THE MIND & THE BRAIN ARE NOT THE SAME AND HERE’S WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW.
I THINK WE NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF MBA TO SUCCEED IN TODAYS STRESSFUL WORLD OF BUSINESS AND WORKPLACE IN GENERAL IN FACT.
Everything we’ve experienced and been exposed to is now a projection of who we are: the whole of our inner psychology effectively acts like the programming that runs computers, only it’s running our inner computer — our brains and subsequently, our mental well being or otherwise.
With this in mind, I believe businesses today don’t need more people with out of the box MBA’s full of theory or outdated management practices but an MBA that sets their people apart in terms of influence, inspiration and collaboration, i.e. an Emotionally & Intellectually Intelligent MBA!
THE MIND AND THE BRAIN ARE NOT THE SAME AND HERE’S WHY:
MIND + BRAIN = ATTITUDE
By studying how the mind and brain can work more effectively in unison (no, they are not the same) to alter attitudes and change thinking up a few gears, people will learn how to maximise their capabilities and then find more on top.
Despite the latest findings in neuroscience, many people still don’t realise that they can control and change the way their brains work for them rather than allowing the brain to manage itself in a way that works against them.
THE BRAIN
Your brain is a physical and visible part of the body, an organ and not a muscle as many people misunderstand. It is however, most associated with the mind and how we think, whether it be to our benefit or our detriment.
THE MIND
Your mind however, is part of the invisible world of thought, feelings, values, beliefs and imaginations. The mind is therefore not confined to the brain because the intelligence of your mind has the potential to affect every cell of your body and all bodily functions, including the nervous system and the heart.
This explanation helps us understand why we often hear sayings like ‘the decision was made with the head or the heart’ and that the ‘brain thinks’ whilst the ‘heart feels’. The reality is that the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart but it is the ‘mind’ that interprets the messages in both cases.
The brain does all the processing but it’s the mind that has the ultimate power to manage and make changes to the brain, most notably the amygdala and neural connections that act as our internal communications network — understanding how the key elements of the brain work is a vital step in taking control of our future thinking.
Currently though, our brains are wired to operate in habitual ways and only through the untapped potential of our mind can we bring logic and emotion together to create the motivation to change… into whatever we desire, within human possibility of course.
LOGIC + EMOTION = MOTIVATION
There’s a saying that ‘those who say it cant be done are usually interrupted by those doing it’ and those doing it tend to be the ones who know how to use their mind and brain to create the attitudes that lift people, lift performance and lift profits.
But here’s a thing too, it’s not just about how to become more successful financially from becoming aware of such a fact but how it can help people manage pressure, stress, tension and emotions in general too.
The people who learn this are also able to demonstrate that elusive character trait called resilience.
Resilience isn’t just about people who are made of stronger stuff and able to bounce back from tough knocks or distressing situations but the other side of resilience, which includes character traits like humour, playfulness, and curiosity.
These kinds of people often display adaptive responses to extreme changes or challenges and in leadership positions in particular, are able to bring stability to a crisis, order amongst chaos, certainty of direction and maintain an inner calm in stressful situations.
Such a character trait may be inborn and in your DNA or developed through positive mentoring in younger years but if not, it can be learned and one way is by studying the difference between the mind and the brain.
This means becoming more conscious of your thinking instead of being lost in thought with your unconscious emotions pulling you one way and then another way. To be conscious means using more of your pre-frontal cortex, it requires that you stay mentally awake, alert, aware of what’s going on in and around you more often.
At first, you may only notice the reality of the here and now once or twice a day rather than being somewhere physically but elsewhere mentally, as is often the case with some people. The more you work at being fully conscious though, the more frequent your moments of clarity and decision-making will be.
Armed with such an understanding, individuals are able to take more control of the way they use their intellect and logic, how they manage their emotions and how they motivate and inspire those around them more.
As you will no doubt have guessed, this is not meant to be anything like a scholarly article but a thought provoker to interrupt ‘wired’ attitudes and break any patterns of negative or disruptive thinking with a view to helping those who want ‘success without the stress’ to explore this beneficial area deeper.
Just don’t let your brain run your mind in autopilot but use your mind to manage and rewire the brain instead, in the way you want it to so it serves your best interests.
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Best,
Reece
Author & Creator of Strong Minds online personal & professional leadership self-coaching courses and podcast for + change
Originally published at reecepye.com.
