The Brain - Your Personal Supercomputer
Have you ever stopped to wonder why some people always seem to make a success of everything they do, while others, even those more qualified, get stuck in mediocrity?
It's all in the mind!
Our brains are the most powerful supercomputers we will ever get to use. We all own the hardware, but most of us fail to equip it with the right software to enable it to use even a fraction of its power.
Many people are aware of the presence of the left and right parts of our brains, and that one is usually dominant over the other. Generally, naturally right handed people are left brained and vice versa. But what does that actually mean?
At school, we are programmed toward left brained thinking as it is the side that deals with language, rational thought, reasoning etc. Even our memories are stored here. The right brain is our creative centre and it is responsible for our creative throughts and imagination. It is also where we visualise.
It is generally accepted that visualisation works, and helps us to realise our future outcomes and improve confidence. But why?
The left and right parts of our brain cannot tell the difference between real and imagined experiences. Therefore, in theory, if you can imagine that you are for example a pop star, that would become programmed into your brain, which sees it as a reality. However, if that were true on its own, we would all have everything that we wanted.
So why is it, that simple visualisation doesn't always hardcode itself into the brain immediately?
From the age of around 7 years old, our brain develops connections in its central core. This is the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and is a major component of the brain.
One of its most important features is to act as a filter of the mind. The human mind can actively process and concentrate on around 5-9 simultaneous pieces of information before it becomes overloaded and confused. After that it has to either delete, process or file the information for later as appropriate. Only information that is actually needed in the mind gets through.
Think about it for a moment. Have you ever lived near a busy road or motorway (or maybe a railway, factory or airport)? When you first moved there, you would have been aware of the traffic noise in the background. But over time, your RAS would have filtered it out, and you became unaware of the noise. Maybe it's not until you are sitting outside late one evening, once all the normal daytime background noise has disappeared, that you become aware of the noise of this distant traffic once again. Your RAS has been doing its job and filtered out the noise until this time, when there is much less to filter.
Your RAS receives information constantly, and therefore it follows that all negative influences also come through here to be processed, filed or deleted. If the RAS goes on to process and accept the negative influences, then we store them directly to memory. If you RAS is working to use reason and filter information before it is stored, then it follows that in order to ENSURE that we blueprint positive programs, we have to deactivate the RAS. Once the RAS is deactivated, the brain will no longer know whether the ideas flowing through are true or not, but our supercomputer will act as if they are true.
How do we go about deactivating the RAS? Relaxation is the key. When the mind is totally relaxed it is not trying to process any information and can become open to suggestion. There is no reasoning or resistance to ideas to get in the way.
Our minds are most relaxed in the morning and evening. However, in the evening your energy is low and you run the risk of becoming so relaxed that you fall asleep. Your energy needs to be high, so mornings are a great time to talk to your brain, and has the added advantage of setting you up to have a great day.
Self hypnosis and meditation are fantastic ways to relax the mind, and there are many courses or books that can help you perfect these. When you have relaxed your mind, you can begin to program your software, whether it is through positive affirmation, or visualisations of your future. You mind will be receptive and success will begin to follow.
How to Beat the Monday Blues
Many of us don't like Mondays. The weekend is over, and it's back to work or school for another week.
Scientists in Cardiff calculated that Monday 24th Jan 2007 would be the most depressing day of the year. They backed it up with a scientific formula, which basically states that it is a combination of lack of motivation, lack of money (after Christmas and the January sales), dark and cold mornings, and the fact that all of the well intentioned New Years resolutions have failed (unless you read and followed my previous article).
In reality though, how you feel on a Monday morning is all a state of mind.
You can wake up and feel miserable, which is likely to set the mood for the day, or you can decide to wake up happy.
I have a few tips below to help you beat the Monday blues, I'm sure that you'll find a few that work well for you.
Prepare for Monday on Sunday - Get yourself ready the night before. Decide what it is you want to wear, have your lunch prepared and ready in the fridge, pack your bag or briefcase & make sure your car is full of fuel. Finally get plenty of sleep on Sunday night. All of these things will help to make Monday morning go smoothly and stress free.
Look your best - When you know you look good on the outside, you'll feel great on the inside.
Get up, open the window and take a deep breath of fresh air - It not only feels great, it starts to get you energised.
Exercise - Try to get some exercise. If you can, ditch the car or bus, and walk or cycle instead. As well as missing the stressful traffice queues, you will activate those 'happy hormones' and feel great by the time you get to work.
Make Mondays a day to 'do lunch' - Make a lunchtime date with your partner, friends or colleagues. It will give you something to look forward to, and if done regularly, makes Monday a fun day.
Plan the rest of your week - If you do social/fun things during the week, remind yourself on what they are and write them down in your weekly plan. Then you can see all those other things that you have to look forward to as well, and the week will simply whizz by. Before you know it, it will be the weekend again.
Play music - Nothing lightens your mood like hearing your favourite music. make it upbeat and cheerful, play it nice and loud in your car, singing along if you like. Go on, you know you want to....no one is listening!
I will do better….
As the New Year begins, I start wondering what resolutions I can make which will make my life better for the coming year and start the annual reinvention of myself into a better, more thoughtful, healthier person.
All the usual pledges come to mind - lose weight, work harder, find a good man, take more exercise & eat a healthier diet. All starts well, but a month later, I've maybe lost 2 lbs in weight, but £50 in cash on account of the membership for the gym that I've visited regularly for one whole week.
So why is it so hard to keep those well intentioned plans we make at New Year?
Despite the initial enthusiasm, we find 101 excuses why we will not be able to achieve our pledges. Rather than finding the 101 ways of making them work – excuses are so much easier than answers.
In order to make changes to our lives we must be prepared and committed to doing things differently. After all, if we continue to live our lives in the same way, then the outcomes will always be the same.
So this year I have decided to really do things differently and make sure that I keep my promises to myself. My process will be as follows...
Write down my pledges
Give myself timescales by when I expect to achieve them
Decide how I am going to achieve them, including a lot of detail here, and leaving space to note what actions I take as I go along
By writing them all down, together with a process of how I am going to achieve them, I am making a commitment to myself, and enhancing the belief that I will succeed.
So this year think carefully about the pledges you make. Take time to work out how you can make them work, and maybe this time you really can make a positive change to your life.
