this the whole point of stress is to prepare your body to run away or to punch somebody in the face so so so it kind of those so usually it creates completely kind of anal funnel vision tunnel thinking being a narrow-minded way of being and that blocks creativity it blocks our ability to connect with others and to remember where things are truly important when paying much mammal brain Domino in that state and in every possible way tested people also perform really really poorly in perceptual tasks like visual tasks auditory tasks so basically we kind of dumb in that state but we don't realize that because we can't self assess very well in addition to that the chronic low-level stress reduces brain plasticity the new neural neural plasticity is greatly reduced specially the birth of new cells called neurogenesis is reduced one may experiencing stress very interesting relatively recent finding is if we get a lot of oxytocin in our life so if we have stable fulfilling relationships I have in our personal life or at work or in friendships it kind of buffers the negative effects of stress so buffers against the negative effects of cortisone so that's that's quite important thing to remember if you experience loads of stress and if you have stress in personality make sure to surround yourself with good friendships with really loving and caring people or get get a puppy sure it helps for many people that's main reason we get the pets business so so what's the second advice if you want to change anything in your life really have a thing what is it that you want to change and why do you want to change it because if you think about okay I want to stop eating croissant that associates with Fame right because it's associates with loss of pleasure but if I say I want to feel healthier and more energetic that associates with pleasure so we need to paraphrase where we want to achieve in the positive associations way so we need to look on what do we want to gain from this change not what we're going to lose because if you're gonna sale I kind of just look at the changes it's gonna be painful it's going to be unpleasant how likely are you to do it not very likely now second thing which which kind of helps also to implement change is rewarding yourself for little steps and kind of finding the R is good by bukhara on that scold the mindset by Carol Dweck actually how to kind of have compassionate way and how to have like reward yourself for the process rather than the result to place yourself for kind of putting effort towards the achieving achieving change because a lot of us acquired self-critical and self-punishing we notice the mistakes we have made rather than the progress we made and the effort we put so when you also need to cultivate the attitude of self appreciation for the effort we put and what we have done wow so positive reinforcement gratitude list what went well today list they're all the ways to kind of kick the dopamine in your brain and we are in charge of that we can actually do it based on what we focus on and some people need to put more effort in changing their mindset than others and last but not least in order to create another kick in your butt you can actually get really clear sit down and think what would be the drawbacks if you didn't changed okay let's go back to that croissant because as you can see I quite like pastries so what would be the consequences if I kept eating pastries all the time right what would be the negatives of that what's that sorry yeah I could get that because I could get really really you know larger than I would like to and I could perhaps they have just get sugar sugar rush and she then sugar crash and feel really lethargic and not have energy to get my work done which I absolutely love doing my work so once I look at the kind of sticking to the same old way as a negative thing suddenly it's kind of you know it's more more motivation created from that third preparation stage so we got clear on what we want to do and why we want to do it at that stage we need to actually now examine what does the old way what what are we getting from their habits because the reason you keep on doing the same old habits is because you're getting something really really important to you out of it we can't get rid of habits we can only replace them with other habits which meet exactly the same need and that's very important exactly the same need because those needs are crucial for us we need to meet them and when we do every habit and there's there is a good book of that about that called the power of habit by Charles Doug called which basically examines they did that kind of did a habit a habit loop and how to use that to change your habits because with each habit there is a cue which kind of sets the habit off then there is the habit you do and that's a reward or something you get out of it so let's look at smoke smoking cigarettes I never smokers smoke myself but I kind of you know want to examine when I want to interview the smokers they say like when I feel anxious and I feel but then well in myself I just naturally feel drawn to go and have a cigarette and once I have cigarette I feel better come I feel more relaxed and I can explain from neuroscience point of view why that happens but the trigger here is certain emotional states or for some people trigger could be a preceding action it could be when they have coffee or when they are the parties that that's triggered the desire to smoke then the the routine is smoking a cigarette and reward is feeling better changing your emotional state now another