Sunday, October 3, 2010

Right Brain Success through the Heart

Many parents ask:
What "100% success formula" should I follow when teaching my child Right Brain Education?
Answer 1: There is no formula.

It's true! There really isn't. Your child is a living, breathing, one-of-a-kind divine creation. There is no one like him or her in the whole wide world. You cannot stick him in a box. Every child should learn uniquely, with elements designed with his passions, desires and very specific needs in mind.

Learn the developmental patterns, learn different techniques to teach different academic areas, but then, step back and observe your child: Where is he now, developmentally? What does he need? What does he love?

Answer 2: YOU are the formula. YOU hold the key to your child's success in your hands—when you place relationships before results.

Please, please, please review your motives before you start any early learning program (TweedleWink) or Photographic Memory/Speed Reading program (Wink). Why do you want this for your child? If the answer is to enjoy learning right along with your child—to pull out his innate genius and maximize his potential through love and fun—then, proceed. But if you have an agenda to create a child genius, and that agenda does not include a close, loving bond—then, please stop and take a look at that. This precious being—your child—is in your life for a purpose. To bring joy, to experience joy, to learn, and to teach you.

Love accelerates genius.

This is a great truth and the basis for the success of all of our programs. But, why foster genius? What is the intention that makes this a beautiful, rather than self-serving, endeavor?

The purpose of heightening a child's IQ, which should always be done in tandem with EQ, is to foster a greater awareness and understanding of our world. The more we understand, we more we can see from others' points of view. The more we can see from others' points of view, the greater peace is possible in the world. Intelligence, with compassion and love, also brings inventiveness and ingenuity that can yield the technology needed to heal the world.

You can change the world, one heart at a time.

It's not just a slogan.

Learn the techniques. Learn the philosophy. And then, trust your own right-brain instincts, intuitive creativity, focus on your loving bond with your child and get started.

Answer 3: How you teach is just as important as what you teach, and that is not formulated: it is unique to your own right-brain creativity.

In order to know how, you sort of have to be like a "child-whisperer." You need to experience your child with more than just the five senses. Watch him. Listen to him. Really see how he relates to others and to new information. Feel him. Wonder about why he might be reacting the way he does—ponder that, and then, listen to the answers that come to you. Trust your instincts.

Teach according to the beat of the heart.

This is awkward to relate, but I'd like to share how you can do this when you've opened your own right-brain sensibilities. When I go into alpha wave state in class, I begin to feel a rhythm—an actual beat, or pulsing, in my body. When the class is with one student, I feel it very quickly. When it is with a group of children, it slowly begins to pulse after the team has started to settle in to a lesson and focus together. It's a gentle beat and I will teach according to this rhythm.

This pulsing feels like a heart-to-heart connection—a blending or matching of our heart beats. Sometimes, it is slow. Sometimes, it's incredibly fast and my body has to keep up with the presentation of material, with the quick pace of the child's thirst for knowledge.

This pulsing is something that most teachers just sense, or intuit, without, perhaps, the physical sensation. When people come together, our hearts will either match rhythms and resonate, or not—and that's when people tend to not relate to one another.

So, "feel" your child—through your own special style. Think: "eyes to eyes, heart to heart." And, trust your inner instincts. If your motive is love, then all the guidance you need will follow.

:-)