The Brain Train Chapter Three: How the Brain Works.

Chapter Three:

How the brain works.

There are a lot of biology, neurology, psychiatry, psychology and combinations thereof books that have been written on this subject. I am summarizing in a nutshell and in plain English the key relevant outline of how our brain works.

First, the primary role of the brain? Is to make sure you survive.

How does it go about doing that? By automating as much as possible. By creating habits of behavior that you have survived.

The brain has several parts.

Very basically:

The deepest part is what is called the medulla i.e. the brain stem, otherwise known as the reptilian brain. Its concern is for survival.

 

And the outermost part is the cerebral cortex, where all of our thinking happens. 

Imagine that the amount of thinking that the cerebral cortex can manage is the size of a box, one foot by one foot.  The processing capacity of the rest of your brain would be the equivalent size to the milky way galaxy. 

To free up cerebral cortex room, your brain automates almost everything. Not only your blood circulation, breathing, digestion etc, but also many mundane things like getting dressed, brushing our teeth, taking our shower, going to work… almost none of it requires actual thinking. We create an action pattern the first time, and then the rest becomes automated.

What gets in the way of our ability to think?

Any threat. Be it a real threat to our survival (a car barreling down on us as we cross the street, or a mugger late in the evening in Central Park) or an imaginary one (our boss asking to speak with us in his or her office… that look our partner gets in his or her eyes when he or she is about to lose his or her temper…)

I first started becoming aware of the automaticity of my brain after taking a program at Landmark worldwide called the Direct Access course. It was a course offered for a limited time period to graduates of the Landmark Forum to share how the enterprise was going to be transforming the business and the programs within the business. A significant amount of that course had to do with how the brain functions and how we automate almost everything.

Noticing that, and realizing that much of what I do is purely a habit and a pattern that had formed some time ago, enabled me to stop beating myself up for doing those things and just acknowledging to myself that “Oh, that’s just another one of my brain patterns. No sweat. Let me chose to do something else here.”

However, truly confronted by the lack of actual creative, alive and present living that I was doing, I figured that while I cannot get rid of brain patterns per se, what I could do is create new one, and replace them with patterns, habits and beliefs that would serve me better. 

And THAT is how all of this started. After a few weeks of taking on creating new brain patterns ad habits, I found myself having moments of completely mind blowing wow. Moments of bliss. Moments when I became present to the perfection of life, to the beauty of life, and of everyone in it. Like being in what some people refer to as “the zone”. Or in a deep, happy, meditative oneness with the universe state of mind. But these moments would happen to me NOT when I was sitting down and meditating, but as I was walking down the street, listening to some brainwave music, and just becoming present to the absence of any problems and the presence of beauty. 

And in that state, all I wanted was to give everyone on the planet access to THAT. Access to those moments of bliss, power, freedom, joy, and profound gratitude.

Ok, so nice for YOU Carmen. So what gives the brain of those of us who have NOT spent the last ten years studying the brain, studying health, psychology, meditation and neuro-technology access to those moments of brilliance? Those moments of oneness with the universe where we are blown away by the beauty and magic of life?

In my experience, those arise in moments when your brain is in another wave state from the normal every day conscious beta state.

What are these brain waves? 

During normal daytime running around consciously hours, we are in a beta brainwave, which is between 12-25 hz frequency.

During relaxation and light meditation, our brain goes into alpha brain waves (8-12 hz)

During deep meditation and REM sleep, the brain goes into Theta (4-8 hz) and during the deepest most unconscious parts of sleep, we go into Delta brainwaves (0.5-4 hz) 

There is also a state that is attained by very highly trained Buddhist monks with years of meditation training, which is called Gamma. 

And these brain waves are the focus of this book and this technology being created here. Why? Because by giving you the ability to shift out of the beta brain wave state, where stress, upsets, anger, frustrations reside, into an alpha or theta brain state, where relaxation, creation, and peace of mind reside, we give ourselves freedom from the amygdala hijacking that happens when we feel threatened by whatever real or imaginary threat crosses our path.

