Archive for the ‘The Brain’ Category

Some of the concepts presented in last week’s blog about your brain and getting in the zone will also be discussed in the upcoming training with John Overdurf.

For more information, see the announcement on the home page of my site.

John also presents critical concepts about awareness, the power of our minds, and making change in his Trance of a Lifetime Training, 2010. Be sure to spend some time on his site to learn more about his trainings and materials.

Hope to see many of you at the upcoming training!

When we talk about states of being, we mean an emotion or feeling (happiness, sadness) that is held within us biochemically, via our individual internal electrical neural networks. When we experience emotions, the longest a strong urge can coast (biochemically) within our systems is a mere 90 seconds. In order for that feeling to last longer, someone is throwing logs on the fire! (hint: YOU).

In other words, according to the quantum zeno effect, paying attention to any specific neural connection keeps the associated circuitry open, dynamic, and alive. If you’re feeling severe anger for more than 90 seconds, then it is your own mind that is causing that emotion to last longer – not the emotion itself. In order for a state to persist, it has to be re-engaged or the nervous system has to be reminded to keep firing the same circuitry over and over again. This is done through making pictures or providing self talk or external stimulations from our environment. The stronger the feeling, the greater the number of circuits simultaneously fired.

I’ve blogged about the quantum zeno effect earlier this spring (and will keep doing so as this interesting and important topic is worth repeating). Remember that rapid, frequently repeated observations stabilize a system and slow the rate of change or decay. Fewer, less frequent observations destabilize a system and increase the rate of change or decay (anti zeno effect). The more you think about something, the longer you choose to not let go of a negative emotion or thought, the more hard-wired it will be in your system. Who wants that to happen?

How does this relate to being in the zone? Well, to get to that higher state (or relaxation, primarily) you need to be aware of what your mind is really focused on. Different information hangs out at different brain wave frequencies.

Gamma (my personal favorite!) 25-70 Hz:
Gamma waves are correlated with synchrony of far-reaching neural networks which creates integrative and more highly ordered cognitive and affective functions. They are instrumental in neural synchrony of processes like attention, working, memory, learning, and conscious perception. Gamma brain waves are evident during AHA! moments which are truly therapeutic moments lasting 200-300 milliseconds but that offer enlightenment for longer periods of time.

Beta 13-24 Hz:
Beta waves are correlated with a focusing of attention and perception coupled with active expression. These waves are evident during simple problem solving, arithmetic activities, and reality testing which each require making finer distinctions and communication through language. Because attention is focused, beta waves can also be correlated with many unwanted states that can hinder performance.

Alpha 8-12 Hz:
Alpha waves are correlated with states of relaxed alertness or more common flow states.They are evident during creative activities which can involve expression or reflection. In alpha, there is a widening of perception and relaxing of boundaries which allows for greater recognition of patterns, themes, and large frames of organization which can extend beyond language.

Theta 4-z Hz:
Theta waves are correlated with deeper states of reflection, contemplation, and sleep. They are evident during mystical experiences like out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, and deeper states of mediation. There is a further increase in the widening of perception and relaxing of boundaries which allows recognition of much longer cycles and larger patterns which are usually beyond language.

Delta 1-3 Hz:
Delta waves are correlated with only sleep for most people. They are evident during stages two and four sleep (physical restoration) where there is usually no conscious activity. In cases where consciousness is active, there is a further increase of experience of wholeness and boundlessness.

Have you guessed where the brain wave activity is when you’re in the zone? Can you guess where the brain wave activity is when change is most probable, possible?

The zone is a state of focused awareness or energized focus. A person is fully immersed in a feeling of focus or a single-minded immersion in performing or learning. It’s accessed through alpha or high alpha wave states. Athletes get into an expanded alpha or focused alpha state quickly. Monks get there during meditation.

But, how do you get there?

Try this basic practice. (I have my clients do this most every time they come in for a visit.)
* Take a nice deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Make the exhale last twice as long as the inhale.
* Look straight up for a few seconds. Try to see the top of your own head.
* Return your eyes to normal (look straight ahead). Now, soften your gaze and try to access your peripheral vision.
* Soften your thoughts.
* Now, do what you have to do…You are in the zone.

You can practice this any time you can be still for a few moments – not, however, while driving, running, moving. Just sit still for a moment during your day and practice this. Then, get out there and perform optimally.

There is a terrifically simple story told by many different workshop trainers featuring the town ‘fix it’ man. You know this man – he’s the old local who was known to be able to fix anything.

