Improve Your Ability to Learn

Being in the field of helping individuals develop additional skill, I am continually reading information about ideas to help you improve the effectiveness of your learning experiences.  This month's article is about the physical process the brain uses for remembering.
The nervous system in your body is integral to your ability to learn.  Your brain uses circuits (neural networks) to receive, store, and retrieve information.  Connections between neurons (a electrical cell that transmits information by electrical and chemical means) are created for what you pay attention to.  Your neurons change as your brain acquires new information. This is how you learn.

The neural connections are reinforced by Dopamine (a neurotransmitter).  Dopamine is released during repetition of positive behaviors (it is a reward chemical in our body).  This embeds learning into the brain / body.
Your brain interacts with both the context in which the information is presented and with the incoming information.  As such, the physical and emotional elements of the environment where the learning takes place are key to the learning accomplished.
Learning is a resource intense activity.  There are limitations to our brain's ability to work properly to allow optimal learning.  Sleep is a crucial factor because the neurons activated during learning are reactivated during sleep.
The suggestions we make based upon this information is that your ability to learn at an optimal level depends upon:

• How well rested you are during the learning program
• How well you sleep afterwards
• The chemicals in your body (from food,drugs,etc.) at the time of learning
• Your comfort with the learning environment
• The emotional context of the setting