SkyDiving

Learning is a complex process, and we humans are hard-wired for it. We don’t realise we’re learning until we’ve learnt something. Remember the pain of falling off a bike? Once we’ve mastered it, we don’t fall off any more. The anxiousness that accompanies the learning process can be a barrier to it.

An anxious brain doesn’t learn efficiently. Or it learns things in a distorted way. Anxious brains link things together that non-anxious brains don’t. To an anxious brain, a fall from a bike while cornering sends signals to keep going straight and avoid corners.

A non-anxious brain takes the corner. There’s a memory of a previous fall, but it doesn’t become a barrier to cornering.

An extreme example, maybe, but anxiousness is one of those debilitating things that affect learning. Sadly, it seems to be on the rise, and it’s all linked to an almond-sized lump in our brains: the amygdala.

It’s our fight, flight or freeze mechanism. Anxious people have an over-sensitive one.

Non-anxious people have one that operates within normal limits.

My son is a skydiver. He’s taken more than 1000 jumps. Trainers recognise him as being an expert. He makes videos of other sky-divers. My amygdala won’t let me go anywhere near a skydiving experience. My son lives for it. That’s not to say he doesn’t get anxious before a jump.

He’s meticulous about how he packs his parachute. No one is allowed near it while he folds and packs. Following the jump, he’s all smiles, laughter, and high-fives.