His story goes like this: In the middle of winter, the boiler in the elementary school would not work. Everything possible was tried in order to fix it so the kids would be warm while in class. Finally in desperation, the ‘fix it’ man was called to come in a look at the problem. After he was told about all the efforts that were made to fix the boiler, he walked to his toolbox, took out his hammer and walked back to the boiler. Then, without any warning, he took his hammer and tapped gently on a valve. Instantly the boiler started back up again and continued to run smoothly without hesitation. The ‘fix it’ man packed up and went home.

The school received a bill a week later from the ‘fix it’ man for $1000. They were of course taken aback, and referred the matter to the superintendent, who then phoned the ‘fix it’ man and asked for an itemized statement. How could he possibly have charged $1000 when all he did was tap his hammer once on a valve? When the itemized bill arrived, it noted very clearly that he charged $1.00 for the hammer tap and $999 for knowing exactly where to tap.

This is a perfectly simple example illustrating that it’s important to know what to change, where to change, and how to change.

Many of the folks I work with have tried to create changes in their lives by changing jobs, relationships, cars, locations, style, and many more elements of our seemingly complicated lives. It is fantastic to have knowledge that you need a change, but it is completely different to have the awareness that directs exactly what or how to change. (And, remember that John Overdurf reminds us that all we are is change. We are changing all the time. Evolution is good. Then, of course, there is the fear of change. But that’s a different story.)

The best way to change your mind is by changing your negative thought patterns. We can see with scans that whatever our mind pays attention to actually creates a super highway of neurons and dendrites to support those thoughts, positive or negative. The mind doesn’t discriminate here.

Stop and assess for a minute. Are you paying attention to anxiety? Fear? Why not change your mind and add a positive force to your life?

Wouldn’t it be much better to pay attention to possibilities rather than focusing on deficits? What could be and what is rather than what is not?

Your mind uses thoughts to create the way in which you interact with reality. Your thoughts can be used to build or destroy. They are powerful.

People from all areas of life who are ready to acknowledge that life involves problems and are willing and ready to get busy to do the hard work collaborate with me to help create solutions and permanent positive change. Working together, my clients learn to recognize their thoughts or pictures they are making as a powerful force for change and how to use them to create the future they desire. The kids I work with are especially quick to get this technique and use it to their advantage.

Acknowledge the storm
Your mind can be like a wild, out of control storm. It will do what it has rehearsed or has always done which is often not what you intend. If you are spending a lot of your energy just trying to control the storm, how much does that energy really benefit you overall? How can you change the comforting pattern of doing (or thinking) the same thing over and over again? (Hint: you can’t.)

The mind—our monkey mind, as one trainer calls it—jumps all over the place. One thought leads to another and soon we’ve forgotten our original goal. The question is, how do we tame the mind? One way is to develop possibility thinking. I know, I know. Many of us have gone to every workshop or Tony Robbins training, or read every book or watched the Secret many times, and still we think we haven’t been able to control our thinking.

All the information learned from these sources is helpful, however, if you haven’t gotten your life under control or in a place that is suitable or comfortable to you, it may be that you have had a lot of negative circumstances or situations in life that haven’t been resolved. If you have taken one or two seminars or trainings in positive thinking and 30 years of anxiety or depression or trauma, what do you think is going to win? What is your brain paying attention to—the superhighway of negativity or the one-day of positive training?

In working with individuals or in teams via my workshops, I always discover that folks wouldn’t even be seeking me out if they were able to consciously change their thinking or behaviors. And also with advances in neuroscience, we know we have to change the negative superhighway that is actually now observed and recorded in the brain.

There are many factors that prevent people from achieving their full potential. Fear is the biggest deterrent I see. It comes in many shapes, forms, and sizes. Fear paralyzes and destroys. It can creep into the deepest core of human potential and freeze creativity. Then it can generalize and get rooted in and through thoughts and action.

It is my life’s purpose to help as many people as I can to embrace change. The current wisdom truly is all we are is changing. By embracing personal growth and making life a true adventure offers an awakening of your full and total potential. Getting unstuck from anything negative and moving towards and bright exciting future by shaking old beliefs loose to develop your unique self is empowering.

Ask yourself , how would your life improve if you could focus on what you want? What is your higher purpose? The only limits I see are if you are committed to staying stuck in your old thoughts and beliefs and thus patterns. There are many ways to change. You can start by realizing you are far more than you think you are and may have been led to believe.

Ready to move forward?

“Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.”
– Tori Amos, pop/rock singer

Some of us dive right into the inner work we know we can truly benefit from while others are more hesitant to dig up (and through) the past. Counseling, self help guides, even creative endeavors and exercise can assist us along our personal paths. And, this process of uncovering and healing all takes time.

