I want to keep my blog going so right now I am going to add
a little twist. My goal is to each
week pick a topic, study it, and prepare as if I were going to give a talk on
it. Each Sunday after my week of
study I will write up this talk and put it on my blog. Feel free to check back Sunday nights
and see what I have posted that afternoon. I don’t know what it will be, we’ll just see where the week
takes me. So here is week one.
The world is an incredibly intricate place. I feel like the more I learn in my
college classes as well as the books I read [which Josh would claim is too
often! (; ], the more my testimony grows confirming our Heavenly Father’s
fingerprints in every aspect of our lives and the earth He created for us. His intelligence and planning astounds
me. Let me explain where all of
these recent thoughts have come from.
I don’t know about you, but recently in church I have
noticed two overall themes: 1. A push in missionary work & 2. The
importance of daily scripture study and prayer. It doesn’t matter if the lesson is specifically focused on
these topics, they still come up.
The human brain fascinates me. Before getting married I greatly considered going into neuroscience. Currently in school my focus is early
education. I could preach to you
for hours of why I know that the first 3-5 years of a child’s life are vital. The biggest part of this is the shaping
of the brain [everything connects!].
To paint the picture think of the internet. I’ll compare the number of synapses [connection points
between neurons] in a child’s brain to the number of hyperlinks [connection
point between two web pages] the internet has. The internet has over a hundred trillion links, an adults
brain has over 300 trillion links, but a child’s brain has over a quadrillion
connections. These connections
aren’t there yet when a child is born, but instead grow at a rapid speed during
the first five years of life.
These connections are formed through the child’s everyday experiences
and interactions. Every
conversation you share with them is shaping their brain. This is the danger for the poor sweet
children who experience neglect, abuse or constant fear. Their brains go into toxic stress
mode. The connections for learning
and self-regulation get trimmed while the connections for fear, stress and
violence grow.
The adults brain is still somewhat similar. We are still constantly shaping our
brains. After our lesson in church
today I was just blown away by how everything connected for me. I always knew that daily scripture
study is important. For me, I
always felt it gave me greater peace throughout the day and I know that when I
make the time the Lord helps me to fit everything else into my day that I need
to. But there is actually a
science about this importance of reading and praying every day which I’m sure
Heavenly Father included to help us.
We had the privilege to hear from some very intelligent
professors [my favorite part of still being in a somewhat student ward] today
and this is the analogy they helped me to understand. Imagine a mountain and paths deer travel down. The more deer down the path the deeper
the trail.. It is the same way with the nuerological pathways in our
brains. Our brain is going to go
down the deepest/widest paths. We
form these paths by our everyday decision and habits. Habits are key.
And guess what? It’s never
too late to change your habits. It
all starts with a single step- we decide we CAN do it. It is a choice. Daily scripture study and prayer not
only provide us with peace and direction, they form nuerological paths in our
brains leading us to spiritual guidance and strength. When we act before we think, if we have formed these
spiritual paths in our brains, that is where we will go [because they are the
widest and deepest] instead of down a dangerous bad habit of anger, withdrawal,
or laziness.
The human brain is shaped by our habits [I could also go on
about habits/science! If you’re
interested in some good books about this topic let me know!] We literally form pathways in our
brains by what we continually do.
This seems so obvious to me now but if it weren’t for church today who
knows when I would have made the connection. I feel I have been doing well getting into the habit of
scripture and prayer but now my goal is to improve the quality. This lesson at church has given me even
more motivation, hence my new blog goal.
Two last thoughts to end with:
1. I am a perfectionist and I hate when I set a goal and
then miss a day. I totally beat
myself up for it. Today they
shared this analogy: Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. It’s like brushing your teeth, if you
miss it one day, you’re still going to do it the next.
2. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that
separate them” -Confucius
Thanks for joining me on my new journey!
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And as always - I'm grateful for this guy joining
me in all my crazy adventures (: |
