Mindful Life Monday - Minding the Little Ones...

It's that time again for Mindful Life - Mindful Monday!

I had recently started listening once more to a very insightful man, Dr. Gabor Mate. and ran into one of his talks focusing on giving a good understanding of how our cognitive capabilities can be impaired or affected, helping us better understand ourselves and what may have happened to us and more importantly, especially for me, being a mother, grandmother and working as an educational assistant with the young Pre-K children, understanding what has happened to our children.

Dr. Gabor Mate: Hungarian-born Canadian physician with a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development and trauma, and in their potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, including on autoimmune disease, cancer, ADHD, addictions and a wide range of other conditions.

Learn more about Dr. Mate on Wikipedia or on his website - https://drgabormate.com

Here is that talk "How emotions affects our cognitive functioning" very intriguing and insightful. Not only dealing with children but also in understanding ourselves.

It was very interesting in this talk on the emotional basis of cognition and the ability to learn, that he pointed out that the learning cognition intellectualization is not a separate entity and process from emotionality and that the basis of learning and cognition is actually our emotional being which is connected to our inner feelings and instincts, more so than conscious reasoning. and it is tied into the state of our internal organs - stomach, liver, heart, intestines, etc. That it is not coming from our brain which is more an organizational entity that brings together information from outside and inside. Tune in to the video to get a clearer understanding of this.

Do you find that true - that our capacity to pay attention and to learn has a lot to do with what's going on internally? Do you find if you are stressed or depressed it is very hard to learn?

How attuned are we to our gut feelings? Or is there a disconnect? Does this effect our level of engagement with the realities of the outside world?

Dr. Mate states from Antonio Damasio book - "Dekartes Error"

there's something internal that knows that is much stronger than when intellect is telling us in any contest between the internal knowledge and the intellectual knowledge 99% of the time that internal knowing will be accurate and the intellectual rationalization will be inaccurate.

Living in today's society we are more cut off from our "gut feelings" and we engage in our external world but in a less efficient manner because of this.

As it happens with children, especially if they don't have the words, they start to act out and are not behaving the way they are expected too. Then our tendencies as a society, is to label them, and either reach for a medication or try to fix the behavior.

Now what if we were to stop and seek out what is is happening in that child's life, what is happening emotionally for that child where they are having trouble with impulse regulation, having emotional outbursts and difficulties learning, where their capacity to interact socially is diminished.

An area of the brain which in humans is the latest to develop is the the prefrontal cortex, says Dr. Mate, it has nine important functions -

• it regulates the body
• it regulates attune communication with others
• it is responsible for emotional balance
• it allows us response flexibility
• provides insight
• provides empathy
• the modulation of fear
• intuition
• morality

These nine functions can be supported by mindful awareness practice and most of them are supported and developed by nurturing parenting although this has become more and more difficult for the parenting environment now a days, has become so stressed. making it harder to provide the environment for children for these functions and the prefrontal circuits to develop properly.

Adapted from the book: “The Mindful Brain” by Daniel J. Siegel, MD, we have

Nine Critical Functions of an Attuned Middle Prefrontal Cortex

• Body Balance | Self Behavior Regulation
• Attuned Communication | Psychological Mindedness
• Emotional Balance | Emotional Regulation | Openness to Experience
• Response Flexibility | Psychological Flexibility
• Empathy | “Mind Sight” | Compassion
• Insight | Mindfulness | Self-Knowing Awareness
• Fear Modulation | Fear Extinction
• Intuition
• Morality

Daniel states that sustained, skillfully focused attention with Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy activates and develops these nine Middle Prefrontal Cortex functions.
Read more in the PDF found here to give you a better understand of each of these functions.

Developing mindfulness I can be more aware of certain behaviors arising and can choose whether I follow on in that direction or perhaps make a correction and choose a different more beneficial way.
I can witness any cravings or unfulfilled needs and act with understanding to make sure those needs are met.
Being focused and having a good understanding I can better nurture and help fulfill the needs of the children in my life bringing more happiness and fulfillment.

Let me know what you thought about Dr. Mate's insights in this area of emotionality and cognitive development. I'd love to hear your take on it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Proud member of @naturalmedicine, @homesteaderscoop, @tribesteemup, @ecotrain, @freedomtribe & @earthtribe

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