Now there is medical proof that the more you are self motivated when learning something, the better your brain works.
Published October 22, 2014 in Neuron, researchers found that having your own internal motivation, in the form of curiosity, not only allows your brain to have enhanced memory and function.
Being curious about learning something enhanced the study participants absorption and ability to master the information they were curious to learn and even enhanced their ability to remember non-related information alongside it.
Researchers could literally see the brain enhance function on MRI when the subject was highly curious about the material they were engaged in — showing that being curious about something literally changes the way the your brain functions, enhancing key parts of the brain such as the hippocampus and the dopaminergic circuit.
Curiosity about life in general enhances your experience of life itself, opening you up to new things and enhancing your ability to absorb it.
Study highlights:
- Participants ranked how curious they were to specific subject topics, and then were given a series of questions in a quiz format, along with random images of faces that were displayed in between the trivia question and the being given the correct answer.
- Participants were then given a surprise assessment test at the end, in recalling faces.
- Participants recalled significantly more answers to questions that they were highly curious about than answers to questions they ranked as having low curiosity to.
- Participants recognized the faces better when they were encoded during states of high curiosity than when the faces were encoded during low- curiosity states.
- Participants underwent MRI imaging of the brain to identify areas of the brain that were activated during their states of heightened curiosity.
- Researchers found that when participants were engaging their curiosity, there was increased activity in the hippocampus (which is a part of the brain that formulates new memories) along with greater interaction between the hippocampus and the dopaminergic circuit.
- This shows that the physiological function of the brain changes when the material a person is focusing on is one that they are curious about learning, as opposed to material they have low curiosity about.
- Not only does the brain allow for learning of self motivated material better, but it even allows better recall of ancillary information presented while in that engaged, curious state.
So it’s not about completing a task as directed, or rote memorization of material, or getting a specific test score on an exam in school that allows you to truly learn.
It’s about following your inner guidance system, engaging in your own innate curiosity, and allowing that to guide you in making educational and career choices that align your soul gifts with your occupation…
…so that what you are offering to this world is something that is perfect suit to you because you are self motivated to learn about it, master the material related and ancillary to it, and offering this unique vantage point that only you can offer back to the world.
In short, learning and processing and giving your thoughts back to the world
becomes meaningful, instead of simply memorized.
This study shows that you are naturally suited to learn, retain and remember information that you are self selecting, motivated, and curious about.
This is exactly why I am so glad that I never ever ever had any formal training in painting…
…I just picked up a paint brush in medical school and starting painting on a canvas between classes as a way to completely unplug and de-stress from the mental grind of my medical studies.
Because I didn’t know what colors mixed with what or any formal do’s or don’ts with regard to how to layer paint on a page, I was free to experiment.
I am far from being a skilled artist, yet my artwork has been on the cover of magazines, CDs & DVD, painted every image for the three healing children’s books I’ve published, was blown up to astronomically huge proportions to be the entire backdrop of a stage at a music festival, and more!
Why?
All because I followed my curiosity when I picked up my paintbrush, and I was motivated to do it, not instructed to do it.
Some examples of my imperfect artwork:
(please do not use or reproduce these images in any way, but please do head over here to see more artwork painted by moi and to order prints!)
So my question for you today:
Do you find you are going through most of your day being told what to do, bossed around or directed at work, instructed through life instead of exploring through life?
Yeah, that doesn’t vibe right with your soul.
The creative expression of you that has it’s own, powerful, inner knowings and inner desires.
So… what to do if your days are too full of meaningless tasks?
Follow your curiosity.
If you can’t figure out the end point to your destination, you don’t know exactly what your soul strengths are and what your soul career is… simply follow your curiosity.
Your open ended wondering and interest in that particular topic will lead you naturally to discover, learn and uncover your unique soul strengths and turn them into an offering you can use to enhance this world.
I can say for certain (after 22 years of formal education and 18 additional years of practicing medicine) the things I remember most and the things that make the biggest impact on my patients are not the lists of facts I memorized in medical school or the lab values that I dryly take note of in the medical literature…
…it’s the meaningful information I personally uncovered on a quest to help a specific patient, to support a specific health care goal of a loved one, or to advocate for a particular outcome to help empower a person I care about.
It’s not the facts about the illness, it’s the motivation — the caring state of advocating for a patient I adore — that helps me find, learn, retain, and use the information I glean in the best possible way…
…and to remember and use this information to support and enhance infinite patient encounters in the future.
In this way… combining meaning and motivation with information…
we can deliver the most soul value and align our physical journey with a rich and meaningful spiritual purpose.
Want more help opening up to your own internal guidance system?
That’s why I developed my Expand Your Intuition online class.
And I only run it once a year.
Start 2019 off with strengthening your own internal guidance system.
I can think of no better way to prepare yourself to navigate the upcoming year and make 2019 your best year yet!
Together we will spend 4 weeks to assessing, accessing, understanding and expanding your ability to align your soul’s natural curiosity and strengths with your unique physical body and life situations.
I will work directly with you all month long to get your soul energy enhancing your life’s journey, working with your natural energy flow instead of against it.
Save your spot in the course right here.
To your unique gifts!
xoxox, Laura
P.S. — I’m taking the next two weeks off of my blog to focus on family over the holidays, as well as to spend some extra time in writing my new book!
New Harbinger Publications offered me a book deal to write all about grounding, so that’s what I’ve been spending every spare moment doing lately.
More on that soon! Woot!
