2^ND SECRET:
IS FRUSTRATION A STUCK STATE?

Melanie is frustrated with her continuing lack of success at learning and she shows it! The question
is, was she born a frustrated learner? Was she hard-wired at birth with the ‘frustrated learner’ gene destined
to scowl her way through school and life stumbling from one frustrating learning episode to the next?

Until the brain researchers convince us otherwise
let us assume that Mel was born with a highly evolved human brain that
was geared for learning and success. So what might have happened? What
if in her first years at school she had a series of learning events
where she got up to the confusion stage and was on the cusp of making
learning breakthroughs, i.e. experiencing ‘aha’ moments? And what if Mel interpreted the feedback from the learning environment as unsupportive? If
there were enough of these events, might Mel not develop a mental
pathway from confusion direct to frustration – past go straight to jail?

The term ‘stuck state’ suggests that the person
loops from the start of a new learning event to “I’m confused” to “why
does this keep happening to me” to “I’m stupid” or “the teacher hates
me”, etc.

To be continued ...