Creative Podcast Teaching music, wellbeing movement and brain function

Solo show on the power of learning for mental health and the effect of environment or our brain function and why we need to move.

Teaching Philosophy & Student Demographics

• Teaching older professional students online who use music for unwinding
• Different approach needed vs exam-focused younger students
• Psychological perspective: tapping into creative aspects and life journey
• Focus on what experiences they can put into music and discover through it

Complex Systems vs Simple Systems

• Referenced Nassim Taleb (Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness)
• Simple systems (light switch): predictable cause-effect
• Complex systems (human body/mind): changes create effects elsewhere
• Richard Bandler (NLP creator) observation: healing one problem can cause it to appear elsewhere
• "Blotting paper effect"
• We ignore how environment affects health, creativity, happiness
• People you're friendly with, where you live, what you read, what you eat

Movement, Learning & Brain Function

• Humans designed to move around and walk great distances
• Brain designed for movement: assessing distance, balance, spatial awareness
• Most brain function is about things we don't consciously think about
• Intellectual thinking is "tiny bit" of what brain does
• Peripatetic teaching tradition (Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras)
• Walking and talking/teaching combined
• Satish Kumar example: Jain monk who walked thousands of miles while learning from teacher
• Young boys struggle sitting at desks - need movement for learning

Historical Context: Music, Words & Social Connection

• Music and words historically linked together (bards, Orpheus)
• Ancestors: walked thousands of miles, storytelling while walking
• Social time around fires for storytelling
• Modern technology removes social interaction and landscape awareness

Childhood Development & Risk

• Modern "micromanagement of children" vs historical independence
• Children's resourcefulness comes from problem-solving for themselves
• Spending time alone and with non-parents
• Learning to deal with risk by being confronted with risk
• Experiencing "weirdness" and developing coping strategies

Health, Creativity & Holistic Approach

• Older students: memory issues not because brain incapable, but unused "muscle"
• Learning music powerful for brain plasticity
• Art does something for wellbeing - not just intellectual pursuit
• Need to be "more of an animal" - understand what we require as living creatures
• Designed to walk, run, communicate, be sociable
• Tell stories (everything we believe is a story/hypothesis)
• Health connected to desire to live and share life with others
• Creative advice: get out walking, dictate ideas into phone, meet people, have fun