Bondye se plas dous mwen (Creole) – God is my “sweet spot”
Bondye se plas dous mwen (Creole) or Dieu est mon “sweet spot”(French), God is my “sweet spot”
My thoughts on
- God as my sweet spot.
- God in my audience and on stage – my director.
- My prayer.
This week, two Haitian women appeared in both my weekly job training class AND my Intermediate Grammar class. Creole and French are their primary languages. So according to google translate, Dieu est mon “sweet spot.” Or Bondye se plas dous mwen.
Recently, my wife said I was addicted to stress. I countered with the response that I am happiest when all my oars are in the water. For years, I have seen friends climb mountains, go bungee jumping and flex out in extreme sports. With a slight tinge of jealousy, I usually commented cynically that those fools were addicted to adrenaline. When I read Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, Chapter 5,[1], I gather I wasn’t far from wrong. Duffy gives a good account of our sweet spot in chapter 5, as a flow of neurochemicals, dopamine and norepinephrine awash us in emotional highs and lows. Adrenaline is thrown in for good measure. I now have a mental image of those chemicals zooming around my prefrontal cortex. I can now understand why my chemically deprived brain stops functioning after teaching my Monday/Wednesday night classes.
Covid taught me that I needed “people” in my life and the arousal of student/teacher interaction is both a balm and a rush…upon my social soul. Still after class, my brain slips into “basal ganglia mode.” I mentally and literally shift into “cruise control” for the half an hour on the ride home. My brain slips into a kind of Default Mode Network – a dull happy place. Or perhaps not so dull, “The default mode network (DMN) is a system of connected brain areas that show increased activity when a person is not focused on what is happening around them” states a Psychology Today article.[2] The article goes on to say that creativity abounds. Much like Newton resting under a tree, a violent encounter with an apple – producing the theory of GRAVITY.
God as my Sweet Spot
However, in the charting of my neurochemical biorhythms, the only time I can really be creative (as in blogpost writings) is early in the morning around 4 am to 6 am. Sadly, this biorhythm high point conflicts with my prayer time. I am seeking amends to this dilemma.
Sweet spots were once reserved to describe that awesome place on a tennis racquet that returned the tennis ball with amazing power and accuracy. Now in my post tennis days I am confronted with “Why isn’t God my sweet spot?” Matthew 6:33, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
How is the God of the universe, the creator of my body and spirit involved in my neurochemical brain bath? My dilemma, how do I make God my “sweet spot”? I don’t have an answer but would love to hear from the cohort collective.
God in my audience and on stage – my director
In the wash of neurochemicals, David Rock’s metaphor of the stage, provides strong visual imagery for the five roles of the prefrontal cortex.[3] 
Nathan Lozeron, on his Productivity website, does a great animated video that speaks to highlights of Rock’s first 4 chapters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUbLjdTYmA
He adds the visual imagery with his graphic depicting, 1. Understand, 2. Recall, 3. Memorize, 4. Inhibit, 5. Decide
Or U.R. M.IN.D. [4]
Rock’s book review at Good Reads also provides a nice summary., https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54145336-your-brain-at-work-revised-and-updated
- Why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources.
- Why it’s so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions.
- How to maximize the chance of finding insights to solve seemingly insurmountable problems.
- How to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible.
- How to collaborate more effectively with others.
- Why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier.
- How to be more effective at changing other people’s behavior.
Rock’s “how to section” after each chapter helped me to summarize and act upon the many distractions to my “in house” stage. It also launched me off in the search for God in my mental mayhem. At first, I placed Him in my audience – a place where my walk with Christ were memories of relevant bible stories, verses, lessons, and spiritual experiences. These neurons were part of the spiritual map that my brain draws upon in my spiritual walk. Then, I saw God as center stage in the spotlight of my brain. It is what all Christians strive for, to have God in the center of their lives. Because of Rock, I began to move God to the “directorship” of my brain. Aligning my will to His, is a goal I am working on now. Letting Him direct my path, Proverbs 16:9, The mind of a person plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
Perhaps over reaching,
My prayer.
