Hello, Friend

My older son’s birthday is this month. We’ve had a family dinner cooked by his abuela to celebrate and will probably go out over the weekend to celebrate again. Celebrating is a good thing!

Important changes are ahead in his life, and important changes in his way of viewing life have been showing up. In part this is because after leaving college to work full-time, he’s now returned to finish and has about a year to go. An even more significant change is waiting on the other side of the degree because he’s committed to himself to finish his degree before getting married.

Adolescence is a Brain Thing
While the life circumstances of finishing a college degree and beginning to look at marriage are powerful, there’s a big change that has happened apart from life experiences. He’s just passed the point where his brain was going through adolescence and he now has a young adult brain. Recent neuroscience research shows us that remarkable remodeling happens in the brain during the second dozen years of life, from around age twelve to twenty-four.

In fact, while rapid physical growth and sexual maturation from puberty occur during adolescence, it’s reasonable to say they don’t define the time frame of adolescence. Adolescence may best be defined as these dozen or so years of brain remodeling, through the teen years and into the mid-twenties.

And the Adolescent Brain is All About Innovation
I shared an overview of the adolescent brain at my recent ICF chapter meeting for professional coaches. My assigned task was to spend a few minutes taking about one of our board’s guiding values, Innovation. It turns out the adolescent brain is a great place to start when talking about Innovation.

Brain Renovation and the Mind of Innovation

Dan Siegel, MD, is a psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher best known for developing the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology, IPNB. This field brings together a complex systems based theory of mind with a research-based understanding of neurobiology.

Did I already lose you? Stick with me! That’s as complicated as this will be. Let’s just talk about brains. You have one. And for a time it was an adolescent brain.

The Remodel is “Down to the Studs”
Siegel explains that remarkable physical remodeling of the brain defines adolescence. Neural pathways are “pruned,” meaning removed. Some neurons are even removed. Sounds shocking! But, no, this does not mean teenagers are “losing their minds.” It actually means their brains are becoming more efficient and more effective.

The child mind gathers information like a sponge. But the child’s mind is like the child’s closet – all that gathered information is all over the place. During adolescence, as pruning occurs, areas of the brain becoming specialized. Did you read last month’s newsletter on organizing things? This process is the brain’s work to organize all the information it has stored during childhood.

The brain also adds myelin sheaths to the neurons. Don’t worry, this won’t be too technical! Myelin sheaths are like insulation. When insulated, the neurons fire more quickly and efficiently. Processing of information, problem-solving tasks, and so on become much quicker and more efficient. It might be hard to tell by observing adolescent behavior, but brain scans show our brains go from electrical activity all over the place in childhood to focused activity in specific areas for specific tasks starting in adolescence.

The Excitement System Shifts
In addition to this structural remodeling, the brain also changes the neurochemistry of excitement and risk evaluation. You’ll easily identify adolescent behaviors as I describe these changes.

First, the dopamine system, which is our internal reward system for doing exciting things, shifts. The resting dopamine level is lower in adolescents, meaning they are more easily bored. Their dopamine response is higher, meaning what’s exciting to an adult is more exciting to an adolescent. Overall, they are drawn to seek more excitement.

And Risk Evaluation Gets Distorted
Next, their evaluation of risk gets a little skewed, maybe even distorted. In an adult, the higher processing part of the brain can roughly calculate the probability of a good and bad outcome. The emotional limbic system adds the feelings evaluation of those likely outcomes. And the lower brain, connected to the neural network in the gut, adds a broad assessment of danger.

Your adult brain calculates the probability of things going wrong, then emotionally evaluates how bad it is if something goes wrong. A one out of ten chance that you’ll pick a piece of candy with a flavor you don’t like is no big deal. A one out of ten chance that you’ll pick a piece of candy that could make you physically ill is a huge deal. Your gut yells to you to say “No!”

The adolescent brain evaluates risk differently. It knows the one out of ten part. But it tamps down the emotional evaluation of the negative and may amplify the emotional evaluation of the positive. And it seems to tune out or at least turn down the volume on the gut response. Where an adult would say, “No way! Too risky!” the adolescent brain might say, “That probably won’t happen (which is statistically true), and even if it does it’s not that big a deal (which is inaccurate).”

It All Prepares the Adolescent for Independence
Why does the brain do this to the excitement system and the risk evaluation system? The theory is that this is nature’s way of getting adolescents to leave the comfort of their homes to venture into the world and start their own lives with their own families. If the family of origin is loving and supportive, it’s irrational to leave that emotionally and physically secure place. Seeking new experiences makes it much more likely.

The remodeling of the brain, the change in the excitement system, and the change in risk evaluation come together to create qualities of adolescence that Siegel summarizes in the acronym ESSENCE.

The ESSENCE of Adolescence

ES: Emotional Spark
The emotional limbic system of the middle brain is more active and the ability of the upper brain to regulate emotionally is relatively diminished. Enthusiasm and motivation are the upside. Moodiness and unpredictable emotionality are the downside.