Sometimes you can get stuck traveling down this path to healing, and a healthy, helpful boost is what you need. When you feel stuck, which is natural and common, your mind can be compared to a computer that uses software programs. These software programs are filled with your emotions and beliefs that combine together to make up what you think and feel. And, sometimes this software can get stuck in a loop and stop working the way we desire.

It seems that trauma and negative emotions can combine with a certain thought or feeling and create a locked neural pathway in your brain, trapping the negativity in your brain and body. This is how many define post traumatic stress, which seems daunting to deal with, but if you make time to approach your issues with the appropriate tools, you can and will heal.

Take a moment out of every day to assess where you are, where you’ve been, and where you hope to be. With an open mind and heart (and the right tools) you can make big changes that help you heal.

So, what does brain plasticity really mean? And, why is this an important, intriguing concept?

My clients ask me all the time what does plastic or plasticity mean when referring to the brain. Is my brain plastic? No. Of course not.

Plasticity or neuroplasticity is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experience. So, as we learn and acquire new knowledge and skill, there is actual change in the brain that represents the new knowledge. This ability of the brain to change with learning is what neuroplasticity refers to.

Now, embrace this fascinating concept. In the past it was believed that as we aged, our brain’s networks became fixed. In the past couple of decades, however, an enormous amount of research has revealed that the brain never stops changing or adjusting.

You might say “all we are is changing.” What a concept! – one that brings us back to how important it is to truly be aware of what you are paying attention to or focusing on as much as possible. If you are fixated on anger or fear, your brain will stay in that mode.

Neurons that fire together, wire together. Neurons that fire apart, wire apart. So if you are stuck on fearful thoughts, guess what are you actually wiring together in your brain. If you are constantly thinking fearfully, your brain will most likely be stuck in that negative space.

Now, consider this. The longest time a strong urge or emotion can coast biochemically is a mere 90 seconds. For such emotions to last longer in your brain and body, you’ve got to keep fueling that fire with constant, negative internal chatter.

Your nervous system has to be reminded to keep firing the same circuitry over and over again. In order for emotions and thoughts to persist, your system has to be re-engaged either through internal stimulation (conjuring up images and pictures in your mind, engaging in self talk) or external stimulation that serve as triggers and anchors from the environment around us (seeing a particular person or place). And, the stronger the feeling you have, the greater the number of circuits are simultaneously activated.

This can be good news to the degree that you are focused on creating good feelings with strong, positive thought patterns. So, don’t focus on the negative: when you think positively, you positively change your brain for the better.

My March 23 post introduced the quantum Zeno effect—a quantum phenomena first demonstrated by George Sudarshan at University of Texas in 1977. The study found that the longer something is observed (in this case, decaying atoms), the longer it takes to change. In 2005, Stapp and Schwartz applied the quantum Zeno effect to mental experience.

I didn’t understand the “watched pot never boils” theory until the recent studies about the brain’s neuroplasticity emerged. We can now see neurons in the brain, how they move and act, and how the brain changes and grows. It’s very exciting, to say the least.

But what does this have to do with managing stress to create a healthy, balanced life? When I work with people plagued by anxiety or depression— or any negative state of mind, for that matter—I know that these individuals have developed a super highway, if you will, of neurons that have been the focus of attention time and time again. That attention creates bigger neurons, stronger routes, and resilient links. It becomes familiar and easy to focus on.

Huh?

If you are anxious or having a panic attack, your brain creates huge “trees” of neurons that grow with the attention you give them. That is, the more you pay attention to the negative, the more negative brain cells you are growing.

When I engage in trainings and individual coaching sessions, I am always listening to what people are truly focused on in an attempt to determine where their attention is. Most of us don’t have this awareness, at least initially, so it’s important and helpful to be present and listen to what’s really going on. What we are paying attention to (and feeding) is critical. What you pay attention to gets bigger, stronger, faster in your brain.

To shift this negative balance, paying attention the the positive shouldn’t be a challenge, but for many, it is. Because those neural pathways become deep rooted in our brains, it is even more difficult to change and influence away from the pattern. Paying attention to happy or positive thoughts (something spiritual, maybe situated in nature, a past positive experience or emotion) can make significant changes for the better in your brain. Your brain grows cells in the prefrontal cortex area which can support the positive.

Try this simple exercise to reinforce the positive and change your brain. Ask yourself: What actions would I take that would cause me to be happy happy (or, motivated, cheerful, calm, grateful)?

