Change Your Brain Every Day - How Different Brain Types Affect Study Habits with Chloe Amen

Episode Date: July 30, 2019

When it comes to study habits and organization, finding the right balance in your routine can mean the difference between success and failure. However, that balance can be entirely different for people with different brain types. In the second episode of a series on the brain at school, Dr. Amen and Tana are again joined by their daughter Chloe for a discussion on how to optimize your brain to best set you up for success in the classroom.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are on day two talking about change your brain, change your grades. And I'm so excited and so happy we've got Chloe here. Chloe is our

15-year-old daughter and it's just such an honor to have her be part of this book. So yeah, today we're going to talk about brain types and how that affects your studying. So, it's fun because we've had, we have Chloe part of the book and we have our niece, Alize, is also part of the book. Who you will meet coming up. In the second week, the second half of this. And they have exact, their brains are exactly opposite. I mean, they couldn't be more opposite.

So, we should talk a little bit about that and how it affects them. They're both excellent students. And for opposite reasons, it could have affected them in very negative ways. So we should, we should talk about that and how they've overcome, how you've overcome. And we'll talk to talk about it. Um, you know, when we write that, when we scan Chloe, she had a very busy very busy very anxious and needed things a certain way yeah she could get really stuck having her place of study organized as she likes it that fits where alizé actually has a sleepy brain and can be very disorganized by nature that's not nearly as important to her, but it can also cause her great stress because both of them love doing well in school. Right. And they come at it from very different. So in the book, I actually talk, we talk about brain types,

how everybody's brain is not the same and that you should know your type and then work on optimizing. Right. So we've come up with strategies to help Chloe. For example, there are certain supplements that help her to settle her down. We'll talk more about that. Also, like you touched on one of them, her workspace has to be a certain way. Chloe needs things to be very organized. She's sort of, well, she's less rigid now. When you were young, you were rigid. I've gotten better, yes.

Yeah. So she needs things to be organized, though. If you walk into Alizé's room, it's a very different story. Her room looks completely different. That's not as important to her. But that can be a challenge for her because when things aren't organized, she can then get stressed out because she can't find things or she's running late. And so she had to learn how to work within her type as well.

Yeah. And what makes Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades different than virtually every other study book you could read is it first, the foundational principle of Change Your Brain, Change Your your grades is get your brain right. Right. And learning follows that if you don't take care of the physical functioning of your brain, so eating right, exercising, not using drugs, putting your brain in a healing environment is the number one most important thing to doing well. So what do you think? What's been the best for you with your brain type? Okay.

So for me, the big thing, especially lately, just in the past year, because I'm a junior now and, you know, sophomore and junior year, it gets real. Like it's just. Workloads heavy, yes. Yeah. I think for me, the biggest thing I've had to overcome in this past year and going into this year now is balance. Because, I mean, you were just saying how we have very different... Alizé and I even have very different brain types.

It's a really good example because she has had to overcome certain aspects of naturally not quite being as rigid or not being as organized. And I'm naturally, you know, very organized. But, you know, one thing I've kind of learned is that for me, it's achieving balance because being super organized and being really rigid sometimes doesn't serve you in school either. It doesn't serve you in studying either because you're not going to be able to control everything. Your workspace is sometimes not going to be how you want it to be. It's not, you know, it's not everything's going to go how you want it to go. Not all of your lessons are going to go how you want it to go. That's a really good point. Yeah, so being super organized by nature is –

being organized is good. Wanting to be organized is good. But – Being rigid is different. Did you ever have this perfectionistic quality? Yeah, not the same way she does, but we used to put flexibility on her chore chart. Right.

There comes a point when if you're too rigid and too, um, too organized and you're so stuck on it, your, your productivity actually starts to go down, decline because you get stuck on little things. And if you can't let go one test missing those couple questions, it's like, I studied that. I studied that. I studied that. Why did I get it wrong? I shouldn't have got it wrong. That was me. If you can't get past that, you're going to get tripped up on the next test too because you can't get over that one.

So it's looping. That was actually me in college. If I got a 95 on a test, I could only focus on the 5% I missed. And so that's a very good point. What did you say about perfection? Yeah, perfectionism is an excuse to fail. So because it's, especially for women, it's this, we get stuck in this loop of I have to do it perfectly.