SE: Social Engagement
Connecting with others, especially peers, becomes key. Collaboration, not competition, is the genetic drive. This is a survival function, because group belonging promoted survival for prehistoric people and being ostracized was life-threatening. The upside is collaborative community and working together. The downside is violating personal values in pursuit of group acceptance – peer pressure.

N: Novelty
Changes in the excitement system and risk assessment lead to seeking new experiences much more often. The upside is discovering new approaches that can lead to advances in human civilization. The downside is riskier behavior that can lead to injury or even death.

CE: Creative Expression
The combined adolescent experience is about pushing against the status quo. In survival terms, this is about generating the necessary motivation to leave home and create one’s own path. The upside is new ideas and approaches to old problems. The downside can be rebellion and disruption.

Renovation for Innovation
Pull these qualities together and you see the changes in the adolescent brain are more than remodeling. They’re Renovation for Innovation. Siegel explains that most of the advances in art, music, science, and technology have come to us from adolescent minds. Remember, adolescence in brain development terms last until the mid-twenties.

Hope for Post-Adolescent Brains
Where does this leave those of us who haven’t had an adolescent brain for quite a while? Fortunately, although we’re no longer as naturally inclined to Innovation as adolescents, we can develop qualities that promote Innovation. But we have to know that our brains are disinclined to it so that we can work with what we have.

Naturally Resistant to Change as Threatening
Brains are basically pattern recognition and prediction machines. Their primary goal is to keep us from getting hurt or killed. We generally see change as risky. From the caveman point of view, it makes sense. The environment was threatening and unknown, so change could lead to risk of injury or death. Staying with what was known would seem much better unless the environment changed and threatened survival.

Our brains still read change as threatening, even if it’s getting a new supervisor or moving to a new community. Not just uncomfortable – actually threatening, and sometimes with a hint of “I might die” in the mix. That’s the “knee-jerk” reaction of the brain to perceived threat, and it shows up in your mind as resistance, uncertainty, avoidance, excuses, and even critical judgment of people calling for change or directing change. You need to be aware of this automatic response in order to foster an Innovative mind, because resistance is where your mind will start.

Opening the Adult Mind to Innovation
You can actively cultivate the four qualities of adolescence in your own mind. To promote the Emotional Spark, you can mindfully savor Positive Emotions to move into a more open and receptive mental space. You can do the inner work of identifying your values and acting in alignment with them, which will bring a positive emotional experience.

To cultivate Social Engagement, you can plan with intention to expand your social connections and deepen the relationships you have. Developing your capacities for social and emotional intelligence will help here. Learning about the neuroscience of engaged conversations based on respect and trust will help, as will employing practices of nonviolent communication. Bringing in a regular practice of mindfulness can build compassion, which makes it easier to connect with others. Specifically, lovingkindness meditation primes you for connection with others in a meaningful way.

Getting a risk-aversive mind to embrace Novelty involves leaning into the core qualities of your inner self. Discover, develop, and express your VIA strengths to build motivation and resilience and help you strategize to take on new challenges. Tap into your values to add to your motivation to pursue a new path or try a new approach.

Creative Expression brings together what you are learning as you try new things, the emotional intensity you discover, and the social support you develop. Lean into courage, or “borrow” courage from supportive friends and family members, and add artistic work, music, writing, a new athletic pursuit, or any form of design to your schedule, from cooking to gardening to training materials to products you create.

There’s Support Available
If any of this sounds complicated, don’t worry! Discovering, developing, and expressing your core qualities is what coaching is all about. Especially coaching grounded in Positive Psychology.

Positive Psychology Coaching includes research based applications that will improve your wellbeing and resilience so you can have greater success and fulfillment. Coaching promotes both your ongoing development and your performance, so it helps you generate an Innovative mindset as well as a motivated, resourceful plan for doing Innovative things.

May you be well, may you do well, and may you Thrive!

Take Care,

Stephen Coxsey, MA, LPC, PCC
Whole Life Leadership Coach

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About Steve Coxsey

Steve collaborates with people to design and implement a customized Whole Life Leadership plan that promotes success, fulfillment, and well-being for themselves and the people they lead and influence. They thrive on a personally meaningful path and promote a culture of thriving wherever they are in charge, from families to professions, from small businesses to organizations.

Steve is a supportive ally. His typical clients have to juggle competing responsibilities in a variety of roles. They have a compelling vision of what they would like to create or accomplish as leaders in their families, careers, or businesses and are committed to turning their vision into reality. To make that happen, they develop the Leadership Agilities that will enable them to empower and direct themselves, design and guide meaningful work, and inspire others.

Would you like that to be you?

Are you ready for a creative, dynamic, collaborative partnership focused on turning your vision into results?

Get started with a no-risk 30-minute consultation. It’s complimentary, so all it will cost you is a little bit of time. You can schedule the complimentary call using this online tool. You can also call 817-416-8971 or e-mail Steve@SteveCoxsey.com to set up the call.

Click here for more information than you could possibly ever want to know about Steve.

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