The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind (2 page)
Read The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind Online
Authors: Caroline Leaf
Tags: #Religion & Science, #Christian Life, #Thought and Thinking, #General, #Religion, #Personal Growth, #Self-Actualization (Psychology)
Your own gift is more than enough, and once you uncover that gift and its structure, you can walk in freedom, knowing yours is unlike anyone else's.
Your life experiences, the lessons you've learned, and your unique gift all combine, giving you the opportunity to walk into the future with unlimited potential to grow into your own success.
Success isn't defined by a collection of assets, an accumulation of power or cash in the bank. If that were the formula, there would be no sorrow for those in the highest tax brackets. Rather, success is living out God's purpose for your life - using the gifting He has given - and every single one of us will express it differently, because every single one of us can do something that someone else can't.
Once, I was halfway through a training session for a group of teachers in Eastern Cape, South Africa, when this really came alive for me in a profound way.
We all know teachers hold tremendous responsibility in their hands to help children grow in their potential. They are unrecognized warriors, often facing tremendous obstacles. This particular group of teachers was facing quite a difficult task - equipping children who had very few resources, under quite stressful circumstances.
One teacher, feeling the strain of his situation said, "Dr. Leaf, you've got it all wrong. There's a child in my class who's so stupid, there's no way he has a gift." Well, for once in my life, I was dumbstruck.
Then, one of his colleagues stepped in and countered, "Do you know what, sir?" For a moment, I held my breath because I knew we would soon learn if the material from the seminar was sinking in or if we should duck for cover. Thankfully, this teacher had embraced the core of the importance of living in our gifting. He countered, "That child -that so-called stupid child - can do something that you can't do." And it is true.
Each person can do something no one else can do. There's something each child can do that no one else can do.
Use the Gift Profile in Part Two as an opportunity to find it. Find it in yourself. Find it in your children. Find it in your spouse. Find it in your colleagues at work. Find it, because in it you will also find the truth of God's living promises.
You were not built to struggle. Your brain is wired to function according to a specific sequence. When you discover that sequence, that structure, you unlock great potential.
CHAPTER TWO:
{YOU ARE NOT YOUR SCORE}
We are designed to seek definition, to seek category, to seek order from chaos. Electrical impulses pour into our brains from each of our five senses (sight, touch, taste, sound and smell). Our brains have a very sophisticated system - using the electrical input to form thoughts and act upon them accordingly - to make order of this flood of incoming information.
As we navigate life, it simply makes sense for us to try to group each other too - trying to make sense of the differences, of the nuances, that we each feel in ourselves and see in others. The problem is that as we seek to label and systematically define each other, there is no single test that can define an entire being.
The slice of information measured in any test
iso
very thin compared to the entirety of who each one of us truly is and who each one of us was created to be. Your gift is your unique piece of infinity and eternity.
It is humbling trying to explain eternity with science, because science provides only a rudimentary explanation of an infinite concept. Consider the fact that God said that His thoughts are above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), that we are "made in His own image" (Genesis 1:26-27) and that "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16), meaning He has given each of us just a small glimpse of His thinking!
Imagine this: God is eternity and infinity. He gifted each of us with a unique piece of His thinking to achieve a unique purpose He designed us to fulfill. We are more than equipped to deal with life successfully. We have truth-value. The Gift In You
Often, when we are grouped into boxes - learning disabled, gifted, right brained, left brained, overachiever, underachiever or any other box which seems to fit nicely at the time - that definition becomes a part of how we see ourselves.
However, you are so much more than what any label can define you
as
.
The IQ movement has led us to believe that we are either gifted or not gifted, that you have a high IQ or a low IQ, that you can or can't go to a university, that you are below average or average or brilliant. These IQ tests and other labels evaluate us at a fairly young age and can follow us the rest of our lives. In fact, many people have been incorrectly led to believe that intelligence is determined between ages 5 and 7, and thereafter nothing can change it.
Thankfully, we are living in a revolutionary time. Using the latest research, we can now clearly prove that intelligence is not fixed but rather grows and develops with us as we use it. Just like your gift.
You've had it inside of you all along, but it only grows and develops if you uncover it and use it properly.
Wherever you are in your education, your career or your life - with all the responsibilities you've been given - you can grow and develop into who you were truly created to be.
There is not an expiration date on potential.
We can see this clearly in science too, as we understand more now than ever before about the
neuroplasticity
of the brain - the ability the brain has to rewire itself.
1
This proves that the networks in our brains can change. If the brain gets damaged, it can change to compensate, proving that God is serious in Scripture when He tells us to renew our minds (Romans 12:2). Renewing our minds is a physical reality and scientific fact!
