The Takeaway on Thinking About How You Think
Key Points:
1. Take time to yourself - in a world where everyone around us is only a click away, metacognition and self-reflection unfortunately doesn’t get the time it should.
2. Our brains are predominantly in the beta (i.e. performance) wave state. In turn, we often don’t spend enough time in the alpha (i.e. thinking & learning) state, which is where we can ask ourselves about the what, why, and how regarding our life path moving forward.
“A man must find time for himself. Time is what we spend our lives with. If we are not careful we find others spending it for us. . . . It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness; to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask of himself, ‘Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?’ . . . If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one’s time—the stuff of life.”
In the rare moments when I have some time to myself, I like to get up early while everyone else is still sleeping, make a coffee, and head to my backyard. There are very few things I love more than sitting by myself and watching the sun come up. This is my reflection and metacognition time.
The three questions of metacognition that spark contemplation and reflection—the what, why, and how—can make all the difference when charting a path forward in our lives.
We need time by ourselves to think, to consider, to plan, and to learn. In our hyperconnected society, alone time can be hard to come by, which is one of the reasons why we struggle with mental health. We are constantly in beta brainwave activity—hustling and racing around taking care of our tasks and responsibilities. There is a time to be in beta, but our lack of alpha (reflection) time is killing us.
When we change our performance (beta brainwave) state to the thinking and learning (alpha brainwave) state, we can open ourselves up to a much higher level of performance and health.
Today’s Call to Action: Start, Stop, Continue
We’re at the end of the Think About How You Think module! Now that you’ve completed the lessons, do you have any habits or routines that you’d like to start that will help you activate metacognition? Are there any habits you’d like to stop? Are there any habits that you’d like to continue? Use the Start, Stop, Continue exercise on page 24 of the Rest, Refocus, Recharge Workbook.
Today’s Bonus Video & Podcast
Click Here for a bonus Q&A video of Greg answering questions related to reflection and alpha brain waves. On a related note, check out this bonus podcast Here where Greg digs deeper into the idea of radical awareness and alpha brain states.
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.