Heavenly Father, I ask that you be the “director” in my life. My own brain gets tired in the crush of the world. There is only one spotlight in my life and let me continue to shine it on you. Let me rest in You and let me seek direction and motivation from you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”
P.S.
By the way, I get an additional daily dose of dopamine when I scratch my dog “Copper” behind his ears. I am told he gets his dopamine rush when I do that too (Harry Pettit, “What Having a Dog Does to Your Brain and Body,”. [5]
[1] David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, Revised and updated (New York, NY: Harper Business, an imrint of HarperColinsPublishers, 2020),79.
[2] “Default Mode Network | Psychology Today,” accessed April 6, 2023, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/default-mode-network.
[3] “YOUR BRAIN AT WORK by David Rock | Animated Core Message – YouTube,” accessed April 6, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/.
[4] Rock, Your Brain at Work,49.
[5] Harry Pettit, “What Having a Dog Does to Your Brain and Body,” Mail Online, June 6, 2018, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5807069/Dogs-trigger-release-dopamine-oxytocin-way-children.html.
About the Author
Russell Chun
interlinkt.org is now ready for your Refugee Resettlement needs. 15 tasks, languages ESL plans coming12 responses to “Bondye se plas dous mwen (Creole) – God is my “sweet spot””
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Russell, I love this! “God is my Sweet Spot”
You mentioned something else I can relate to, “… in the charting of my neurochemical biorhythms, the only time I can really be creative (as in blogpost writings) is early in the morning around 4 am to 6 am.”
My quiet time was adjusted to a later time in the morning for the last week or so as my most clear thinking is early in the morning. It left me feeling rushed and anxious more than not. Which led to increasing less clear thoughts. I will not be doing that again! Another issue I had was distractions. I almost wrote my blog post on unexpected distractions. I had prioritized, cleared my stage, and informed others so I could have a quiet weekend to write. My internal distractions were less, but the unexpected external distractions are what in the end got to me. I ended getting up earlier than planned in mornings and heading to bed later in the evenings.
My thoughts moving forward regarding your question about how to make God my “sweet spot” and what I need to do to get my rhythms restored is more silence and to just sit in God’s loving presence. I may fall asleep, but I think God is OK with that too!
Thanks for your comments.
Today, I tried prioritizing the big rocks and letting the small ones fall by the wayside. In the process I missed ANOTHER zoom meeting. Sigh…I am getting senile.
Shalom…Russ
I love the idea as God as director. It is amazing how we can pull back somehow and observe our thinking and emotions. Paul even noticed this in the first century when he said we could take our thoughts captive. We have the ability to examine what is happening in us at any given moment and allow God to align us with the Spirit of Christ. Good stuff man!
This semester we are on the dance floor with our minds. We are learning new steps, new dances and new ways of moving. Loving the class.
However, the music, the beat the tempo is set by our orchestra director. I would like to think that Jesus is my director.
Shalom…Russ
Russ, I always appreciate your posts. They are laced with a deep hunger to pursue and know God.
How do I make God my sweet spot? I also am on a journey in this area so I can’t give you pat answers, but it does remind me of a book a read years ago called “Mansions of the Heart: Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth” by R. Thomas Ashbrook.[1] And since we are all about metaphors these days in our readings, He likens the varying levels of spiritual growth to seven mansions.
1 – New Beginnings
2 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place
3 – Discovering the Love of Jesus
4 – Longing for Oneness with God
5 – The Dark Night of the Soul
6 – The Passion of God’s Love
7 – A Life of Love in the Trinity
Each mansion has a center where God is illuminated in greater ways. The mansions are “not in a row but are like a fruit that has layers, which must be peeled away before the cneter can be eaten.”[2] You may navigate in and out of mansions…it is not linear. However, the older one gets in their maturity in Christ, the more one navigates the upper numbers. Mansion 4, 5, and 6 is where I find myself often. (Mansion 7 seems to engage that sweet spot). In Mansion 5 Ashbrook mentions “Even though our intimacy with God is growing profoundly, the growth is largely hidden to us…and is often typified, therefore, by a deep dissatisfaction with our spiritual progress.”[3]
You know, Russell, as I read this quote it sounds like we are on track. Does the sweet spot perhaps come in simply resting in who He is and who we are not for now?