Focusing on such positive thoughts is good brain food. What you pay attention to gets bigger and stronger. Why not make it positive rather than staying rooted in the negative? Remember that the unconscious mind loves repetition. Continually focusing on what you want out of life will help you get there, positively! Go on—change your brain.

When you find yourself feeling stressed, you can neutralize the damage by engaging in this simple exercise that begins with several deep breaths.

Sit upright in a comfortable chair with both of your feet balanced on the floor. Breathe deeply and slowly from your diaphragm (not just the top part of your lungs). Notice when you start to relax. If you want to change your physiology a bit, move around a little, wiggle your toes, take another breath. You’re settling in for even deeper relaxation! Now, try to focus your attention on your heart. Try “breathing” through your heart. (Think about this for a minute so you can get a visual that works for you.) Note the sensations your body, breath and brain experience through this sequence..

Now go ahead and think about something entirely opposite from what was the initial cause of your stress – maybe a happy moment or fun time in your life. As you fill your mind with a pleasant thought (or memory, or visual) this will actually help to change the fight or flight response in your brain and body. Fight or flight response changes the biochemical mix in your body – swapping for a pleasant thought will help alter your mind/body chemistry, too.

In this exercise, I like to think about what and who I am grateful for – people, places, things, situations that make me feel good. This not only brings a smile to my face, but helps make more positive connections in my brain that then allow me to deal with stress triggers in a healthier way.

Go ahead…try it now!

The subconscious, or, your unconscious mind, loves patterns and repetition. What’s familiar to your mind resonates instantly. When it’s a positive pattern, great! You can achieve many, many things. But, when it’s a negative pattern or thought that’s repeated over time, then you become your own worst enemy and it’s harder to meet challenges, to excel, to achieve.

Modern research has discovered that our emotional states are produced by a couple of things like how we hold our bodies (our physiology) and the mental pictures we focus on. Did you know that we have approximately 44,000 to 66,000 mental pictures or thoughts a day? That’s a lot of content to experience, process and react to.

The one primary way we can change our emotional states is to change our physiology or how we are holding our body. Exactly how we are holding our bodies can trigger every emotion that we have ever experienced—how you carry yourself throughout the day has the potential to trigger feelings like being sad, mad, happy, or confident. As soon as we train our body to be in the physiology we want, we can instantly feel the corresponding emotion!

My Mental Toughness and Success Moment CDs are each designed specifically to help you get into and stay in the physiology and emotional state you want each and every day. My CDs are designed with specific suggestions and imageries that teach you to develop a mental toughness and with repetition (or, as I like to say, repeatedness). Take control your states of mind—positively and effectively!

Is it really possible to change how we think? There are so many self-help books out there telling us we can alter our thoughts to change our brains. I have many friends and clients that buy and read every self-help book there is but they still can’t seem to change their lives. They have done everything and yet nothing seems to work to undo years of negative thought patterns.

Many of you know that I have dedicated my life to finding ways to solve the problem of anxiety and depression. In the ’60s and ‘70s there wasn’t much help for these symptoms and often doctors thought you were crazy if you exhibited symptoms of anxiety. I was personally treated terribly by friends, family, doctors, teachers and therapists who all thought they were helping. As I look back on it, my condition was not really understood, so everyone thought I was making it up. I hear it in my office today from many clients who have family and spouses that think they are making it up, that panic and anxiety are not real. But, these are real conditions with real symptoms that stop people from having full and rich lives.

So, can you change the way you think? Can you really change automatic negative thoughts?

Understanding more about your brain/body connection can be helpful. You are born with a fight or flight mechanism that allow us to protect ourselves in dangerous situations. When a person senses danger, the body prepares itself to either fight (defend itself) or flee (run away from the situation). The body’s fight or flight mechanism causes the heart rate to increase, the eyes to dilate, and the body to prepare itself for a dangerous situation. Even though these effects are intended to be a good thing, sometimes the body misunderstands a situation and believes that there is danger when in reality there is not (e.g., taking a test, giving a speech, meeting someone for the first time).

The part of the brain that triggers fight or flight is called the amygdala. The amygdala is trained to remember the thing or event that triggered the fight or flight mechanism (the test or speech). This part of your brain is keeping track of all things that might cue danger. You can see how this can cause much unnecessary anxiety. The brain has to be retrained to stop reacting in flight or flight to something that is not actually dangerous.

Part of successful retraining includes using guided imagery, hypnosis, NLP, HNRI, Brainspotting or EMDR. Finding a personal development coach that is trained in the some or all of these therapies is critical to success, too.

Change the way you think to positively affect your life!