very common common habit drinking coffee in the morning when drinking three to three cups of coffee in the morning as for some people might be so the cue here a certain time of the day and feeling tired and lack of energy routine is having having a cup of coffee and the reward is feeling feeling nice feeling more you know upbeat and more awake and more energetic so here again Q is Q is time of the day or certain state and the world is changed emotional state now is that habit familiar to anyone well we actually are quite different with a habit now imagine you are you like imagine here on your table there is a jar of freshly baked chocolate cookies raise your hands if you would resist and not to even have one raise your hands if you'll have one and that's it with your hands if you try to eat as many as you can good so we all we all have different habits we developed over time so very important is to realize that we all struggle with different things based on what habits we build over time and what associations we have in our brains so so as I mentioned there was multiple cues which can set the habit off so first of all it could be time of the day it could be certain place so we have certain habits you know when we go to the office or when we come back home or when we in the pub it could be desired to change certain emotional state or mental states for example feeling anxious or lonely or sad can set off the habits of sugar a drinking alcohol procrastinating on the phone it could be certain certain people the trigger habits in us so it's very very disconnected specific for each habit it could be the action you've done before or it could be it could be kind of you know just certain situations so we really really need to get clear just take one habit in your mind's eye now and choose whether what does that habit that you choose and have everyone now have a thing choose one habit so for me for example I choose a habit of when I'm bored I often feel a desire to eat sugar when I'm bored boredom is kind of my trigger so imagine I I sit at home looking after we have a little child she's she's turning 2 now and you know I look after her quite quite a lot and when I'm at home and if I'm really bored when she's asleep for example if I don't have a seminar to prepare or interesting book I'm reading what shall I do shall I have a croissant let's go back to that and what is it that I'm I'm kind of what the reward I'm getting is changing the boredom state because sugar is a very quick way to get dopamine kicking in the mind and feeling that buzz but that's short-lived so what could be other other ways to meet the same need and that's what we need to ask when we're trying to change the habit by the way in addition to changing emotional needs or you know kind of meeting physiological needs we also try to meet psychological needs and those six needs mentioned there this is just one way to look at psychological needs we need to meet them everyday in you know whatever way we find to meet them we all need to feel safe we all need certain level of safety so imagine each of those needs is like a glass you need to fill it so I could meet safety by you know having stable career or stable relationship I could meet safety from you know having the same the same dysfunctional patterns and relationships I could meet safe device staying in the job I hate for example it's not me but it has been me in the past varieties another need we need to fill and some people are more kind of driven for variety than others some people need more not novelty so we can meet variety with reading new material attending lectures during your activities watching your movies or we can meet variety by shouting at people and having arguments have it has has any of you ever like kind of picked up the argument when you were born it's not uncommon just to kind of spice things up and it happens subconsciously it's not the conscious choice we make but I have a kind of mammal brain calculate things are a little bit too steady to stable I need to stare things up to meet variety significance is another need we can meet either in a positive way or less less oh so I can feel significant making a really really nice dinner for my husband I can I can feel significant criticizing him again you know it would feel different both for human for me but significance is feeling that your actions have an effect on someone or something so feeling that you matter in the world I can feel significant by giving giving a good lecture to you guys but also can feel significant by criticizing somebody else's lecture it says it's different ways to me the same thing but nonetheless if we can't find the kind of empower empowered ways to meet the needs we often meet it with you know those lesson powered ways love and connection is a crucial need for us to meet again we can meet that by having friendships and having loving loving relationships and families but also we can meet the connection by a bitching with somebody about somebody else a certain way of bonding isn't it have you guys been doing that oh yeah I can see that and there's a way by the way why people gossip because they feel connected why gossiping about something they have something to to kind of bond them and other tune is only when we need those first four needs in the instructed and positive ways we can grow and we can develop so all of those those needs are often kind of at play when we kind of are doing the habits so let's take pizza here's pita and here's the job he hates I don't know what could work with the job and ideas let's imagine he