How Active Is Your Brain?

Brain activities are critical to your mental health and your overall well-being. Your brain is one of the most important of your body organs because it controls and directs your thinking, which results in your life choices and decisions, leading to your actions and reactions in your life experiences. Your brain is the source of your thoughts, the materials with which you weave the fabric of your life and being. The importance of the brain is never an overstatement.

The brain is just like the rest of your body: it requires both tender love and care in the form of rest and activities to keep it in optimum functioning. You need to exercise your body to avoid muscle atrophy. while you also need to give it sufficient rest to recover and rejuvenate. Likewise, your brain needs activities, as well as a meaningful break, to hence its mental power.

What are brain activities?

Brain activities are metal processes that activate the brain cells in terms of association, cognition, connection, communication, and interpretation. It is a myth that mental functions decline with age. The decline is probably due to disuse and inactivity of the brain. Mental functions can improve at any age with practice.

How active is your brain?

It is not difficult to not think. In fact, thinking is difficult, and that is why, according to Albert Einstein, so few people do it. Your mind can be filled with rambling and compulsive thoughts, such as what you are going to do tomorrow, what dress to wear, what to eat for dinner, what TV program to watch, but your mind is not engaged in activities that really benefit your brain, because your mind is not "thinking.".

In this day and age it is easy to acquire mental disuse, which is inadequate use of the brain. If you spend much of your time before the TV screen, you are not keeping your brain active. As a matter of fact, an average American spends more than 4 hours watching TV, which is the main source of mental disuse.

Keep your brain busy by engaging in activities, such as learning (a skill, a language, a musical instrument), writing (a letter, a journal or a blog), reading (a non-fiction book); doing things that are out of your daily routine. The busier you are in mental activities. the larger your brain cells (neurons) become, making some of your DNA repair more efficient. Mental activities increase your neurotransmitters responsible for communication between your brain cells, leading to better mental processing by your brain. If your brain is active, you have better memory and overall more efficient mental functioning. Your brain cells are just like your body muscles: use them or lose them.

Like your body requiring rest and sleep, your brain needs mental relaxation too in order to maximize its mental functioning. Relax your brain by quieting the mind with daily meditation, which slows down the brain activities. The difference between watching TV and meditation is that the latter puts your brain in different brain-wave patterns that lead to total relaxation, whereas in the former brain is inactive but still working.

The bottom line: keep your brain active to keep your mind and body healthy. Science has attested to the body-mind connection. If your mind is healthy, your body will naturally become healthy too; after all, the mind controls the body.

Mind Secrets Exposed: Learn the art of getting what you want out of life by keeping your mind active. Use state-of-the-art subliminal messages to transform your subconscious mind in order to change your conscious mind to do what needs to be done to keep your mind healthy and functional.

Go to my bi-monthly newsletter Wellness Wisdom Newsletter to get more information on how to use your mind to your advantage.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How the Mind Can Help Healing the Body

The mind can help healing the body in many ways.

The body and the mind are interconnected. The body has its innate mechanisms responsible for self-healing, such as the immune system, the liver, the kidneys, and the skin, among others. Unfortunately, a toxic body can compromise the functioning of these systems and organs to bring about natural self-healing.

How can the mind help healing the body?

First of all, the mind can do disservice to the body by thinking toxic or negative thoughts that create toxins in the physical body in the form of choices and decisions of actions, and reactions; for example, choosing junk food, and reacting in anger. Thinking positive thoughts can eliminate body toxins.

If the body is in disharmony and a disease is imminent, it will send out messages to the mind in the form of signs and symptoms. Again, the mind may play a pivotal role in perceiving and deciphering those messages, and taking appropriate actions to stop the onset of the disease. To do this, mindfulness is required, which is essentially the awareness of the mind.  

Your mind ages as much as and as fast as your body does. The good news is that you can use your mind to stop the aging of both your mind and body: just put your mind where your body is! Healing begins when you put the mind where the body is.

Your body is now  right here. But your mind may be elsewhere: your mind may be preoccupied with thoughts of the past in the form of memories, or of the future in the form of desires and expectations. In other words, your mind is rambling and disconnected, although you may be unaware of it. A chaotic mind produces adverse and detrimental biological and chemical changes, such as the production of stress hormones, and the reduction of human growth hormone (HGH), among others, that not only bring about the aging process in both the body and mind, but also make the body vulnerable to disease..

To remedy the situation, put your mind where your body is.

(1) Sit comfortably. Place the back of one hand in the palm of the other, allowing your thumb tips to touch lightly. Rest your hands on your body in line with your lower abdomen.

(2) Breathe mindfully for a minute or two; that is, be aware of your breaths, noticing how you inhale and exhale..

(3) Gently close your eyes. Focus your attention on the flow of your bodily sensations within your awareness, such as the beating of your heart, the tingling and twitching of your muscles, as well as your sense experiences, such as the sounds, smells, and tastes surrounding you.

(4) Meanwhile, thoughts may arise. Release them without any effort or struggle: just let them drift away. If needs be, direct your attention back to your breathing, and again notice your awareness of your physical sensations and experiences.

(5) Continue this process for as long as you like. You will feel the interconnection between your body and mind; it is your conscious awareness of your body that connects your body and mind in a unique way. Essentially, you are putting your mind where your body is in the present moment.

Becoming mindful of your body in the present moment is putting your mind where your body is. This is deep relaxation for both body and mind—the best way to sharpen your mind to help healing of the body and mind.

For more information, visit my web page: How To Meditate.

Mindfulness helps your mind stay in the present moment; this reinforces your awareness of your body, thereby instrumental in helping its healing. You will become more alert to the signs and symptoms of any disease and disorder.  In addition, you will become more aware of your posture, such as maintaining a straight spine, which is the river of life. A straight spine optimizes breathing. Yoga, for example, is an exercise that heightens awareness of the spine in all yogi poses to attain a more centered consciousness. Centeredness in the spine is also instrumental in enhancing spiritual awakening.

101 Yoga Poses: Learn yoga in the comfort of your home with 500+ step-by-step color photos. Use yoga for body awareness, optimal breathing, and good posture.

Mind Secrets Exposed: Learn the art of getting what you want out of life. If you find yourself facing constant frustration from never-ending problems in life, or you feel as though your life is a proverbial treadmill, not going anywhere. Now is the time to take charge of your life. It is all in your subconscious mind that is the real power center of your being and the "headquarters" of your body. Use state-of-the-art subliminal messages to transform your subconscious mind in order to change your conscious mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau