Change Your Brain Change Your Life

By Alva D. Miller


Simple but powerful mindfulness exercises bring us a wide range of benefits. You don't have to sit in lotus position or become a Buddhist. Interest in mindfulness coming out of scientific research is making it mainstream.If I were to tell you that you can learn to release yourself from stress, improve your well being, increase your emotional intelligence, make better decisions and be happier and more successful just by sitting on your butt and watching your breath for a few minutes each day, would you be persuaded? Probably not. If you think about it, that's strange because you probably do sit on your butt for much of the day and you never stop breathing. So what's the problem?

First of all we have to have some kind of understanding why it works and second, if you try it, maybe you'll find why it's not such and easy thing to do. Just sit on a chair, upright, and count each breath. How many breaths can you count before you get distracted and forget to count? Do you forget how many breaths you've counted? Just try it. So, like learning to do a lot of things it's difficult at first. Our minds just want to get out there and do stuff. So how does training our attention to follow the breath do so much good?

Long before we could detect the smallest particles of matter in the atom the Greek philosopher Leucippus hypothesized of its existence around 450 B.C. Not long after, his follower, Democritus coined the term 'atom' from the Greek ἄτομος (atomos, "indivisible") from (a-, "not") and τέμνω (temnō, "I cut"), which means uncuttable, or indivisible, something that cannot be divided further. Some of the greatest discoveries have originated from the intuitions of man's heart, only later to be empirically 'detected' and rationally understood (if not perfectly), if not seen and touched. Mental health has been a soft science with classified categories of clusters of symptoms in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders yet without necessarily an empirical way to detect and diagnose. Many of the symptoms described in diagnoses are based on behavior and reports.

Dr. Amen here explains how science can empirically detect and measure activities in the mind-brain connection. This book has a lot of information regarding mental health problems drawn from Brain SPECT imaging, an empirical tool that Dr. Amen uses to detect 'brain disorders', or diagnosed mental health problems that meet DSM criteria. These are Nuclear medicine studies that measure blood flow and activity levels in the brain (Amen, 5). Dr. Amen also discusses use of PET (positron emission tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CAT (computerized axial tomography), and EEG (electroencephalograms). Seeing that many mental health problems can be empirically detected in brain function using these tools can be helpful in dispelling stigma and false guilt when there is a medical problem and brain disorder. Without some evidence of the medical issue, people may think that it is 'all in their head' and they just need to get it together, or that they are just a 'bad person'.

Researchers have found that mindfulness has a number of effects on the brain. When we focus our attention on anything, this tends to reduce the amount of thinking going on. Then the mind and the body calm a little and we get the opportunity to begin to see our patterns of thinking and feeling. After a little practice we begin to be able to uncouple our thinking from feeding back onto the way we feel. This happens as we get into the habit of paying more attention to what's going on for us in the present moment. We begin to feel things more. We're more aware of what's actually going on for us. We're better able to take a step back from situations rather than get carried away by our habits of thought. This help us to be less reactive and take things more lightly. We're able to let go of unhelpful thinking and behavior and follow a more useful course of action.

Read more non-fiction books.Expand your horizons and knowledge by learning about new things. What are you interested in? Traveling? Gardening? Computers? Childcare? Take the time to curl up with a good book (or Kindle reader) learn, explore and grow mentally, too.Read books about positive mindsets, too. Browse the Self-Improvement section of Bookstores.Sit down with a pen and paper and think of all the good things that have happened to you in your life. Write them down. Create your list of things to be thankful for. Remember those times when you were happy and cheerful. Consider how you can make those things happen more often in your life.

It often may happen that you get worried out of minor issues arising in your daily life.On the other hand, do you get frustrated when things go haphazard? Do you think that you are not happy as much as others are? Do you get angry at the slightest mistake? If these entire attitudes have covered your life, then learn some positive thinking strategies to make life easier and happier.Only an optimistic person can lead a happy and peaceful life.Now you may ask what exactly the meaning of positive thinking is and how important it is. The answer to this is positive thinking is a process of thinking everything in life or surroundings from a positive or brighter side even if it reflects a negative tone.

The outlook and approach towards a task should be from a positive point. The thought in your head must enlighten the positive aspects instead of the negative, discouraging thoughts. Once you change your attitude from a pessimist to an optimist, you will find feel all the good vibes.All good things will surround you and give you more energy to move forward in times of depression.Nevertheless, how do you suddenly change from being a pessimist to an optimist? Well, it is not a matter of sudden change or changing your thinking process within a day. It all depends on time, your practice and willingness. You have to learn to identify your inner voice. This is the first step to make the changes.Some people perform an act suddenly without thinking for a second time. They do not think what they really want to do or not. Therefore, first you have to learn to identify your inner voice.After that, always speak in a positive manner. For instance, if you are asking yourself a question, then instead of asking,"Am I not capable of doing this work?" ask, "Am I capable of doing this work?" It reflects a positive attitude. You can find several such examples in your daily life if you put a little attention to what you do.



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