wants to be creative artist and he's an accountant but he's so good at being accountant and he's kind of got used to a certain level of income he's earning he's really scared to change maybe he has a large family to support maybe has a huge mortgage to pay so he feels stuck he comes into his work he feels miserable because he's kind of you know not fulfilled in his career and whenever he starts feeling anxious and sad he goes and has it has a drink in the bar downstairs he feels better because he forgets about his pain he it's a temporary relief so here the trigger is being at work and being unhappy about it the the routine is drinking alcohol and the reward is kind of escaping them Pleasant emotions what could be alternative for Peter imagine he has a friend who changed his career his name is John imagine instead of going for an alcohol he might John to the not to the same bar to the cafe across the road and they meet for lunch with John every day when he is feeling miserable John maybe works you know in down the street and they meet up for lunch and they chat and they brainstorm ideas how to change the situation how he could start in small steps and he John can be sharing with him his his way and also Peter has a chance to talk and kind of to share his frustration with somebody who can empathize with that who went through it himself so the Q is feeling miserable the routine is meeting up with John and sharing things and the reward is exact the same feeling feeling better it's changing the emotional state so when we try to change habits we need to kind of keep we can't change the cue we need to use the same tool and we need to try to meet the same reward in different more empowered way so the third step in creating a change is really like before you make any action do an inventory of your existing habit you want to change and ask yourself what is it that what is the habit and what is the cue and what is the reward and what are the habitant there could meet the same reward what's kind of feasible and brainstorm any ideas or as many as you can and ask yourself which of those ideas would be the most feasible for me we can we can come up with a really all of amazing ideas but if we don't get around doing that that that's no good either so which of those would be the most feasible under easiest to implement now only the fourth step is action as you can see we we have to quite a long way before we actually do anything because if we just jump in and do things randomly will trigger the brain area called amygdala amygdala is a part of the mammal brain responsible for protecting you from any danger amygdala is the abbot which we need to thank for that we survived really harsh environments 10,000 years ago that that's the brain area responsible for being safe and kind of staying away from danger and Makeda always comes the environment and searches for any potential danger out there if it detects something unfamiliar or possibly that could be dangerous it creates anxiety and fear so you kind of change the environment run away from that danger and and and kind of save save yourself now the issue now it is modern world that there is a lot of triggers of amygdala which are not necessarily dangerous novelty is one of them amid absolutely hates novelty it's it loves familiarity in loves things being kind of same old familiar and because it knows what to expect the mammal vein can't understand really complex world it can't understand the things which are not yet you know familiar with so when we want to implement a change any action we first need to choose very very small step which wouldn't set off the amygdala because what happens when a mitla is active it deactivates prefrontal cortex so for short period of time we become a like Phineas Gage a perfect example of that could be look back in your memory and find the time when you were really really angry at somebody or really furious or really like you know experiencing very strong emotions such as jealousy anxiety fear anger raise your hands if you ever experience those but to the really high extent so most of us now raise your hands if you have said something or done something really really stupid in that situation most of us again and that's normal that's how the brain is designed to be because in that state prefrontal cortex is temporarily inactivated because when you are basically this this this kind of circuitry was created to run away from bear or lion or any other predator and when you are you know using the energy for your muscles to run away it's not the time to contemplate it's not the time to be really intelligent is the time to kind of you know spend all your energy you have to run really really fast so so it's in those states we can't be intelligent and we have revert naturally back to the old habits we can't help it the mammal brain kind of pushes us that way so in order to implement a lasting change we need to start with very very very small achievable thing and do it that for long period enough so it becomes familiar so imagine would any of you like to exercise more frequently imagine you want to size more frequently we need to take okay what's the reality how much am i exercising now let imagine my number would be zero days a week okay so what's the small achievable goal it would be Mabel to go for 30 minute walk 15-minute walk only once I do that once a week perhaps and I want to increase that to twice a week once I did that and that becomes a habit perhaps I might incorporate going to the gym once a week for let's imagine half half an hour class and so on but we need