Why Classical Psychological Approaches Are Not Enough: Motivation, finding peace, and relaxing during breaks are indispensable aids for young people entering new terrain. Their efforts focus not only on the challenge at work but also, and above all, on the adjustment to their new life. This hides unknown emotions that it is better to know – doing so can make life easier.

Let’s take a little trip into the world of research. When I worked with Prof. Markowitsch on the book “Reframing of Needs”, published by Springer-Verlag in 2019, I came to the realization that we have hardly any knowledge about the healthy psyche. All research is clinical research that aims to investigate diseases, disorders, or dysfunctions.

We live in a fascinating world that our ancestors fought hard to achieve for us. Sometimes with sensitivity for the “older population, sometimes with impatience and incomprehension, we leave the past behind to pursue our own desires, beliefs, or talents. One question occupies my mind: what is it in us that unfolds our power to live life to the fullest? Artists, singers, creative minds, and even competitive athletes in particular are all examples of people who do not want to compromise. But are they prepared for the experiences that await them?

We know so much about the body and how to keep it healthy and optimize it, how to build our muscles – but nobody teaches us how to build our psychological muscles. Such knowledge isn’t psychology because psychology is mental science and is based on assumptions and interpretations. Natural science explains what is going on inside us, namely brain research. Without the brain, nothing works. Our proposals for improving the emotional household are based on findings from brain research.

From clinical research

Clinical research of the psyche has claimed psychology as its own and therefore does not involve explanations of the functions that take place in the brain, but models, assumptions, hypotheses, and interpretations.

To understand how mental muscles are built, a foray into developmental psychology is necessary. Some time ago, research in this field was conducted on neglected children from Romania. A loving mother and father would not need to research this because common sense tells us what infants, children, and adolescents need to grow up powerfully, that is, to develop and build powerful mental muscles.

Trauma research can also provide us with important insights. Children of traumatized parents report the transmission of traumatic content from their parents’ experiences to their children, even if they themselves have never experienced anything like it. But this happens not only with bad experiences but also, and especially, with beautiful, deep emotional experiences that define childhood. After all, we imitate and are unaware of what influenced us in detail.

Making life what we want it to be

The legend of Tarzan tells us that Jane said, “No man ever started with less.” With this phrase, she gives us an idea of what it would be like to begin life with an absolute minimum of human experience. With this idea, it is easy to think of an equation. If we take the whole amount that is in the demand of the future and deduct what our parents have handed down to us, we get a difference. This opens up the platform of what we are lacking to meet the demand of the future. For some people, this platform is too big.

When I think of Amy Winehouse, it pains me to know that this brilliant young woman gave up on life. Would she have done so if she could have started with more? If she had been a daughter of a successful singer or celebrity, for example?

The equation

What was passed down to us in our parental home does not equate to what we need. This is not about acquiring academic and professional skills. What is missing is the support of a caregiver, an attachment figure, who deeply understands our venture – a person without fear, who acts as a role model and approaches experiences that make our head spin and still frighten us as a matter of course. The imitation is missing, alongside  the benevolence and the emotional experience that someone deeply wants you to achieve your venture.

Like tracks in the snow

Being prepared for life or for the task at hand means having internalized these emotional traces. Findings from brain research show us that it is emotional memories that leave traces, like those of a loving mother and father. With such parental figures, the needs of childhood are satisfied, and the child feels valuable and natured and becomes self-confident. During puberty, a child fights for their own freedom. These are elements responsible for the mental muscles.

NIKU provides the foundation

When we walk through the garden the morning after a snowy night, we see them, the tracks in the snow. This is how we can think of tracks in the brain, like footsteps. Emotional experiences shape us, and these can be completed with the help of NIKU. These are emotional stories that we anchor deep inside ourselves. For more, see www.niku-neuro.com

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With SELF-TRAINING and the PERFECT LINE, everybody can find the healthy structures that help them get the best out of themselves. Find out more at www.xpowerof10.com