Confusion or Focused Excellence?

Loud, raucous, hateful or non-melodious music appears to cause confusion in the brain and even slows drivers' reaction time. We were created to respond to the varying degrees of love and gratitude, according to neuroscientist, Dr. Caroline Leaf. The brain doesn't know what to do with hate or fear except to grow dark memory "trees".

Melodious, well-metered music that has varied but predictable nuances benefits the brain and builds beautiful light-enhanced memory “trees”. Mathematical, ordered and focused patterning in the brain is greatly influenced and enhanced by classical type music. Hymns with positive and thought provoking words help store sequential memory for moral and spiritual growth.

The dark memory trees can be eliminated or off-set by building joyful, happy, creative thoughts over time. Dr. Leaf has also commented on studies indicating that those brains which have been applied to positive learning skills bring life and health to the system, rather than confusion or progressive death.

This impresses me, because our learning systems at Stilwell’s Learning Center use music which conform to the brain's ability to create healthy "brain trees" bathed in light, which enhances the ability to focus, retain and eliminate confusion and fear. The students begin to realize how they are benefiting, even though in the beginning they might not be able to verbalize it.

Over the past several decades, I have noticed that most students who come regularly and learn to focus and achieve, usually retain what they have learned and within even a 3 month period begin to excel in their school subjects. Confidence levels, penmanship, order and genuine optimism and positive mannerisms improve.

Another thing I notice is that those who continue with us for several years are those who stand out in a crowd. They are not the mediocre individuals, but those who become the successful leaders and productive citizens.

It seems to me that we should consider not only finding ways to maximize our own potential in life through learning new things and growing. We should encourage our young people to do the same. It has been my experience that most children, teens and adults who have great learning disabilities or a poor start in life, covet the opportunity to improve and given the opportunity and encouragement, improve very well.

Sadly, I have also seen students who have never been encouraged to do more than play silly games on the internet or with some expensive software. Why not use the same energy developing the brain with reading, music, writing or math training, such as we give at Stilwell’s Learning Center? In time, those individuals could be positive world changers.

Stop, Look and Listen!

In first grade we had it drummed into us to Stop, Look and Listen before crossing a street. It was probably the most important lesson we learned in first grade. Lately, I have been thinking again about the need to Stop, Look and Listen. See how well I grasped the concept in first grade?

In first grade I had to Stop, Look and Listen when I went out to play “hide and go seek” around the large bushes in our play area. There seemed to be two girls who really liked me and kept chasing me and trying to kiss me. I only wish that had been part of the rest of my school years.

On our morning walks my wife and I see a lot of wild life. We have lots of quail in our huge back yard, because we feed them. The quail will suddenly run like crazy for under-covering of a pine tree or one of the thick gardenia bushes. The one “big daddy” quail watches faithfully while the others eat and gives out a Stop, Look and Listen warning when something is not as it should be during ‘breakfast”. No doubt a hawk or roadrunner was present and the quail must hide fast.

Not long ago, we watched twelve javelinas cross the road ahead of us. One larger one waited in the middle of the road while the others crossed safely. He must have been trained to Stop, Look and Listen by the crosswalk school attendant. On the other hand, some jackrabbits need training.

Another time we had to shoo a very healthy coyote off from getting ready to jump our neighbor’s wall to pick up yet another plump chicken for his growing family. We have a particular interest in keeping him from that task, since our neighbor has supplied us with eggs from her free roaming hens. Hens don’t seem to have been taught the meaning of Stop, Look and Listen. They seem to rely on the rooster who is no longer in the yard, having served his time as fried chicken.

Not too long ago on the walk, I turned my head to the right to see one of the neighborhood’s great horned owls. As I did so and turned back to my walk, I noticed I had veered from the left side of the road and was about to be hit by a car from behind and one from the front. I was right in the middle of the road. My attention had been drawn toward the owl. I did not Stop, Look and Listen and had almost been run over by anxious drivers on cell phones eager to get to work.

The moral of all this is that our focus can get out of whack when we forget to stop for a moment, look at what we are really doing and listen to our training and our Trainer for re-calibration in thinking and directions. My advice is to remember first grade and take time to Stop, Look and Listen!

Knowledge Explosion!

I admit I am part of a counter-culture in our society.  With knowledge exploding every day, teachers, parents, businesses and even school publishing companies often get sucked into the philosophy that we just need more knowledge.  The problem is that most of us need to have skills first to make use of the knowledge.  Only then can knowledge be transformed into wise choices. In this present period in history, we can find out just about anything from the internet. How we use or eliminate what we learn will lead to success or failure; good or evil.

None of us can do everything we would like to do. Our purpose in life becomes more important with exploding knowledge and expectations.

Successful people concentrate on their present purpose in life. Their expressed purpose might change as time goes on, but specific, written goals to achieve seem to be a constant given in their life expressions.

I remember reading about Walter Russell, who was simultaneously a famous painter, sculptor, philosopher, writer and scientist. Five different areas of expertise! His personal plan to accomplish such extraordinary success in all these areas was to work with determined focus on one vocation for only 2 hours each day, thus working ten hours per day with focus, excitement, purpose and satisfaction. It wasn’t necessarily the knowledge he possessed in the beginning which created success, but the vision and imagination of what could be accomplished with skills developed through his focus on each discipline. One example is his sculpture of the “Four Freedoms” requested by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship; freedom from want; and freedom from fear.

Over the years, some of my employees have wanted me to expand to include, history, science, art and other types of tutoring. It could be done, of course, but I have personally selected the tools of reading/spelling/comprehension and math so necessary in order to excel in the other areas of instruction. Encouraging self-confidence and eliminating learning challenges is the goal. We get results when we remain focused on our purpose!

Knowledge is good, but the use of it is more important. Hitler had knowledge, but his wisdom on how to use that knowledge was warped and evil. Don’t be intimidated by the knowledge explosion. Live with a positive purpose in life with your knowledge focused for good!

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Albert Einstein