Do you actively take care of your brain? If not, why not? Did you know that how you feel is the work of your brain - and thus it is within your control? In fact, every thing that goes on in you - your thoughts, your action and your feelings are all in your control.
If you know how your brain works, and if you know how to tame it instead of letting it tame you, you can change your life. For example, there are people who seems to have everything yet is clinically depressed - just look at the cases if drug abuse famous "celebrities" engage in. While others who seems to have every reason to be depressed yet are the happiest persons on earth.
What is the difference between these people? Is it wealth? Meaningful relationships? Beauty? It's the way they control their brain! In this article, I'll introduce you to some methods you can utilize NOW to improve your brain functions - and thus improve your quality of your life. Let's get started. First, let me briefly explain how your brain works.
Did you know that your brain is made of billions of brain cells? These brain cells are called neurons. These neurons are what's responsible for any action you take and any thought you have. If you want to move your hand, for example, the neurons responsible will fire signals to the appropriate areas of your body.
Thousands of neurons fire just to move your hand. To make the process more effective (use less energy to do the same task), these neurons that fire together, wire together by creating synapses between them. The more you fire those neurons together, the stronger the synapses become - so that the next time one of the neurons fire, the others will also follow suit.
Thus when a baby learn to walk, he/she wobbles -- the neurons responsible for walking has not created the necessary synapses. As adults, walking is an unconscious effort. You do not need to think about moving your right leg forward, while at the same swing your left hand backward and so on and so forth (Our walking function is so complex no other animal brain is capable of controlling such a function). This is because the synapses involved in walking has wired together and made the process effortless and automatic.
What has this got to do with you? Well, you maybe unknowingly creating undesirable synapses. For example, if you're watching TV on a frequent basis, soon a neural network will form between excitement and fast moving pictures - making reality comparatively uninteresting.
What's worse is that when you go through an experience (practical instead of theoretical), neurotransmitters are released with the formation of every synapse. These neurotransmitters immediately strengthen those synapses, making it difficult for you to forget about it (this is true for most cases of a memorable scene in a TV program). Think about your first kiss, the day your get married, the day your parents bought you that house... or any other memorable events in your life.
Yet few of us frequently and actively recall these joyous times. We do, however, frequently recall events that are less than desirable.
Because neurons for remembering an experience is always connected to neurons responsible for emotions, by recalling undesirable events, you're putting yourself through the negative emotions attached. To make things worse, recalling an event strengthens the synapses involved in the memory - making it easier for you to recall it.
Thus a habit is formed. Most people constantly sabotage their well-being by conjuring past images and living through them over and over again.
We can see, now that you know how a habit is formed, just how "asleep" we have been in our life. Here, think about your morning routine. Each and every morning, you probably do the same tasks, in the order for the same amount of time.
It's a habit you've unknowingly formed. Your morning routine is not necessarily harmful, but are you taking the same approach to life in general? Are you living passively, instead of actively? Are there any "addictions" that you can get rid of -- perhaps watching TV at a certain time, gossiping and even the cups of coffee you "must" have during breaks?
Most people live in this sort of reactive mode and letting the environment determine how they should feel. That is the limbic system talking -- the part of your brain responsible for emotions.
By living in reactive mode, the synapses in your frontal lobe, where your consciousness resides, is thus weak because it's rarely fired, resulting is some of the most common age-related diseases such as the inability to learn.
By making use of our frontal lobe, we can break these patterns and create new ones. One way to do that is to constantly expose yourself to novel experiences. When you're going through a novel experience, you have no choice but to use your frontal lobe -- thus preventing or potentially reversing a host of age-related cognitive decline.
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