What are some of the habits, patterns that your brain has created to automate parts of your life? Some examples can include:

___  How you shower

___ How you brush your teeth

___ How you brush your hair

___ In what order you put your clothes on

___ what you have for breakfast on weekdays

___ What TV shows you watch and when

___ Your morning routine as you get ready to start working or make your way to work etc

And then, I invite to you at those areas in your life where you enjoy being creative, finding new ways to do things, exploring, expanding in new directions. A few common ones include:

___ Cooking

___ painting, drawing, two dimensional visual arts

___ Sculpting, building, crafts, carpentry (three dimensional arts)

___ Dancing, singing, playing an instrument

___ Entrepreneurship, staring a business

___ Travelling

___ Studying, expanding the mind

The Brain Train Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Now it’s time to get down to business.

First things first:

1.       Why did you pick up  this book?

a.       ____________________________________________

b.      ____________________________________________

c.       ____________________________________________

2.       What is not working for you that you want to minimize or eliminate?

a.       ____________________________________________

b.      ____________________________________________

c.       ____________________________________________

3.       And what do you want to create? What really matters to you that you are taking longer to fulfill on than you would like, or struggling to accomplish, or possibly even failing to accomplish?

a.       ____________________________________________

b.      ____________________________________________

c.       ____________________________________________

The clearer we are about what we are out to accomplish, the more effective we will be in doing so.

There may be some people reading this book that are not clear about what they want, or what would make the biggest difference.

Some may have many options that are interesting, and none that are outrageously compelling. 

Some people may want revenge, or paybacks for being wronged.  If so, I request that you not use this book to accomplish that. Focusing on your need to revenge yourself for what was done to you will keep your attention firmly on the past, and will not allow relaxation, or the creation of new patterns.  If you are interested in methods to shift out of a need for revenge and into a space of creating a realm of peace, growth, accomplishment and satisfaction, please read chapter three carefully and take the actions recommended there. 

And there may be some who decided a long time ago that what they really wanted is completely unrealistic and unlikely, so set aside those dreams and choose something a lot more attainable. If you are one of those, there are a few different ways to look at it.

If your dream was to be the next Michael Jordan, and you then spent the next twenty years developing your professional life behind a desk with little or no time in the gym, then you could very well argue that the dream is ever going to happen. That would be a very reasonable point of view. Especially if you now view the thought of spending 4-10 hours a day in the gym or on a basketball court as a nightmare rather than a dream come true.  If that’s your situation, then possibly what really matters to you now is not what mattered to you when you were 16 or 20 yrs old. 

So what truly matters to you NOW?

When I first confronted this question, a good friend of mine whom I was assisting in creating her business has just told me to go find my own dream on fulfill 0n THAT. Only to me, it felt more like she was firing me.  And so I sobbed my way home, sobbed myself to sleep, and woke up the next morning with my eyes looking like lumpy grapefruits. 

Despairing, I chose to go to the gym and somehow blow some of my upset and anger out on this goofy circular circuit training system. What I actually could have used was a large punching bag, but that was not one of my options. So there I am, pushing, pulling, jogging and swinging my way through these contraptions, wondering furiously to myself what the heck I was going to do with my life!!!

And as I huffed and puffed through, I started to remember a question my friend (the one who just told me to go fulfill on my own dreams)’s husband had asked me a month or two earlier. The question he posed was: Carmen, if you did not have to worry about money, health, food, or any basic necessities, what would you choose to do? If you did not have to fix any personal problems of my own, what would I choose to spend my time doing?

As I reflected on that question, it brought tears to my eyes, and this is what I answered: If I did not need to worry about things and could do whatever I wanted, I would choose to generate joy, and enable people to generate joy for themselves. I would create a Joy Generation, and become a Joy Generator.

So as I remembered that conversation while I was circuit training in the gym, I thought to myself… “Hunh! Why not? Why not focus my attention there???” And that is what started me on the brain training path. 

If that question inspires you, how would you answer it? What would you choose to do if you did not need to worry about your own and your family’s survival?

