I have often said that through experience we grow into more of who we are.  While everything is going smoothly and easily we draw on existing skills and abilities and have no reason, no pressure, to go beyond what we already know of who we are and what we can do.  So what do I mean by you grow into yourself?

Until we take on a new challenge, change jobs, add new qualifications, learn a new language, join a sports team, start a new relationship, or, life throws us into new territory, we don’t know what of our self we can expand or pull forward from within and develop.

I believe our capacity is endless and when our interest is tweaked or life events shift and there is a necessity, we activate and germinate the seeds of hidden or undeveloped aspects that can grow and flourish with nurturing and attention.  We grow into more of our self.  We become more of who we are.  And our brain maps the growth and expansion.

Each time you learn something new your brain sprouts new connections between brain cells in the area activated by that new learning.  Even in one week of diligently practicing a new physical activity, like playing a piano or strumming a guitar, or throwing a ball into a hoop, the primary muscle motor area in the brain changes.  You grow new connections and also strengthen existing ones that are part of the activity.

What you already do well is more “matured”, more integrated as second nature, than what you are just starting to develop.  The new skill is at “kindergarten” level, just a seedling, and as you apply yourself to the new task you grow more and more connections.  Just like a seedling that grows fine roots that reach into the soil round them for sustenance and support, continuing nurturing of the skill is required to sustain the growth.   If you stop after one week, then within another week those brain connections can shrink again.

The interesting part is even if you continue to practise your new skill and become more proficient with it, your brain networks also shrink.  It seems once your body and brain are familiar with the new requirement, you need fewer brain cells to do the task.  And it’s likely you now need less energy, less effort and concentration to make it happen.

For the masters in their field, the people who practise day in and day out, for years, who continually exercise their skills and apply their craft, a further progressive change takes place in their brain neurology.  The networks migrate to join into their primary neural maps so that what they do becomes

imbedded into who they are.

Their skill is not an add-on as it might have once been.  It is an integral aspect of their whole self.  They are at one with what they do.  They experience a sense of oneness and their activity is an expression of who they are or have become.  Fulfillment is the word that comes to mind for this state.

These are the musicians, the artists, the surgeons, the orchestra conductors, the Olympians, the builders, the mechanics, the parents, the teachers.  In every walk of life you will find people who are at one with what they do, that find fulfillment in engaging in what they love.     Their life path and mode of travel and self-expression are in sync.

“The brain changes with anything you do, including any thought you might have,” says Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

This quote comes out of The Body Has A Mind Of Its Own by Sandra Blakeslee & Matthew Blakeslee and is one of the books I am enjoying at present.  I love it when scientific research finally catches up with our personal experience and validates our explorations into how we tick.  I enjoy how people flower, come into their own, discover what is innate in them and express it and make that uniqueness available to others, in turn triggering their development too.

As I read and explore, it becomes clear that not only do we integrate our skills into our brain networks over time, but also into our self image, into how we see ourselves, and into our self-talk and what we say to our selves.

If your self image does not shift to encompass your new abilities you will continue to feel uncomfortable, not congruent, even if you are performing well.   You may even fear the new ability will fail you, or disappear, or believe it to be a fluke and not a permanent part of ability you can call on at any time.  It feels almost like cheating as it is happening with so little effort.  And doesn’t it take effort to excel?

Well, if your belief system says you can’t excel, can’t be at the top, then your self image is tied to being second best, or less than the best or something similar.  It’s time to challenge the old belief and create a new one based on present time achievements, and not on what you or others have said of you in the past.  Doubting your ability is something you have learned and needs to be un-learned, up-graded or replaced so you can grow into yourself some more.

And you’ll know its done when someone admires what you do or achieve and you can say “thank you” and accept their feedback without having to justify, deny or belittle your achievement.

And you’ll know you have integrated your advanced ability when your self-talk reflects your present and not your past.  More on how to upgrade your self-image and self-talk another time.

Cheers
Anna
anna@annamcrobert.com.au