Coach4aday blog posts are ideas that are shared to help people grow and learn.
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Each year the blog takes on a different focus. In 2019 the goal is for each post to bring you the reader a lesson, quote, message, or story that can help you grow.
Brain
Whenever one of our senses gets involved it partners with our BRAIN. Our senses can easily be deceived, what you hear, see and even smell can easily be manipulated by what each of us thinks about. Sometimes those thoughts are in our subconscious minds.
Let’s take vision for example. Our brains constantly attempts to correct images so they look how the brain expects them to look. Don’t believe me then try the exercises below.
Which line is longer?
They both are the same size this is known as the Mueller Lyer Illusion
First discovered in 1889 by F.C. Muller-Lyer, the illusion has become the subject of considerable interest and different theories have emerged to explain the phenomenon.
Here is a link to an article explaining some of those different theories
Here is a quote from that article
Depth plays an important role in our ability to judge distance. One explanation of the Muller-Lyer illusion is that our brains perceive the depths of the two shafts based upon depth cues. When the fins are pointing in toward the shaft of the line, we perceive it as sloping away much like the corner of a building. This depth cue leads us to see that line as further away and therefore shorter.
When the fins are pointing outward away from the line, it looks more like the corner of a room sloping toward the viewer. This depth cue leads us to believe that this line is closer and therefore longer.
Another subliminal process that eludes us all is the brain’s prioritization of importance. Whenever we use our senses, our brains will assess which part of the sensory impression is most important and guide our focus toward it. For example, try reading the following words.
GREEN – RED – ORANGE – RED – PURPLE – GREEN – YELLOW – RED –BLUE – PURPLE – GREEN – RED
Now try saying the colors of the words. You will find that it is much harder to say the colors of the words as opposed to just reading them. This is because we do not usually have to pay attention to the color of words.
For that reason, our brains will instinctively rate the meaning of the word as more important than the color of the word. When we then have to pay attention to the color of the word, we have to bypass the brain’s prioritization, which is not such an easy thing to do.
One of the most powerful tricks of the BRAIN is expectation. Our expectations that a given action will have a specific outcome can actually fool our senses and our body entirely.
So our thoughts do matter when it comes to our brain.
One last example.
This image below is called a Kanizsa Triangle
Almost everyone can see a white triangle that has its tips inside the black circles, even though the triangle is not actually outlined. It is just white space.
Our BRAINS are used to seeing full shapes, so what it does is force us to see an image of a white triangle on top of another triangle and three circles. The white triangle is not outlined is it? The black triangle is not outlined is it?
Try to fight your BRAIN and force yourself to see three Pac-Man shapes and three V’s.
It is not easy our brain keeps wanting us to see the triangles. Keep at it you will eventually win out.
The lesson about our BRAIN is this, our thoughts influence expectations.
What flows through our minds also sculpts our BRAIN.
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