to firstly choose one small step and become really familiar I'm comfortable with that and only then we can add the second step once that becomes familiar the third step and so on in addition to that if you are if you do experience high levels of anxiety and stress in addition to that you also do the amygdala soothing activities of reducing reducing activities we can do one of those activities now would you like to experience a megadose soothing yeah okay brilliant so we do have time for it so so let me just guide you through this come in amygdala soothing meditation breathing and mindfulness meditation and physical exercise are probably the best ways to soothe your megamum so I'll ask you all to close your eyes and and put put your hands on your lap on your tummy not on your neighbor's on your own and now just breathe in sit straight up in the chair by the way without your back touching the back of the chair just as straight as you can and breathe them to the count of four hold to the count of four and bring it out to the count of four once again in to the count of four hold and breathe out to the count of four now sunny outside you breathe in that sunshine and fill your tummy feel how your tummy expands you fill your chest you fill your back I hold it for a little bit and breathe out slowly and gently Imagineer by the sea you can hear the waves crashing into the show you can hear the seagulls maybe and you begin their freedom and freshness you fill your tummy you fill your chest you fill your back and hold it for a little bit and I'll breathe out slowly and gently now imagine it's wintertime and it's maybe snowing outside but you're sitting inside of the really cozy stone cottage maybe somewhere in the Peak District and you're sitting in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot tea maybe and maybe the blanket around you and you breathe in that coziness and warmth you fill your tummy you fill your chest you fill your back and hold this for a little bit and breathe out slowly and gently now last time imagine that there is a candle on the table and you look at the flame of the candle and you build enough peace and tranquility you fill your tabi you fill your chest you fill your back and hold it for a little bit and breathe out slowly and gently and when you already open your eyes these are hands if you feel a little bit more chilled so breathing is the best way to change our stress response because what happens when we is stressed our breathing changes it's first thing to change we start to breathe much more shallow and that breathing change itself increases the stress response so when we when we slow down the breathing especially breathing out phase then naturally reduces the stress but also when we focus on something positive such as you know all those things I mentioned we can't focus on that and on some stressful thoughts at the same time because a tension can only focus truly focus on one thing so when we do those guided meditations would think about pleasant things we naturally reduce you know the focus and the stressor so that's the second thing which reduces our stress response and we give our brain and body chance to get in so called the relaxation state and and kills the kind of because we often a lot of people when we do that exercise say wow I didn't realize I was stressed right because we often have that low level of chronic stress we kind of carry with us in a day-to-day life for example if you were rushing to this lecture today you might have got stressed about that if you miss the train you might have got stress if you if you're learning if you get information overload if you're learning too much all at once you might get stressed if you're know kind of if you don't and don't feel very comfortable being with so many different people in the same room that can cause stress itself so there's a lot of things which can constantly keep keep creating stress if it's too bright or too loud that can cause stress if it's maybe speaker if speaker talks too quietly that can cause stress so there's all throughout the day there's many many things which are so settled we can increase level of stress so I would recommend to everyone to do those any kind of stress reducing activities for five minutes a day to start with whatever helps it could be just going outside for five minutes just you know breathing fresh air I could be just listening to the music you like for five minutes it could be trying the abs there is loads of loads of apps for mindfulness and meditation and guided breathing apps whatever really helps you to switch off for five minutes a day get that started as one of the abbot's and last but not least maintenance stage so how long do we need to do activity till become that becomes a kind of a second nature or a habit and the answer is it depends we all have heard of 21 days but actually it really really depends on the habit depends how complex or simple habit is and that's really personal so here is a graph of so-called automaticity score so basically how many times out of hundred you kind of automatically choose to do that activity so we can see that and this is amount of days on that so with simple habits we learned quite quickly and we reached automaticity score of 40 percent which is quite high I know you we all aim for hundred but that's not very possible in human behavior so it means like for example what could be a simple simple change imagine if you're drinking three cups of coffee a day and you want to reduce to two cups of coffee a day for many peoples a simple habit now what could be a