And if I can't do it perfectly, I'm not going to do it at all. I'm going to pick up my toys and go home. And so it's, you end up not doing, you end up not meeting your potential. Well, and another really interesting thing about Chloe when we scanned her. So the front part of her brain was really busy. And so that can go with worry and trouble letting things go. But her cerebellum in the back bottom part of her brain was sleepy. And that's the processor in the brain. And we used to, you know, more you than me, but used to get upset

because she'd try a sport and then she'd quit because she couldn't be perfect. But she also struggled with the coordination part. And one of the big things is she then started dance. And dance and is a coordination exercise. So actually working on the vulnerable area of your brain, strengthening that, I've just seen every other part of you get better. Well, dance and martial arts really helped. The past year, year and a half, I've taken on doing so many different things that are not even related to each other. Out of

your comfort zone too. Out of my comfort zone that I'm like that I'm not naturally good at and that, you know, it doesn't just come easy. But something I want to add to what you were just saying is for me, it's changing the actual thought. It's changing the perspective around it because I'm not all these things that I've taken on. There are more opportunities to succeed, but there are also more opportunities to fail, right? So when I started taking on all these different things, I'm like, oh, but if I'm not good at that, or I'm not good today at this, or, you know, if I'm lacking in this area, that's, that's, that's a chance that's, I might fail at this. But what I had to do is just go in, actually into my thought, into my mindset and change it to, okay, well, I didn't do as well as I wanted to today,

but this is just a, basically a stepping stone to, you know, the next step of what I'm going into. And I actually read it. When was the book? I don't remember what the book was. I'm kind of getting off topic now. But I read a book that had a really good reference, a really good line. And it basically said that, you know, you've improved when you are not as good at some as at a new thing or a new level of something that you started. Because if you're working in stages, and here's the bottom, here's the top, if you're working in different levels, in order to get to the top of one level, you have to start at the bottom. So you get to the top of one level, and then you start at the bottom of the next one.

And then you work right up to the top again, and you're at the bottom. You're again and you're not supposed to be good so that's how i've had to change it because i'm like every time i'd start i'd do something wrong or i would quote unquote fail and i my first reaction is i'm not good at this right like i i fail i don't look good doing this but then it's just like deep breath and it's just a change in mindset that That's like, no, I'm at the next level. This failure means I'm at the next level, you know? So that's just kind of, it's, it's optimizing your thoughts to a lot of it. So mindset. I love that. It actually reminds me last night, we had three of our five grandchildren over swimming. Oh my God, they're so cute. And Haven is now a year old and so cute, but so busy. But watching her walk and she looks drunk and then fall. She falls on her butt like a lot, but it doesn't bother her to fall.

And then she just gets up and keeps going. And you have to have your eyes on her all the time. But falling is a part of learning. So that's what you're learning. And whenever people go, oh, I should be better. I'm no good at this. Like a lot of you probably say that about learning languages. And so you don't try, therefore you're no good at it. And so using Chloe's perspective that it's about levels right and if you're not doing well well you're at the next level you're just at the bottom of the step of the next level but i'm at the next level but you're at the next level right because if you're just good at it

the entire time you're probably not challenging yourself and for me i like if she knows anything about me and if you know anything about me it's I have to be challenged constantly because I'm so like I'm just naturally have to be doing something all the time. Because of your frontal lobes. Before we let this one get away, I want to talk about one of the most important things in the book besides getting your brain right. And that is getting your brain right. And that is getting your relationships right. Because I learned early on in school when I started doing well is that teachers or bosses, um, are people too. And if you're rude to them, if you don't show up with your best self,'re gonna lower your grade or lower your promotion so a trick I learned was I would actually before the semester

started I would read my books and I would say to myself the first month i'm gonna be so prepared and so kind and so present now not being like a kiss ass i'm just kind of work i'm no i'm just like i'm prepared right because first impressions really do matter and so if they saw that I was a good student for that first month, the rest of the year, they'd leave me alone. They wouldn't pick on me. But if I'd showed up unprepared, they would get that, oh, Daniel's unprepared. He doesn't care. And getting rid of that first impression is just so hard. Teachers, yeah, yeah. You like being teacher's pet. You've always been teacher's pet. Yes.

You know what? A long time ago, it's all through elementary school and middle school. It's like, oh, Chloe's a teacher's pet. She's friends with all the teachers. She has lunch with all the teachers. Okay, first of all, what's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that. I'm going to get really off topic in a minute.

But no. So I, yes, I was always the teacher's pet. But I think that kind of adding to what Daniel was saying, how I saw it in my head is you want to be the teacher's pet because they like you for who you are and who you want to be, who you're bringing to the table, not because you're trying to be who they want you to be. And I've noticed teachers are like this. They don't actually like the kid who it's like, oh, tell me everything. Let's just tell the teacher what they want to hear.

Right. It's like they like the kid who comes in prepared and is confident in what they know and is confident and ready to learn. And they're participating and they're ready to learn. One of my professors that I was – that I became – had the best relationship with was the one I argued with the most. But it's because I was prepared. And not only that – You loved me. And not only that, you're confident.

Because of a teacher the teacher's job is to is to teach kids how to have their own thoughts and teach kids how to do well in the world in order to do well in the world you need to use your own mind and kind of just what i've learned is that if you can show them that you're confident in what you say without being you know combative that they they like that they like that you're willing to stand up for what you. Right. Like I wouldn't be rude, but I was like, I was adamant he had to change one of the questions on our test because it was wrong.

And I had my notes. When we come back, we're going to talk about nutrition and learning. It's so important. So important. And if you want to be entered into the raffle for a free copy signed of Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades, go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Leave us a comment. And in the subject line, put Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades. Raffle.

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