"Developing your full potential"

[silmcoach]

No one can tell you how the brain supports a mind, self, or consciousness. The best we can do is model the mind we know and work with. For example, we can think of the mind as a "mental gearbox" with four different "mental gears": spatial, intuitive, logical, material. Working with the different S-I-L-M® mental gears as appropriate can help you maximize your potential. But unlike a mechanical gearbox that can only operate one gear at a time, our mental gears can also work together in a kind of super holistic flow state when we just get on with things without consciously thinking too much. Athletes seek to achieve this ultimate "flow" state to attain peak performance in competition. Yes, in practice they need to analyse areas for improvement, or think of a different way to do something, but when it comes to competition, everything needs to come together in perfect performance. The SILM® Interactive webpage explains these principles in more detail.

The different SILM® modes come in to play in response to our being in the World, naturally or at will. However, the emotion systems of the physical organism respond directly to our imagination or interaction with the World. They empower us to act in the interest of survival or basic need. But having the conviction (linked to emotion and the mid-brain) that your idea or scheme is brilliant and cannot fail does not guarantee success. The arbitrary worlds that we construct are far more complex and unpredictable than the natural world we evolved to survive without questioning it. It is sensible to change mental gear, to use the Logic mode to ask, 'Has anyone done this before? How are they doing it? Has it worked?' Nearly half a million pounds was invested in this business that the owner believed would be a success but failed. The questions were asked, but the answers not listened to. Conviction overruled any logical analysis of reasons why the business might fail (brainstorming possibilities using the Intuitive mode).

The theory behind the idea

The fundamental assumption is that conscious experience reflects the dynamic integration of brain and body systems in the World. There is no unique physical structure in the brain that is the seat of consciousness or the self, rather, these are emergent phenomena. Hence, as different structures dominate, the nature of conscious experience changes. Lost in the moment walking by the sea on a sunny day (Spatial/Material) can be a very different experience to working out your tax liability in the office (applying rule based logic), but of course both can evoke an emotional response, either joy or shock!

Thus the mental capacities of the brain shape our feeling and sense making, but our being is within the worlds we may create and exist in. The world of the finacier on Wall Street is just as different to the world of the goat herder in the Sub-Sahara desert as it is to that of the kitchen porter in the hotel a block away. SILM® coaching can facilitate the individual's use of different mental gears. How the accountant, artist or poet experience their worlds may well differ, but whether their Being in the World is consistent with innate qualities, genetic disposition, or need, is another matter. The goat-herder may well have a great story to write, the financier a moving picture to paint, or the kitchen porter management potential, but the worlds into which they were thrown may not have offered the opportunity to express these talents. The aim of SILM® coaching is to facilitate the individual's use of different mental gears, to see things from different perspectives, and question the routines and coping skills he or she may rely upon, developing potential "toward success and fulfilment with wellbeing".

[The Genes to Cognition website has a 3D model of the brain that identifies different areas of the brain and associated processes.]