My brain is feeling streeeeetched.

At an all day workshop last weekend I realised I hadn’t really streeeeetched my brain like this in a long time.

I’ve been to trainings and workshops and tuned in to numerous webinars.

I’ve learnt new things, applied them, read books, have done the exercises.

And yes, while all of that has been keeping me stretching and expanding my world of possibilities—it’s been a really long time since I’ve been ssstreeeeeettched.

Flashback to Year 11 at high school. I’m sitting in the front row of the physics lab on a high stool.

Our teacher has just finished explaining something then given us instructions for what next to do.

It wasn’t so much that it felt like he was speaking a different language, it was more that I completely blanked out.

The whole section in the middle before he said “and go” was blank. Not garbled, not indecipherable. Just blank.

I turned to the row behind me, where the school’s most infamous “smart guy” was sitting. Putting on my pleading, I’m so nice face.

He pretended not to see me. Or flagged me away. Or was already too buried in his books to bother filling in the blanks for me.

Joe Dispenza (a mega expert on quantum physics, neuroscience and the power we have over our minds to make big deal changes in our lives) says that knowledge certainly fires up our brain and gets it going – but it’s not until we can actually explain what we’ve learnt that the neural pathway is actually wired and formed.

i.e. If you learn something new and can’t explain it to someone else, it’s not going to stick around and make any impact on your life.

I think we get trapped in those knowledge cycles because it feels good. I love learning. And I know for myself I can easily get caught up in thinking I need more knowledge, more lessons, more courses to feel like I’m making progress.

But actually (and this is neuroscience facts in action!) it’s getting to the integration that makes all the difference.

If you’re not integrating you’re blanking out.

If you’re not able to review, explain and then take action. You might as well be me staring frantically at the “smart guy” in the class trying to get his attention (to no avail).

It’s one of the big reasons why I LOVE doing an end of year review. It’s my way of taking all that knowledge from the year and integrating it. Explaining it to myself.

What have I learnt? What worked? What didn’t?

Giving myself that space each year feels like my way of allowing those neural pathways to fully form. To deepen and strengthen. Like I’m turbocharging myself so next year I’m operating at a whole new higher level, of me.

Getting uncomfortable and feeling fully strreeeeetttched at times is me uplevelling those neural pathways too. It’s a reminder to my brain to not get too sleepy – and autopilot my way through life.

Whilst it might feel uncomfortable at the time of the sttreeetcch, the other side, where things are all fully integrated, feels sooooo good!

That’s where my clarity, confidence and creativity come alive.

Where could you take time out to integrate more fully in your life right now?