Our Brain As A Theater Stage

"By understanding your brain, you increase your capacity to change your brain"

The metaphor of your brain like a stage was introduced by Dr. D. Rock in his book “Your Brain At Work” and I liked it so much that I wanted to bring it here.

Think of the prefrontal cortex as a stage in a small theater, where actors all play a specific part.

The actors in this case represent information that you hold in your attention.

Sometimes the actors might be also the audience members who get onstage to perform. The audience represents information from your inner world: your own thoughts, memories, and imaginings.

The stage is what you focus on at any one time, and it can hold information from the outside world. inner worlds or a combination of these two.

What is happening on the stage of our brain?

Understand a new idea - To UNDERSTAND a new idea, you put NEW ACTORS on the stage and hold them there long enough to see how they CONNECT to audience members (all information in your brain).

Recall information -To RECALL information, you bring an audience MEMBER up on the stage.

If that memory is old, it might be at the back of the audience, in the dark.

It can take time and effort to bring that one up, and you might get distracted along the way.

Memorize information - To MEMORIZE information, you need to get the actors OFF the stage and INTO the AUDIENCE.

Make a decision - To make a DECISION, you HOLD actors onstage and COMPARE them to one another, making value judgments.

Inhibition of information - KEEPING certain actors OFF the stage.

This requires a lot of EFFORT. It is also central to effective functioning in life.

Meet the Director

In the stage metaphor, the actors represent conscious information.

The audience members represent information in your brain below conscious awareness, such as memories and habits,

There is a character called the Director. He can watch the show that is your mental life, and therefore your life, make decisions about how your brain responds, and even sometimes alter the script. It is about the “thinking about thinking” part, meta-awareness without which you would not be able to moderate and direct your behavior from moment to moment.

How can you help your participants in your sessions deal with their stage actors?

🎲 Setting expectations at the start of a session can help the participants to get the right actors or no actors on the stage.

🎲 Take care of their energy - cognitive performance needs a lot of metabolic resources. So make sure that you take care of them with breaks, movement, breathing, and supporting brain functions.

🎲 When stressed, or tired our cognitive performance goes very low, with 75% more than when we are relaxed and fresh. So if you manage to keep constructive discussions and keep them in optimum stress, the battery of their brain will stay at a good level, otherwise, their outcome would not be the best one.

Bottom line

If you know how your brain works, you can also help the participants in your sessions, your team, and your colleagues get through moments by easy up their way.

Taking care of your stage and their stage is something that is a choice of leveling up the best version of yourself.

I am inviting you to register for one of the brain-based trainings created for you!

Here you find more details about the session:

Resources:

• Dr. David Rock: “Your Brain at Work”