complex habit if you want to quit coffee all together if you want to change a lot of different things in your nutrition simple habit could also be if you're exercising relatively regularly but you want to exercise a little bit more so simple habit usual is when something you're already doing but you want to kind of increase it that's quite simple now when we talk about standard habits is usually requires changing quite a lot so if you are physically quite inactive and want to get really really fit that could standard habit so instead of what's called 21 days in fact this takes more than two like like two months to get a little bit you know into habit now when there is other people involved such as changing relationship dynamics changing the team dynamics changing leadership style changing certain curve here I want a career as such but motrin can occur performance habits because a lot of a lot of situations are complex systems where other people are involved as well that takes more like three months to create any invisible visible habit change so it really kind of is there was no simple answer to that you really need to ask how familiar am i with this change have I done this in the past how successful I have been with that and kind of just set realistic expectations for that also there is a lot of studies now it kind of it's a shame I didn't put the slide with that but there is a lot of studies showing that when people do something new there is actually new networks formed quite quickly within a week or two we see the brain plasticity and any networks however if the person stops doing that the networks disappear so it only meant is maintained with the regularity and doing things in the regular manner for long enough period so if you ask me how frequently and how much I would say rather it's small those at the time and more frequently then loads at once and on you know for the long period of time so if you were to choose an exercise I would rather say you know start the exercise maybe five minutes a day three days a week rather than an hour a day once a week and things like that and you know of course it really depends on on there on the kind of which habits you go for so you know we in order to make any lasting change we really need to be aware that it does take time because those networks in the brain are really hard to build and not only you need to build new networks you need to weaken the existing networks so the new network becomes more and more your go-to place also is quite good to get like kind of social accountability and other support systems like reading the books on how to create change maybe joining some sort of communities which are supporting asking your friend you know to keep on calling you every morning and say have you done that and things like that and betting maybe saying okay if I haven't done that by the end of the week I need to pay Gabby a hundred pounds and things like that I'm just kidding so so just to summarize and I'll take any questions you have in order to create lasting change first up we need to reduce mental load and we need to reduce stress because if we don't do that we it's unrealistic for us to expect our prefrontal cortex to be functioning optimally and that's needed for us to create a lasting change get clear on the benefits of change and drawbacks of staying where you are get to know your habits because each of your existing habits no matter how much you might hate it you do you get something out of it something was really literally vital for you and you need to meet those needs otherwise you'll fall back to the same old habits but you need to find a better way a better alternative to get the same rewards change gradually in small steps the smaller the better creating a lasting change takes long time so be prepared to kind of focus on that only changing one thing one habit at the time for just 1 2 3 3 months if needed and get support if needed from whoever your comforter comfortable with so thank you so much for your attention today if you need to get in touch here's my context I'll go back to previous slide for the summer if you like but you all probably received the slides if you have any any kind of extra questions you can send me an email or you can get connected to me on any of those media things we will be delighted to answer any questions you have now thank you [Applause] and then thank you so much sorry could you repeat yeah yeah very good question so there is quite a few things in place so one is myelination so basically the the new runs and the networks which are being most most used they become so-called myelinated so myelin is kind of basically the different type of cells in the brain it's a glia cells which surround the accidie the new runs in this basically creates a lipid or fat layer around it so the electricity goes much much faster it's called myelination is the most the most frequently seen so for example if we scan the brains of professional musicians the the motor neurons have much more myelination so indicator can do those actions much much quicker so that's one of the main components of why we can do things quicker and stronger they are so that's the one component second component in the synapse Azure those gaps between the neurons there is more neurotransmitter being released and more receptors to perceive it so that that chemical process is much quicker as well so it's both electricity travels quicker and there is much strong chemical signal hey CSUN means you react to this earth where would you like to use whereas if we like like the same methodology