[1] R. Thomas Ashbrook, “Mansions of the Heart: Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth.” (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009).
[2] Ibid, 41.
[3] Ibid, 138.
What a great response. You wrote…In Mansion 5 Ashbrook mentions “Even though our intimacy with God is growing profoundly, the growth is largely hidden to us…and is often typified, therefore, by a deep dissatisfaction with our spiritual progress.”[3]
I am wondering if it is a good thing that we are dissatisfied with our spiritual progress. We want more, to go deeper.
Thanks for your comments…Shalom…Russ
Russell…what a great post. I love your heart to have God at the center of your life…including your thinking! I couldn’t help but be reminded of Paul’s verse in Romans 12 as it relates to God helping and directing our brains: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It’s a familiar verse to most of us….but after reading Rock’s book I, like you, have a better picture of how we might be able to participate in that process with our own thinking….and also some compelling reasons that we need to do so! It’s incredible to think that God can re-wire or re-create neurological pathways in our mind so that we might better align our thinking & our acting according to His good purposes and will. Let it be so for us, Lord!
Hi Scott,
I meant to include “Respond V.S. React” into my initial thoughts, but I ran out of space. In short, someone spoke into my life that my reactions were not helpful. My reactions were drastic S1 Knee Jerk reactions. What was suggested was S2 analytical responses.
It was said to me, respond – like a 1st responder, coming upon a situation with the intent to help/heal. Versus React – emotionally with me at the center, exhibiting pride and other equally unsavory emotions.
For me the Response comes with a two seconds pause where I can push down my fight mode (my flight mode has disappeared apparently) and respond rather than react. A 2 second pause, where the DIRECTOR helps me calm down and become helpful rather than hurtful.
Easy to say hard to do.
Then I figured, the only way I could do this was with the God as my director. Seeing life through the Eyes of Jesus, with compassion and love.
Easy to say hard to do.
Thanks for your response….Shalom…Russ
I’m about to take Hazel, my German Shepherd, for a hike. It’s my dopamine shot for the day.
I too, find my creative sweet spot in the early morning hours, though not as early as you seem to find yours. My sweet spot happens when the caffeine hits my system and I start typing like a fiend.
I do not find the early morning hours to be a time of prayer for me though. Maybe that is because I’ve rarely, if ever, made the morning my time for prayer. I am usually ready for action in the morning – either getting stuff done creatively or for work or exercising. I find that prayer happens for me on and off throughout the day and when I am out hiking. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “God sweet spot” but you’ve got me thinking about when/where that might be for me.
Dog walks are great. Now that the weather is getting warmer in Colorado Springs, I can get out with the dog (Last week it snowed and I don’t like walks of anykind in the snow).
Somedays, the act of prioritizing is a struggle. Once I look at email I am trapped. So I have been trying to leave emails till later and focus on the “big rocks.” I forget who I was talking with, but it appears that 21 days is the time to cultivate new habits and get rid of old. So far it has been up and down on developing my mornings with 1) prayer and inviting HIM into my daily routine, 2) Working on big rocks, 3) hitting the small stuff.
I guess I am a work in progress…Shalom…Russ
“I am happiest when all my oars are in the water.” He Russell can you go into a little more detail about this, please?
The easy answer. As a member of the Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) multi tasking club. I need multiple things to think about. This can work for or against me (depending on the situation).
Have you ever had the job interview question “What kind of animal would you be?” I want to respond as a TIGER, but my wife says that I am an Octopus. My little tentacles involved in many things at once.
For instance I have two Ukrainian Refugee Camps this summer in Hungary, I am teaching ESL to Central/South Americans, teaching job training to Ukrainian Refugees and teaching U.S. Citizenship to Burmese and Venezuelans. Like the rest of the cohort, I have all these side gigs. Being retired, I don’t have to worry about the money survival piece, but can focus on doing the things I LIKE!
The NPO, plus development of my telephone app AND setting up my Immigration symposium are all my oars. They are all connected by the topic of immigration.
Thanks for the question…Shalom…Russ