If we work with how our brains are wired, we can develop and change areas of our brains and live out our true selves. That's why the Gift Profile in Part Two measures the structure of your gift. When you know how your gift is structured, how your brain is uniquely wired, and how to achieve lasting success, you will unlock your truth-value - your gift.
2
Unlike many conventional tests, the Gift Profile is a way to measure the structure of your gift, your strengths, instead of weaknesses. When you know your strengths and begin using them to receive information, your brain achieves efficiency and your non-dominant areas actually become stronger, because you are no longer relying on your brain to compensate for receiving information that doesn't work with how it's built.
In fact, you don't even have weaker areas; some are just non- dominant. This unique combination of dominance and non-dominance (I will explain this in later chapters) makes you special.
In Our Differences, We Find Greatness
Up to the mid-twentieth century, much of our knowledge about the brain was a mixture of speculation and dogmatism.
Now with the advances in brain imaging techniques over the last thirty years, we are getting a view of the brain operating in real time. The operating principle of brain imaging is that the more the activity in the brain - the more blood will flow to that area, supplying the oxygen and glucose to the hardworking neurons.
3
From these imaging studies, along with other magnificent research by enlightened men and women in the field of brain research (see my reading list for some of this incredible research), we now know that the brain never wears out and that, in fact, it gets better with use. That's because more connections are made, creating more context and a depth of knowledge to draw upon. What's more, it changes its structure and function throughout our lives, adding to the uniqueness of how wonderfully we are made. We quite literally shape our own brains according to the choices we make - I call this the "I-factor" - and our life experiences.
The exciting result of this plasticity of the brain that we hold power over is that no two brains are alike: We are uniquely, fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). There is diversity in brain structure and organization and function, which results in the way we think and approach life.
And as we carry this thought over into the classroom, I believe that sometimes what is diagnosed as a learning disability is actually classroom induced. Not all children are wired to sit still and absorb information. When we don't work with the structure of our gifting, our ability to process information and build memory can be blocked.
4
For example, after we discover that a child labeled with learning disabilities has a kinesthetic gift structure - the dominant way information enters his brain is closely linked with movement - we can then think about strategies to maximize opportunities for him to learn by working with how his brain is wired.
In some circumstances, children who are kinesthetic are given a ball to sit on, rather than a stationary chair. You may have seen these balls in the gym or in ergonomically-designed offices. You can even get a little ball for a seat, so that the child can rock from side to side, which is easy to carry from classroom to classroom. Interestingly, the side- to-side movement actually allows information to enter the brain in the sequence used in the child's brain wiring. It might be unconventional, and in a context that is not balanced it could even be distracting. But for that child, a simple chair swap could be revolutionary.
But this wouldn't work with everyone. If you are not a dominant kinesthetic, it wouldn't help at all. In fact, it would probably only cause you frustration.
How you operate, learn and process and what you do with your gift are all going to be different for you than for anyone else, according to the measurable structure of your gift. Understanding this will give you the freedom to work within whatever system you are in - at a school, an office or your home - to achieve the balance that you need to grow in your gift.
5
Although you may be long out of elementary school, the principle of swapping out your chair for a metaphorical bouncing ball applies to you too. I have even had a CEO of a major corporation swap out his office chair for a ball!
When you understand how your brain is wired, how you were designed to move through the world, how your gift is structured, you can unlock your true self, your God-ordained self. You can learn more quickly, think more clearly, process faster, accomplish more and become a better leader when you see other people for how they are uniquely wired.
The purpose of your gift is to celebrate your difference, not minimize or squash it so that you can live in uniformity with everyone else around you. It is in our differences that we find greatness and can glorify our Creator.
CHAPTER THREE:
{UNLIMITED YOU}
" . . . you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made . . . "
(Psalm 139:13-14 NIV).
You were created intentionally. You have been knit together in a particular way. Nothing about you is a surprise to God. He knows you inside and out, and He did not design you to be limited.
When I first started to study the science of thought, how we think and how we process, I was overwhelmed by what my research uncovered. Over and over, I saw Scripture proven in the scientific principles be-
ing
discovered by giants in the field of neuroscience. My commitment has always been to seek out how my research has its genealogy in the Word of God.
Conventional wisdom for years held that the brain doesn't grow or change after early childhood and, as we age, that our brain progressively degenerates and lets us down. Also, it was believed that once the brain was damaged it would always be damaged.