thesis or what but actually it would take much longer yeah so so whenever we talk about certain emotional states as anxiety it's quite tricky to address because we need to break it down need to look what is triggering my anxiety what situations so imagine if somebody had the social phobia right so so we need to kind of firstly take okay what are the triggers when do I get that and how I could kind of be exposed to the social encounters in a safe enough manner to help my brain get used to it and get the positive reinforcement so instead of going and giving a presentation in front of the large audience you might want to meet up one-on-one with a friend somewhere maybe in your own house the second step is to meet up with the same friend in the cafe the third step with the same friend may be to go to the concert you see so there has to be loads of safety whenever we talk about anxiety anxiety is very very common it's in fact the brains way to tell you you're not safe enough you need more safety and you need to create these things which are kind of triggering anxiety you need to create loads of familiarity and do things at the very small kind of steps in order to make it happen if somebody wants to become public speaker and you get anxiety thinking public speaking start presenting to somebody you know but somebody who gives who whom you have so called mutually empowering your relationship with around whom you feel yourself around whom you feel like you can do things in the way that is you basically don't go and present to the person whom you feel intimidated by that that's you know what would cause just more anxiety once you're familiar was presenting to that person or maybe start with presenting just to the computer by the way once you're familiar with that presented to somebody once you're familiar with that maybe they might couple friends for a first for a kind of a drink and present to them and so on so kind of taking one step at a time but when we talk about that is very important to look what specifically is triggering young society there was quite a good book called rewire your anxious brain which really talks about what happens in the brain when we feel anxious and gives pragmatic tools how we can actually help our brain to overcome those and anxiety triggers anxiety is just telling to you it's not familiar enough for me I'm scared I think I'm gonna die and you need to teach your brain it's safe you know it's not a lion it's not a tiger it's not gonna eat you but it's very normal it's mammals brain way to tell you yeah very good so the true brain model or that system of lizard mammal and human brain this is um not everybody agrees with it I use it in my public talks I don't use it with my university students as much because it's kind of in some ways is oversimplified but in other ways is really helpful it definitely kind of relates to the energy consumption now the reason we group it into the amygdalas crucial part of so-called limbic system that's the other way to group number of areas which I'm important in emotional processing so a lot of kind of researchers use the limbic system and mammal brain as almost synonyms so if you want to be more accurate just go by the names of brain areas don't group them into into kind of specific centers but limbic brain is quite is quite well accepted by the neuroscience community a way of calling this the the structures if you wanted to learn more about amygdala I suggest looking at the books the risk a number of books by the scientists called Joseph do and he has a lot of YouTube videos on that as well he's in fact one of the best researchers on amygdala he investigated amygdala on the fear response in in rodents and his book is called emotional brain is one book the other is called I think anxiety or anxious brain if you just check LeDoux I think I eating less recommended if not just drop me an email but if you just just google Joseph LeDoux emotional brain he has a definitely book book on that l-e-d e u o u X at the end thank you it's quite a complex name but his his brilliance he even has a band called and amygdaloid and they kind of sing songs about amygdala you can find it on youtube well and any other questions [Music] because you hear a lot about it having a negative effect for instance on people trying to lose weight will change a hammock not ashamed of and then some paper suggests that actually smoking ban worn against them how long shaming saying that sort of changed habit so yeah very very good question so negative rewards is a good way to stop people to help people stop doing actions in terms of how quickly we get the facts however why the change happens is a questionable thing because imagine you have a little child and child is wrong in the world you want the child to stop drawing on the walls if you hit the child it would stop drawing on the world's faster but what would they do to the child if you shout on the child that would stop it it faster than you think you know what don't run the walls let's go go and draw that it would take longer but it would create much better relationship between the parent and child and much better relationship of a child within the child I recently read the books called called scattered minds about ADHD children and teach the adults as well I did the workshop yesterday on neural diversity and very frequently people with ADHD have a lot shame within them and the almost apologize for everything the person who written in the book he works as a therapist and you say like I get there people you know with ADHD coming to my office and saying