Live Your Best Life: 12 Brain Principles for Career, Relationships, and Inner Peace You Wish You Knew Sooner

Unlocking Your Ikigai easily: 12 Natural Learning Principles for a Joyful, Balanced Life for self and your loved ones

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, finding your Ikigai is not a choice but a must now. Ikigai, as you must have heard, read a book or knew in other forms like Swadharma is the Japanese concept of a life filled with purpose and joy—can seem challenging. Renate N. Caine, Ph.D., and Geoffrey Caine, LL.M., have outlined 12 Natural Learning Principles that can help you live a fulfilling life, rich in love, peace, joy, career growth, learning, relationships, spirituality, and emotional intelligence. I got this gift from my friend, found it very useful and practical, so sharing it with you all with love. Let’s break down these principles into simple, engaging, and actionable steps that you can integrate into your life today.

1. All Learning is Physiological

Let us use our body a little more. Not just for the health but also awesome for registering learning in the brain. Learning is like planting a garden; your brain is the soil, and your experiences are the seeds. We all go to washroom even in the dark and women in the house go to kitchen pick up anything due to muscle memory.

Acronym: GROW (Get Ready, Observe, Water)

Simple Tip: Prioritize physical well-being. A healthy body fosters a healthy mind.

Habit: Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine, like a morning walk or stretching.

2. The Brain is Social

All left brains who love work not alcoholic but workoholic. Even if it is for social work, please pause, apply brakes, take a break and meet people out of love not with a fixed agenda.

Your brain is like a vibrant marketplace where ideas are exchanged. We need real connections and happy hormones - oxytocin not just winning and achievement hormone.

Acronym: CONNECT (Communicate, Observe, Nurture, Network, Engage, Chat, Teach)

Simple Tip: Engage in meaningful conversations daily.

Habit: Schedule regular coffee chats or virtual meet-ups with friends or colleagues. No work related talks there. hehe..

3. The Search for Meaning is Innate

People are meaning makers. Brain gives meaning. It needs higher purpose, sense of bigger picture and contribution. Your brain is a treasure hunter, always seeking purpose.

Acronym: MEAN (Meditate, Explore, Ask, Nurture)

Simple Tip: Reflect on your experiences to find meaning.

Habit: Spend a few minutes each day journaling about what gave you a sense of purpose.

4. The Brain Perceives Patterns

Learning is long term and best when we connect with past experiences and future application. Your brain is a detective, piecing together clues to form a bigger picture.

Acronym: PATTERN (Perceive, Analyze, Think, Try, Explore, Reflect, Note)

Simple Tip: Look for patterns in your daily tasks to improve efficiency.

Habit: At the end of each day, review what went well and identify any patterns.

5. Emotions are Critical to Patterning

Steve Jobs said, do what you love. He just added emotions. Apple or any task he did became world class with this simple principle. Emotions are the colors that bring patterns to life.

Acronym: FEEL (Feel, Engage, Express, Learn)

Simple Tip: Be aware of your emotions and how they influence your decisions.

Habit: Practice daily gratitude to enhance positive emotions.

6. The Brain Processes Parts and Wholes Simultaneously

We are wow and unique. We have the ability to go step by step - quality and finisher, closer style - quantity. Let us balance both, use both and accept both. People are different. We need to nurture this trait in self and others. This is why some are fast while others a little slower. Your brain is a jigsaw puzzle, seeing both individual pieces and the complete picture.

Acronym: WHOLE (Watch, Holistic, Organize, Learn, Evaluate)

Simple Tip: Balance detail-oriented tasks with big-picture thinking.

Habit: Set aside time to review your long-term goals and daily tasks together.

7. Learning Involves Both Focused Attention and Peripheral Perception

Whole picture and details, mindful is attention, meditation is dissolving self. Let us celebrate both to learn more and learn well. Your brain is a spotlight and a lantern, focusing on details while illuminating the surroundings.

Acronym: FOCUS (Focus, Observe, Combine, Utilize, Surround)

Simple Tip: Alternate between focused work and breaks to absorb information better.

Habit: Use the Pomodoro Technique—work for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break.

8. Learning Always Involves Conscious and Unconscious Processes

My mentor kept telling me trust the unconscious. When we lack self-belief, we are stuck in the conscious. When we trust self, whole universe helps. This is an art, conscious is about our habits, make it happen and unconscious is witnessing the grand plans unfold. Your brain is an iceberg, with visible and hidden depths of understanding.

Acronym: DEEP (Dream, Explore, Engage, Practice)

Simple Tip: Allow time for reflection to let unconscious processing occur.

Habit: Take a few minutes before bed to review what you’ve learned during the day.

9. We Have at Least Two Types of Memory: Spatial and Rote

Next time, visualise, do, write, listen, understand so that we grow sharp in our skills. Happy using NLP to store what is helping. Memory is both a boon and a bane. Your brain is a library, with different sections for different types of memories.

Acronym: MEMORIZE (Map, Engage, Memorize, Organize, Recall, Internalize, Zone, Exercise)

Simple Tip: Use mnemonic devices to remember information.

Habit: Create mental maps for complex information to enhance spatial memory.

10. Learning is Developmental

We expect our children and teams to achieve and win instantly like robots and machines or chatgpt. Life and learning is a journey. It needs daily care, repetition, doing and mastery happens. Your brain is like a tree, growing and evolving over time.

Acronym: GROWTH (Grow, Reflect, Observe, Work, Transform, Harvest)

Simple Tip: Embrace lifelong learning and personal growth.

Habit: Set weekly goals for personal and professional development.

11. Complex Learning is Enhanced by Challenge and Inhibited by Threat

I love children, children love me. I wanted all children to celebrate learning. Learning needs to challenge never become a threat. Let us do it with love and make it fun.

Metaphor: Your brain is a climber, thriving on challenges but hindered by fear.

Acronym: CLIMB (Challenge, Learn, Inspire, Motivate, Balance)

Simple Tip: Seek out challenging but achievable tasks.

Habit: Step out of your comfort zone regularly to tackle new challenges.

12. Each Brain is Unique

Just like our retina, size, shape, our brain, personality type, talents, memory, learning style, leadership style and behaviour traits are unique. Your brain is a fingerprint, uniquely yours with its own strengths.

Acronym: UNIQUE (Understand, Nurture, Inspire, Question, Explore)

Simple Tip: Celebrate your unique strengths and learning style.

Habit: Tailor your learning methods to what works best for you, whether it’s visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.

Call to Action: People suffer with bank balance, People suffer in the outward looking 5 star job and career, why? One or more of these principles are not applied.

Start applying these principles today to unlock a life filled with purpose, love, joy, and growth. Share your journey and inspire others by posting your experiences and insights on LinkedIn. Let’s build a community of lifelong learners, fostering emotional intelligence, career success, and spiritual well-being together.

By integrating these simple tips and habits into your daily routine, you can enhance your learning, relationships, and overall happiness. Embrace these principles to live your Ikigai and share the journey with your network—together, we can create a world where everyone thrives. DM - JOY and we help many more with love and smiles.