How Our Brains Have Set Boundaries For Us
I wanted to share with you some thoughts on how our brains have set boundaries for us.
Albert Einstein once said, “we’re boxed in by the boundary conditions about thinking”. He talked about how when we were young we put up barriers. Let’s just say like a room with four walls. We will work within those boundaries for the rest of our lives.
In other words, we will work within our comfort zone. You probably read books about being in your comfort zone. It tells you to grow, to develop, to learn, and to extend your boundaries in order to go beyond the comfort zone.
The frame of reference with this has a lot to do with being comfortable with the set up that we had when we were younger. Behavioural psychologists will talk about the imprint phase. The years between zero and seven is where they call it the imprint.
The frame of reference with this has a lot to do with being comfortable with the set up that we had when we were younger. Behavioural psychologists will talk about the imprint phase. The years between zero and seven is where they call it the imprint.
Whatever goes into our brain usually stays. These are foundational values and beliefs that we are talking about here.
For a lot of us, we’ve got a significant amount of positive beliefs going in at that stage. Be good to people, work hard, play hard and do your very best in every situation. They are all examples of positive beliefs that I still hold at the age of 48. I still hold them and they frame what I do, and they help what I do.
They contribute to my success.
Brain Blinkers is here to help people identify what’s been imprinted between the ages of zero and seven that are not helpful any more. Things that just went in because they went in. We will talk about the concept of the prefrontal cortex which is the part of your brain.
The seven-year-old prefrontal cortex has the part of the brain responsible for objective and rational decision making.
That part of the brain processes information in a firm way to get the output or outcome. It’s not developed. And in fact, it’s not really developed in humans until they are in their mid-20s.
They start to believe and that sticks to them. That becomes an imprint in other forms of psychology that we call conditioning. We get conditioned to believe certain things about our abilities, about ourselves, and about the world.
Those beliefs frame how we live for the rest of our lives.
Brain Blinkers is here to help people identify what beliefs have been imprinted really early on that at the time we either never knew or were never able to process the real meaning or the reason behind it.
If a seven-year-old gets told that they’re not very good at maths, it usually sticks. It is because their prefrontal cortex is not developed enough to challenge that particular belief.
Brain Blinkers helps people identify some beliefs that might be holding people back. For instance that I’m no good at maths or I’m not smart enough. Or I could never learn a new language or I’m no good with change. Those beliefs may have been imprinted very early on in life.
Through no fault of our own, it becomes the foundational beliefs that they live the rest of our lives. The result can be immense. You can stop believing that you’re not good at math. You might actually be okay at it but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be brilliant at it.