© 2015 Lumity Get to Know Your Brain

© 2015 Lumity Review ■What did we talk about in our last class? ■What are the 5 primary emotions? ■What is the purpose for each of the primary emotions? ■How do you tend to experience each of the 5 basic emotions ■What would we not be able to accomplish without our emotions?

© 2015 Lumity Primary Emotions ■Fear ■Hurt ■Anger ■Sadness ■Joy

© 2015 Lumity Assignment Check-In ■Refer to your assignment worksheet on emotions. ■How many of the 5 primary emotions were you aware of experiencing last week? ■Which of the 5 primary emotions did you notice the most? ■What did doing the assignment confirm about what you already believed about your emotions? ■What surprised you? What did you learn about our emotions that you didn't realize before?

© 2015 Lumity The Brain

© 2015 Lumity The Brain

© 2015 Lumity The Brain ■Use 20% of your body’s energy ■Over 100 billion neurons – store information ■Neural pathways = the roads that connect your neurons ■The brain in your most complex organ ■Connects everything

© 2015 Lumity Regions of the Brain

© 2015 Lumity Regions of the Brain ■Brain = our control center ■3 Main Regions: ■Primitive – automatic functions: breathing, heart beat, balance/movement, scanning for threats, known as the LIZARD BRAIN ■Feeling – source of our emotional and social impulses: anger, fear, etc., activated by threats known as the MOUSE BRAIN ■Thinking – most developed part of brain; stores memory, helps us plan, imagine, find solutions, communicate with others, can control feelings. The source of our likes/dislikes, hopes, ambitions known as the HUMAN BRAIN

© 2015 Lumity Brain Plasticity

© 2015 Lumity Brain Plasticity ■Also called neuroplasticity ■The lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences ■Habits = well-traveled neural pathways in our brain ■The ability of the brain to change with learning ■Focus and build up the pathways we want to strengthen ■Neural pathways we ignore (old habits) can die off

© 2015 Lumity Your Teenage Brain ■Your brain is developing until you reach your 20s. ■You get 2 periods of “overproduction” of the brain’s grey matter: ■During your first 18 months ■During your teenage years ■After this “overproduction” period “unused” neuron connections wither away

© 2015 Lumity Your Teenage Brain ■Now is the best time to hard-wire your brain! ■If you “exercise” your brain you can: ■Learn to order your thoughts ■Understand abstract concepts ■Control your brain’s impulses ■What you do now will serve you for the rest of your life.

© 2015 Lumity Your Teenage Brain ■You can decide what you want to hard-wire your brain for by focusing on those activities, such as: ■Sports ■Playing a musical instrument ■Math ■Public speaking ■Or, you focus instead on: ■Sitting on the couch and watching TV ■Spending hours on Facebook and Instagram ■Which would you rather practice for? It’s up to you!

© 2015 Lumity Homework assignment ■Over the next week, identify the Top 10 things that you most want to develop in yourself and write them on the assignment worksheet. ■When you have identified an area you want to develop, then write down one goal that would be a simple way to build those new neural pathways. ■Then, take one step and do one activity to get started ■E XAMPLE: 1.Skill/Area: I want to become good at music 2.Idea for Improvement: Really learn to sight read music instead of guessing. 3.First step: Put aside 30 minutes and practice music theory.