WHAT ARE YOUR BRAIN STRENGTHS?

Neuroplasticity – or brain plasticity – is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-wire itself. It is the ability of the brain to change at any age - for better or worse. This means the structure of the brain is constantly changing in response to experiential factors. How we strengthen our brain with the activities that we do matters!

Research shows that people experience growth and development when they focus on building up on their strengths rather than their shortcomings. This why Neurodiversity Education Academy co-founders, Lana Jelenjev and Saskia Wenniger created the BRAINY APP . It allows individuals to be aware of their brain strengths and the activities that you are doing that promote it. Our brain strengths allow us to:

• Understand how we are using our brain with different activities.
• Appreciate our brain strengths at different experiences or moments.
• Focus on our brain activity that helps increase our sense of wellbeing.

There are 20 brain strengths (and yes there are more!) that help us understand our unique approaches on how we like to be engaged, learn, think, communicate, solve problems, and make decisions.

Artistic?-?You have a gift for capturing images and emotions using different channels. You are fascinated with artistic explorations and expressions either through images, movements or sounds.

Candor?-?You are honest and sincere. You are frank in expressing yourself and your ideas. You value truth telling, transparency and openness.Your ability to speak up encourages others to also express themselves.

Creativity?- You can easily find new ways of doing things. You are able to make use of the 3 different networks of your brain: default network- related to brainstorming and daydreaming, executive control network- which activates when you need to focus, and salience network- known for detecting environmental stimuli and determines which sorts of things tend to be noticed.

Curiosity?- You are intrinsically motivated to acquire new information (epistemic curiosity), fascinated on how other people think, feel and at (social curiosity) or maximize the sensory information (i.e. sights, sounds, texture) that are around you (perceptual curiosity).

Detail oriented?- You have the uncanny ability to identify slight differences between similar cues. You like looking at the specifics and pointing out small details.

Empathizer?- You have the ability to recognize what another person is thinking or feeling, and can easily respond to their state of mind with an appropriate emotion.

Global thinker?-?You have the ability to shift perspective and view an object or event from multiple perspectives, or the ability to see the "gist" or big-picture context surrounding an event or idea.

Humorous?- You have a zany sense of humor. You have a natural flair for the comic side of life and seem to have a knack for understanding others and making connections.

Hyper focused?- You have the ability to deeply focus and pay attention to the task/s you are doing. You can easily be in flow and immerse yourself in the experiences that interest you the most.

Imaginative?- You are able to look beyond what is visible. Combining both feeling and thinking, you can envision possibilities.

Justice sensitivity?- You have a high sense of fairness and justice. You are not easily swayed by sentiments and emotions, rather approach the situation rationally.

Lateral thinkers?- You think out of the box and are more apt to take new approaches to an issue or discover connections that others have missed. You can easily bring information and resources from different sources together.

Narrative reasoning?- You tend to remember facts as experiences, examples or stories, rather than abstractions. You also have a profoundly clear and vivid memory of personal experiences.

Novelty?- Doing new things and taking part in new experiences make you happy. You are motivated by new sensations, variations in experiences and how things are presented.

Organizer?- You can plan and organize actions and activities for both short- and long-term goals. It is easy for you to self-monitor, record and self- evaluate.

Spontaneity?- You have the tendency to jump in new ideas and thoughts. Your mind like to wander with spontaneous thoughts. Spontaneous thought is any thought, memory, feeling, daydream or fantasy disconnected from ongoing tasks or sensory experience. Your spontaneity helps you be creative, innovative and action oriented.

Systemizer?- You have the drive to analyse or build rule-based systems. You systemize based on regularities (structure) and rules. Some examples of systems are : collectible systems (e.g., distinguishing between types of stones or wood), mechanical systems (e.g., a video recorder or a window lock), numerical systems (e.g., a train timetable or a calendar), abstract systems (e.g., the syntax of a language or musical notation), natural systems (e.g., the weather patterns or tidal wave patterns), social systems (e.g., a management hierarchy or a dance routine with a dance partner), motoric systems (e.g., throwing a Frisbee or bouncing on a trampoline).

Tenacity?- You have the ability to sustain interest and effort towards your goals. You withstand challenges and setbacks to persevere toward these goals.

Visual-spatial?- You are an amazing visualizer. Putting together three- dimensional spatial perspectives is easy for you. You have the ability to understand and analyze shapes of objects another to analyze their spatial features (i.e. size, location, orientation).

Vitality?- You feel energized both physically and mentally. You feel strong and active.

ACTIVITY: STRENGTHS MINING

• What are your brain strengths?
• What are the brain strengths of your family members?
• What are the brain strengths that you see with others you work with?
• What are the brain strengths of your students?

You can download the following images and use it for strengths mining for your team, organization, school or community. Simply use the image and let others identify which strengths they see in themselves.

You can also have a round where you identify which strengths you can see in others (in your family, team, students, community members).