 

Below are some categories that are important to various types of people:

•  The most basic thing that matters to most people is to survive. That is the most basic concern that your brain has.
• Food & drink, either the quantity or the quality of it.
•  Shelter. Your home, your space, your job.
•  Finding a great romantic partner or 
•  Making sure my current partner is happy, and that I am happy with that person
•  Taking care of our children, ensuring that they grow up to be happy, healthy ans successful doig whatever they choose to do
•  Enjoying the work that I do, be it taking care of the children, working for my company, or running the department or company that I am accountable for.
•  Making the kind of money that I want to make
•  Expressing myself artistically and possibly having others enjoy that art, and better yet having them pay me for it!
•  Being healthy and
• Empowering my family, loved one, children to be healthy
• To have fun to have some great R&R time
•  What to do once the kids are gone, either choosing to lie on their own, or married starting families of their own or…. Parents of both sexes are sometimes at a loss of what to focus their attention on once that main concern is no longer around. 
•  Or then, What will I do when I retire? Will I have enough money to do so, and what will give me the juice to live and remain active once I am no longer going to work, where a large portion of my life and my attention was focused for most of my adult life?

For those of my phenomenal readers who have a hard time narrowing down what matters most to you, here is a place to look: 

1.       What makes you smile and makes you happy throughout your day? Carry a little notepad or else create a notepad page on your smart phone and capture anything that makes you smile or lightens up your day.

1.       _____________________________________

2.       _____________________________________

3.       _____________________________________

2.       What drags you down or what do you tend to avoid? And what can you see there that could point you in a direction of what matters to you?

1.       _____________________________________

2.       _____________________________________

3.       _____________________________________

3.       If you were to imagine your own funeral, what would you want to be acknowledged for? What would you want people saying about the kind of difference you made on this planet, or in your community?

1.       _____________________________________

2.       _____________________________________

3.       _____________________________________

4.       What major issue do you feel is truly not working in your town, your state, your country or on this planet, that you feel something should be done about it NOW??? And that you would be willing to do something about, NOW?

1.       _____________________________________

2.       _____________________________________

3.       _____________________________________

5.       What life experiences have you had, or what activity did you engage in, that at the end of that day, as you were lying in bed getting ready to call it a night, had you go: “WOW! That was AWESOME!!!!”

1.       _____________________________________

2.       _____________________________________

3.       _____________________________________

Please make a list here of the most important things that matter the most to you in your life. Minimum one, and up to five. If you cannot limit yourself to fine, then keep going on your notebook/smartphone/ digital pad.

1.       _________________________

2.       _________________________

3.       ____________________________

4.       ____________________________

5.       ____________________________

THE BRAIN TRAIN, CHAPTER ONE

THE BRAIN TRAIN

CHAPTER 1

Welcome and Thank You

Have you ever found yourself saying things you had no intentions of saying? Doing things you swore to yourself you would never do again? Find yourself falling into the same pattern(s) over and over again? Be it at work, or with your spouse/partner, with your child(ren)…

That is what I refer to as the Brain Train. Going on the tracks that were created in your childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, and that are now the default tracks we find ourselves following unconsciously, even at times unwillingly.

What is the intention of this book? In essence, this book is designed to have you train your brain to be your partner in fulfilling on what matters to you rather than being a train that keeps going down tracks you no longer want to follow.

This book is intended to do three things, and will be written in two parts. The first intention is to give you access to relaxation under stressful environments. To give you access to states of mind that will give you surcease when you need it, and access to your own creativity and ability to build, have fun and swing out in life with full abandon when you are feeling irritated, frustrated and thwarted in fulfilling on your own intentions.  

The second intention is to give you a methodology to create new brain patterns and thought patterns that will lead you to take new actions and produce whole new sets of results in your life.

The third intention is to give you steps to take and action plan for freeing yourself up from what stops you and creating what you want for yourself.

This book has two parts. The first part will deal briefly with how the brain works, how it creates your identity and your habits, and the different states and brainwaves that it goes into at different times and under different situations. Also to be discussed in the first half will be how to shift your brainwaves into a different level, to give you access to relaxation when you are stressed, or to give you access to your creative, expansive self when you feel stuck or thwarted. The first part takes little time and minimal energy, and very little money to accomplish.

In the second part, we will discuss how to create new thought patterns that will shift your way of thinking as well as the actions you take, and will thus have your life take a whole new course in a direction you have been intending for it to go for some time. This section, if you choose to take it on, will require time (10-120 minutes per day for a minimum of three weeks, up to indefinitely depending on the extent to which you wish to create new patterns and manifest new results in your life) intentionality and effort. It is not something that will happen of its own accord. It will be some of the most delightful wonder filling time you have ever experienced, if you are willing to have it be so. 

