Module 6

Personal Development
What is the brain and how
does it work?
What happens inside your brain
when you learn something new?
 The brain is a wrinkled,
pinkish-gray, three-pound
organ that is
primarily composed of fat
and water.
 The brain is a complex organ
that controls thought, memory,
emotion, touch, motor skills,
vision, breathing, temperature,
hunger and every process that
regulates our body.
 The brain has
three major parts:

Cerebrum

Cerebellum

Brain stem
The brain stem connects the spinal
cord and the brain.
It controls functions that keep people
alive such as breathing, heart rate, blood
pressure and food digestion.

Those activities occur without any

thought. You aren't telling yourself,
"Inhale. Exhale. Inhale." You're just
breathing.
The cerebellum receives information from the sensory
systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain
and then regulates motor movements.

The cerebellum coordinates

voluntary movements such as
posture, balance,
coordination, and speech,
resulting in smooth and
balanced muscular activity.
The cerebrum is the largest of
the three brain sections,
accounts for about 85
percent of the brain's weight,
and has four lobes. The lobes-
frontal, parietal, temporal
and occipital -- each have
different functions. They get
their names from the sections
of the skull that are next to
them.
 The parietal lobe helps
The frontal lobe determines
people understand what
personality and emotions.
they see and feel.

Vision functions
are located in the
occipital lobe.

Hearing and word

recognition abilities
are in the temporal
lobe.
Neurons, the basic functional units of the nervous system, are
three-part units and are key to brain function.

They are comprised of a nerve cell body, axon and dendrite,

and they power the rapid-fire process that turns thought into
movement.
A CRITICAL AGE
Because the brain's healthy functioning is essential
to living and determines quality of life, doctors
emphasize protecting the organ from injury and
chemical abuse.
There is a consensus among researchers that brain cells
regenerate throughout life, said Doug Postels, a
pediatric neurosurgeon in New Orleans, but that new
growth happens very slowly after a certain age.
 BRAIN DOMINANCE
Which of these apply to you?
___ I am very organized.
___ I remember faces more than
names.
___ I think things through before making
a decision.
___ If someone’s mad at me, I can tell
even without the person saying a
word.
___ I work best in a quiet
space.
___ I daydream a lot.
___ I hate taking risks.
___ I tend to get emotional.
___ I make a to-do-list.
___ I trust my “gut instinct”.
BRAIN DOMINANCE
determines a person’s preferences, problem-solving style,
personality characteristics, and even career choices.
LEFT HEMISPEHERE
• The left hemisphere controls the
right side of the body.
• It is responsible for the logical,
intellectual functions necessary
for understanding, writing and
speaking.

RIGHT HEMISPEHERE
• The right hemisphere controls the
left side of the body.
• It takes care of the creative,
intuitive and emotional aspects.
 Each hemisphere, with their
respective dominant functions,
has a particular way of processing,
information, learning and ways of
doing.
Left Hemisphere Right Hemisphere
Factual Intuitive
Logical Holistic
Analytical Spontaneous
Sequential / Organized Open
Controlled Flexible
• Creative thinking is an expansive way
of driving your thoughts to venture into
the realm of possibilities.
• Creativity does not rest on intelligence
alone. It accesses different modes of
thinking to make a breakthrough.
Here are some techniques that you
can use to allow further stimulation of
your brain to work in a more exciting
way.
• It is a mental technique
that lets you explore an
idea by considering all
possible areas related to
the topic at hand to get
fresh insights.
• This kind of thinking
exhausts all ideas you
can connect with your
topic or problem.
• It is a creative way of exploring ideas
through a graphic or visual
presentation.
• It uses words, images, numbers, colors
and spatial awareness to expand your
brain.
• It uses mental skills that enhance brain
activity to produce ideas, learn
through clearer thinking and perform
better.
• Begin at the center of a blank page to give your brain freedom to
expand your ideas freely in different directions.
• Choose a central idea and give it a visual representation to make it
appealing, catch your attention and to keep you focused.
• Draw the main branches around your central idea to stand for the
associations you make with it.
• Curve your branches to make it more appealing.
• Use images to represent you ideas in your mind map. It helps spark
words or ideas in head.