6
However, the newly-emergent science of
neuroplasticity
shows that the brain has the ability to reorganize itself, changing and altering its structure as we think. The brain can adjust to trauma and rewire toxic thoughts and learning patterns. This has profound implications that can break the chains of the past - the brain can grow and change as we think, all under our control.
Neuroplasticity
research is outlining the boundless potential of the human brain and providing hope, a far cry from the theory of the unchanging brain.
7
When I started my research, neurologists told me I was wasting my time trying to improve the mental activity of a traumatically brain-injured patient. Well, I am happy to say that by working with how the brain was designed to function and through hard work, lasting change was achieved.
8
It's incredibly exciting to realize that what we choose to think about and how we choose to think can switch our genes on and off, changing the structure and function of the brain. The way in which we think will impact the health of our brains and our bodies.
9
The choices we make are governed by our thoughts, and we have full control over our thought lives. Even more exciting is the fact that we each have a unique and distinct gift that impacts how we think.
As we use our gifts, we are altering our brain anatomy. Although the basic brain structures are the same for all of us, the connections between the nerve cells are constantly changing each time we think and re-experience something. This means the connective architecture of the brain differs dramatically between people because of how we think, the structure of our gifts.
Furthermore, the more We think, the more connections we grow, making the memory storage area of the brain thicker and causing us to become more intelligent.
10
The more intelligent we become, the deeper we think, and the more our gifts grow.
But here's the catch: we can alter brain anatomy in a positive love direction or a negative fear direction by how and what we choose to think, choices we make and succeeding actions, behaviors and words we speak. It's entirely up to us.
11
If we start building fear pathways by entertaining toxic thinking, such as bitterness, worry, anxiety, anger, unforgiveness and so on, we can wire negative and rigid behaviors into the brain, which become "gift-blockers."
The phenomenal plasticity of the brain makes it creative but also susceptible to gift-blockers. Scientists call this the "plastic paradox" of the brain, meaning an amazing characteristic is used for the wrong purpose, harming instead of healing.
When you think, you change your brain. When you think according to your own unique sequence, walking in your gift, you change the brain in an ever-positive direction. By understanding the impact of healthy non-toxic thinking and unhealthy toxic thinking on your gift, you can truly begin to understand the extent of the possibilities our Creator has placed within us.
Another fascinating thing about the brain's incredible ability to change is that there cannot be plasticity in isolation, meaning that if one brain system or an element of the structure of your gift changes, then the systems connected with it will change as well.
12
This is exciting because it means that positive change in one area of your brain will lead to positive change in other areas as well.
Of course we have to remember the converse is also true. Gift- blockers affect all the areas around them, literally spreading the negative message and increasing toxicity. A gift-blocker has a damaging chemical and physical effect on the brain, resulting in inflammation, which interrupts the cycle of thought in some way and hinders your ability to think clearly.
You have a divinely pre-wired gift to achieve a unique and divine purpose. In Part Two, as you uncover your gift, you will uncover your purpose, potential and provision, allowing you to tear down any gift- blockers in your way.
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be
their true selves, their child-of-God selves
(John 1:9 The Message).
Discovering Your Truth-Value
There is a spiritual principle that underlies the release of your truth- value, your talent, your gift. If you use what God has given to you, you will grow into who He created you to be - your God self (Psalm 82:6, John 10:34-36). In the science of thought, this God self, this piece of eternity - your truth-value - is the way you think, the pattern of your thoughts, which is distinct and special to you.
Your gift lies in something so profound yet so simple that we tend to overlook it: the combination of your life experiences with the measurable structure of how your brain has been wired to think and process information.
God's thoughts are higher than your thoughts, but He has given you a piece of His thoughts by equipping you to think in the distinct way you think. Einstein once said, "I want to know God's thoughts . . . the rest are details." This is one of my favorite quotes, because it so aptly captures what the gift in us really is. And now, do you still wonder about the battles that rage in our thought lives? The enemy will use any gift-blocker he can get his hands on to mess up your thought life and disconnect you from your Savior.
We have a responsibility to steward the gift despite all the gift-block-
ers
(circumstances, thoughts) that get in our way. In Scripture, I be-
lieve
the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) demonstrates how we are called to be good stewards of more than just our finances or opportunities; God has also called us to steward our minds, our bodies, our potential and above all, our gifts which allow us to perform all of the above.
Only when you voluntarily surrender your whole self to God can you release that truth-value, your gift, your piece of eternity. It isn't the reason to surrender, but it is one of the blessings of surrendering your life to Christ.
Because each of us has a unique gift, we each walk in our gifting differently. You can't compare your gift to anyone else's, and when you walk in your own gift a few things will follow. Love is one, wisdom another.