I'm really sorry I'm here or like I'm I'm really sorry I'm such a tricky case so you do have quite a lot of shame and that seems to be one of the reasons why the kind of shows really can help to focus the attention because they have really constant stress response with them so anything that struck that kind of emotional hood it creates internal stress which in turn creates loads of problems so in general a much more for more compassionate way of changing and if you want to kind of learn some methods there is loads there was Rena Brown written loads of books about compassionate way of changing and addressing the change the what I mentioned Carol Dweck and mindset written about that but most importantly a lot of times the reason we go back to the old habit is normal and a lot of issues a lot of mental well-being issues happen when we have unrealistic expectations on ourselves when we expect to be non-human basically like doing things you know with no mistakes sticking to the old habits it's not realistic for their brain and when we fall back to the old habits when we struggle with things is that's how the brain is designed to be the brain is designed to stick to the things and change gradually and keep on going back to test whether that's working well or not so it's kind of and and that's one of the reasons I'm I really want to write a book for mental well-being about the brain because I think a lot of a lot of anxiety and depression issues an ADHD and and in even or autism kind of you know repetitive behaviors get worse when there is lots of stress and a lot of things that we have stress inducing way of thinking and unrealistic expectations tell ourselves we're guaranteed the constantly experience stress and you know Buddhists said that their show way to unhappiness is to reach unattainable or try to fight defied the reality I like one of the behavior behaviorist speakers dr. John Demartini says he wants to write a book on I quit searching fun happen for happiness because it made me miserable because the reality is we have so many unrealistic expectations on ourselves that makes us really really unhappy so shaming and guilt tripping is really really kind of very stress inducing both for self and others any other question but it unfortunately does provide short term effects and that's why people usually use it but I I rather suggest look if you perceive something persistently consistently to change and also to reward yourself yeah really good question so I personally was myself quite skeptical about positive psychology until I learned more about it to be honest when I started now lecturing at Sheffield Hallam University I was asked to lecture on positive psychology course to deliver couple lectures on one on a gratitude and the other then remember my subject but something related on strengths maybe and I realize actually that I think what we call in a kind of popular way positive psychology is not a really positive psychology let me explain you so if we think oh I'm just perfect there is nothing faulty with me that's delusional thinking that's not positive thinking but if I say you know what sometimes I do things really well but sometimes I screw up sometimes I'm really reliable and get things done in time but sometimes I lag behind and I'm unreliable and procrastinate but both sides are in me so if you so kind of if we embrace both sides of the coin we have realistic thinking but with the where the positive psychology comes in it reminds us the positive side of the coin it doesn't say that the negative side doesn't exist it just as in addition a bit of side which amygdala keeps shouting up trilling loudly there is another side as well so it helps to basically have a bit more realistic thinking because what happens a lot of times people acquire the cockiest and the most kind of arrogant are the ones who experience the most pain because they kind of fluctuate between both sides between being feeling that they are really really unimportant and worth nothing to suddenly flipping two completely opposite thinking that they are better than others but when we embraced both sides and say you know what I have some talents and yes but I have some shortcomings when we embrace embrace both sides we are much more empathic and we see ourselves and have at the same level to others we don't see ourselves better or worse so kind of probably the main positive side of positive psychology is reminding you the gifts what we need to look at the other side as well if you want to check more if you google or if you go on YouTube and check book John Demartini so he has lectures freely available on youtube or on that on how to embrace both sides and how to kind of stop delusional thinking how to stop kind of you know either inflating yourself or putting yourself in a bit and doing the same with others how to kind of really like balance your thinking and hope that answers in if you will the Martinez de ma R T I and I'm dr. John Demartini John Demartini [Music] yeah development of the brain and the effects on attachment because as anybody than us another study would be very hard but attachment is up at very young age this absolute sense is really is not Google these not boom and just online impact yeah very good there was a good book called why love matters so basically how our early experiences changed the development of mammal brain if we experience real adverse situations during childhood but they don't have to be objectively horrible you know if parents are not attentive enough or if we kind of are criticized too much our amygdala gets more and more