Who am I and what makes me an authority on any of this? I am a consummate professional with a background in social work, careers advising as well as being extensively trained in leadership development through Landmark Worldwide. I was raised in a household mothered by a Jungian Psychoanalyst, and I speak from personal experience, as ten years ago I was on a lot of antidepressants and had been battling depression through psychiatric as well as psychological assistance for seven years. And by choosing to shift my focus,  by training my brain to focus on what makes me happy instead of the sources of my misery, and as a result of the programs that I took at Landmark and the studies I did independently, cured myself of depression and have had a fulfilling and bliss filled life since then. My commitment is to give all people access to joy, power and love. 

I am someone who has had a variety of experiences that have given me a set of challenges that are probably similar to some of the experiences you have had in your life. I have overcome these challenges and have plugged myself into one of the most creative and transformative states I have ever been in, with moments of sheer ecstasy, present to the beauty and magic of life, and I want everybody to have access to that kind of magic, whether you are a mother with a screaming child on your hands, a manager dealing with a high volume of demands, an executive making decisions that will affect tens, hundreds, thousands, millions or billions of lives… or whether you are in the military service dealing with a need to shift your context so that you can function sanely in an insane environment, or possibly none of these things. You could be a human being doing your daily routine, and out to create a shift and putting some jazz or pizazz in the hum drum of everyday life. 

In the end, it is up to us, each one of us. Each one of us is a unique human being, with our own set of experiences, our own set of friends, colleagues, family members or possibly a lack of friends, colleagues and family members. There is only one you on the planet. No one knows what we go through on a daily basis to accomplish what we do, and to make the difference that we make. Nobody has any idea what it takes to manage what we manage, and do it with whatever level of grace and ease we can muster.  We may feel like our life has a lot of significance and importance, or maybe we have places where we feel like we don’t matter the way we want to. I have written this book as a set of tools for each one of us to use to give us access to what we need when we need it.

We, the beings residing in our skin, are an amazing, creating and wonderful human being. The impact we have on this planet is huge, whether we know it or not. I wrote this book to give us access to fulfilling on our dreams. I am writing this book to enable us to make the difference we want to make, be it through our work, our family, our spirituality and/or our passion. This book is dedicated to the unleashing of our greatness, of our power to create our life going how we say it is going to go. May it provide you with whatever would best serve you in doing so. Thank you for choosing to read this.

How does one plug into ecstasy?

One way that has worked for me is giving everything I have to what I am doing.

To hold nothing back.

To go beyond what I think I can and go beyond what I know myself to be capable of.

When I choose to love the person who is calling me names. When I understand what is causing their upset, and love them no matter what.

When I so get another person's world that we are both moved to tears by the experience.

When I am fully here, right now.

When I smell the scents of Manhattan and can celebrate it.

When I catch the eye of a street person, and give him or her a visual hug by smiling at them. And a dollar or five if I have it.

When I snap into my committment to leaving those around me empowered, enabled and present to their own greatness.

When I give up all of my concerns for my survival and go do what scares the living daylights out of me.

When I believe and know that I can and will do whatever it is I am out to do, because I say so, and this shall be. This shall be NOW!!!

When I choose to stand in that I am the sole author of my life and my experience.

What gives YOU access to ecstasy and bliss, other than illegal mind altering substances?

What if love actually is the answer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOqD7R4XaM

Train Your Brain #1

For those of us interested in being happy and effective in life, here is the first of a series of practices you can adopt that over time is highly likely to have you at peace, lit up, and playing full out in life.

Habit #1:

Every night just before you go to sleep, and after turning off TVs, computers, cell phones, start a hand written journal, making a list of
1. Five things that made you smile today, or five things that you are grateful for, followed by
2. Five things for which you acknowledge YOURSELF. Especially if you are a self critical person.

Why handwritten? Because your brain learns deeper and better through handwriting than through typing. (email me for links to relevant research if you want it)

Why do it just before falling asleep? Because your brain reviews the last 30 mns of your awake time 4x more often than the rest of your day. So whatever mind frame you are in just before sleep is what your brain will be in most of the night. Finishing your day on a positive note will enable you to sleep better, and wake up in a more positive frame of mind.