The kids are alright
Our new Primary Programme, worries, and whether or not I can do a cartwheel.
Hello and welcome to the second edition of The Neuro Ninja Newsletter!
This revamped newsletter is all about giving people the gift of themselves – through the transformative power of neuroscience.
If you missed last week’s, you can catch up here!
In this edition, tales from our new Primary Programme, and a free date for your virtual diary!
New kidz on the block
We’ve recently launched a really exciting new initiative at Action Your Potential, the Primary Programme!
The Primary Programme is all about teaching young people how their brains work, allowing them to get a head start in understanding themselves, their emotions and their thoughts.
This is powerful stuff, especially as a substantial amount of the work we do is teaching people that their brain can change, no matter how long we’ve lived in a certain type of thinking.
If kids start acting on this knowledge in Primary Schools, there is no telling how far these metacognitive skills can develop. Imagine if every adult knew how to: respond not just react, manage their worry system effectively, and boost their well-being. Suffice to say, we’d probably have a few less Donald Trumps…
Basically what I’m saying here is, the Primary Programme is literally saving humanity.
No biggie 😮💨.
You have a worry system.
My colleage Andrew Feist and I are the co-leaders of the Primary Programme, and we actually delivered our first solo session last week – in the absolutely wonderful Hook Lane Primary School.
The session was focused around our worry system, what it is, how it developed, and how we can manage it.
Whilst I’m not going to go further into the content of the workshops (you’ll have to come to one for that 😉), it is notable that Andy and I were worried* ourselves going into the session.
(*There’s probably a joke here somewhere about worry²)
It was something new, something we really cared about – and despite our rigorous preparations, we weren’t sure how it was going to go.
It went well.
Really, really well.
We had so much fun. Some session highlights include: the audible gasps when demonstrating the McGurk effect, the honesty of some in sharing their fears and worries, and one kid being absolutely adamant that I couldn’t do a cartwheel.
You probably need more context. We were running over how the brain gets better at what you do the most, so if you practise cartwheels a lot – you get better at them. We asked the class to raise their hand if they could do a cartwheel, and I diligently raised mine like the good student I am.
At the end of that session, someone came up to me and said: “You can’t do a cartwheel!”
I said “yes I can!”
He said, “no you can’t!”
Sensing I was losing the battle here, I then asked: “do you think Andy can do a cartwheel?”
“Yeah. He can definitely do a cartwheel.”
Long story short. I’ve made a pinky promise to do a cartwheel during the next session.
The point.
The point of all this is to reinforce what we know to be true about worries – your brain worries to protect you. This form of effectively predicting the worst and most negative outcome was invaluable when we were cave people, living in small tribes thousands of years ago.
Back then, these negative predictions literally saved our lives. “Are those leaves rustling because I’m about to get attacked?” If we assumed the worst, we were more likely to react, thus saving our lives.
So these negative predictions are fab when chasing woolly mammoths and fighting off Sabre-toothed tigers – but they’re less useful when dealing with HMRC.
The more we understand that worries are just that – predictions to try and prepare us for the worst – the more we can manage them.
and no, I can’t do a cartwheel.
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Thank you for reading this edition of The Neuro Ninja Newsletter!
Neuro Ninja Newsletter was written by Adam Wright. Edited by Angela Wright.