sensitive over time and that kind of has negative effects on our development of our prefrontal cortex and we see with the most extreme cases when children are really really neglected that the prefrontal cortex doesn't develop as powerful because the brain has to make so much quicker and in order for prefrontal cortex to develop it takes a lot of years and in fact the finish is developing only one way about 18 to 21 years old but if child is constantly going through stressful events there has negative effects on the brain plasticity and the development of of neocortex specially frontal cortex [Music] yeah the preference is it varies there is a good book called inventing ourselves I could just tell you book recommendations all day long called event inventing ourselves on development of the human brain throughout the teenage years but it takes up until 21 years old in many cases thank you so much I think we probably I'll take just one more question and I run so I don't miss my train and my husband and my daughter are gonna be on the train so I don't want to miss them would you be okay I think this gentleman there was raising hand for a while would they be okay to ask it and I give for any other questions just email me I'll be really happy to answer your questions okay thank you for an amazing talk okay I feel quite sure I'm going to have capacity and maybe someone also can relate to this I can welcome to the fastest question is when you talked about bad neurodiversity and the question might change so with learning difficulties I it's great a lot of shame around work a lot of feeling not good enough and it's actually quite stressful where they want to start my own project alright or do anything this self-driven so there's obviously a lot of restoration around yo the tips or open obviously a milestone before these better another during tips or I guess bono managing but also dealing with all the residual say and feeling better cuisine which is a very good question so there is method in psychology called in a child healing in I like to call it amygdala can a healing or amygdala soothing so so we all have where raise your hands it to start with if you sometimes feel not good enough right so you're normal you're one of us and in fact when during the university I used to coach university professors and department heads most commonly sure you used to come with me because they felt they you know impostor they felt that they are not good enough and in fact a lot of them had learning difficulties funnily enough so first of all if you think so first of all finding the method that really works for your learning style there is a book called the power of neurodiversity which helps for people with ADHD dyslexia other kind of learning difficulties to personalize the way of learning that's one thing so for example some people learn best from listening to YouTube videos I do actually I wish loads of YouTube lectures by university professors and I learned a lot of on the courses on Coursera from different university courses and some people learn best you know like kind of trying things out and exploring so find your best way of learning first thing for people with dyslexia they often need to read things multiple times my husband has dyslexia when he tried to just take notes during the lecture he wasn't absorbing anything but if he said you know what I just sit and listen and then I read the textbook but he would need to read every page six times if he said you know what Gabby Reece things only once why do I need to read six times he would be screwed you know he wouldn't be able to learn anything you say you know what for my brain to learn it I need to read six times so he were huge to wake up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning at university she study for chiropractic degree he would read you just read for three hours before the lecture started and he got the first with distinction at the end as a result so finding what works for you now dealing with shame most of people have some shame or guilt issues and there is there is good books like which are kind of it's not positive psychology is more like I didn't even know what to call have you heard of lilies hey so she's a fluffy wooly kind of person but she has a brilliance in her formations which is we need to soothe our amygdala we need to remind the mcdonough the things are okay and sometimes so she uses positive affirmations as the way to deal with it there is in the African transactional analysis there is in a child healing method which a lot of psychologists use in their practices and some coaches use it which is specifically for that because shame is an guilt they stay with our really primitive areas of the brain so we need to use really quite privet primitive methods to soothe it we need to kind of use those kind of you know lots of praise and lots of kind of our prefrontal cortex conversation and that's called you know in a parenting of in a child I don't have time to go more into it but we'll have a chat maybe with my little create some other future on that bill and thank you so much for being here if you have any questions drop me a line [Applause] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Weekend University

Views: 6,019

Rating: 4.9776535 out of 5

Keywords: the weekend university, psychology lectures, psychology talks, psychology lecture, Neuroplasticity, Behaviour Change, Neuroplasticity and Behaviour Change, Neuroscience and Changing Behaviour

Id: OnYk-V_Lwsg

Length: 97min 48sec (5868 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 14 2020