Formative years
Reading this is like looking at my childhood. I was regularly praised by teachers and my parents for being smart, because, well, I was smart. Unfortunately, I have always relied upon that innate intelligence instead of expanding on it. At least now I have a better understanding of why. Yeah, I'm lazy, yeah, I give up too easily. But now I have
( Read more... )
Language is one of the most powerful tools for programming your brain. Use it. Speak or write about new things, or dig deeper into the already-known. Write down the "wrong" messages in how you regard your intelligence, and then write the "right" message. Be aware that your brain takes things fairly literally, and phrase things accordingly. Talk about your insights, because voicing (or writing) them imprints them more deeply than just thinking about them. This is pretty much basic CBT, and there's a reason that's the one therapy method proven to be effective over the past forty years. Language is what gives us abstract thought; language is therefore what we use to change how we think.
If you *really* want to go all out, you might record something interesting and play it back while you sleep or do something else. It doesn't have to be a self-help recording, although that's useful for some people. It can be something as simple as a wikipedia article on a subject you're interested in knowing more deeply. Your brain will record more than you realize and begin to make associations between more things.
Work on remembering your dreams and write them down. If necessary, tell yourself you'll remember them before you go to sleep to increase the likelihood you will. They may or may not mean anything, but it's an interesting glimpse into your own brain.
I don't know if you take any classes; try taking notes in Etruscan. It's similar enough to our alphabet it's not so hard, and you can insert our letters where Etruscan lacks them. I do not recommend this in a math class, however.
Keep an Impossible Sudoku (or some similar) book in the bathroom, along with a pencil.
When you learn a thing, try to think of multiple metaphors or analogies for it. Also, focus on learning the structure of things as well as the overview - the more you know the building blocks of a thing, the more empowered you are to rearrange those blocks creatively.
I guess in some ways I was lucky. My husband is like you and the people in that article, and is paying the price of being prized. I had a couple of supportive teachers, but I also had quite a few resentful ones, and was bullied/ostracized by my peers, and some people viewed my intelligence as a tool for them to use. So for me, using my brain is what people value me for, and it's also an escape and an addiction. On the other hand, having endless energy and not being able to direct it where I want isn't that great, either.
These are lots of ideas, but don't do everything at once. Pick some small thing to change, and you'll discover you have ideas of your own that may suit you better than any of these. Above all, have fun, and be free to be as much yourself as you want. Nothing stops creativity and thought faster than self-importance and self-censorship.
Reply
Leave a comment