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Change the way you think
Feb. 6th, 2007 09:24 amBoss Greg gave this to me a year and a half ago.
"Through meditation . . . you can set the stage for important mind- and habit-altering brain change." Herbert Benson, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, thus summarizes the results of his extensive research reported in Your Maximum Mind (New York: Random House, 1987).
"Over the years," he writes, "you develop 'circuits' and 'channels' of thought in your brain. These are physical pathways which control the way you think, the way you act, and often, the way you feel. Many times, these pathways or habits become so fixed that they turn into what I call 'wiring.' In other words, the circuits or channels become so deeply ingrained that it seems almost impossible to transform them."
There are approximately 100 billion nerve cells in the brain; and each of these communicates with the others through connections called synapses. The total number of possible connections is 25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, Dr. Benson estimates. Put another way, if you made a stack of sheets of standard typing paper, with one sheet for each neuron connection, the resulting pile of paper would be approximately 16 billion light years high--stretching beyond the limits of the known universe. And according to another renowned brain researcher, Robert Ornstein, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, the number of possible connections in the brain is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. Therefore, Dr. Benson believes, the brain's potential for forming new pathways--and thus new habits of thought and behavior--seems to be practically unlimited.
"It's largely the established circuits of the left side of our brain that are telling us, 'You can't change your way of living . . . Your bad habits are forever . . . You're just made in a certain way, and you have to live with that fact.' That simply is not true."
"Scientific research has shown that electrical activity between the left and right sides of the brain becomes coordinated during certain kinds of meditation or prayer," he explains. "Through these processes, the mind definitely becomes more capable of being altered and having its capacities maximized . . . When you are in this state of enhanced left-right hemispheric communication . . . 'plasticity of cognition' occurs, in which you actually change the way you view the world . . . If you focus or concentrate on some sort of written passage which represents the direction in which you wish your life to be heading, [this] more directed thought process will help you to rewire the circuits in your brain in more positive directions . . . When we change our patterns of thinking and acting, the brain cells begin to establish additional connections, or new 'wirings.' These new connections then communicate in fresh ways with other cells, and before long, the pathways or wirings that kept the phobia or other habit alive are replaced or altered . . . Changed actions and a changed life will follow. The implications are exciting and even staggering." (Publisher's Note)
"Through meditation . . . you can set the stage for important mind- and habit-altering brain change." Herbert Benson, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, thus summarizes the results of his extensive research reported in Your Maximum Mind (New York: Random House, 1987).
"Over the years," he writes, "you develop 'circuits' and 'channels' of thought in your brain. These are physical pathways which control the way you think, the way you act, and often, the way you feel. Many times, these pathways or habits become so fixed that they turn into what I call 'wiring.' In other words, the circuits or channels become so deeply ingrained that it seems almost impossible to transform them."
There are approximately 100 billion nerve cells in the brain; and each of these communicates with the others through connections called synapses. The total number of possible connections is 25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, Dr. Benson estimates. Put another way, if you made a stack of sheets of standard typing paper, with one sheet for each neuron connection, the resulting pile of paper would be approximately 16 billion light years high--stretching beyond the limits of the known universe. And according to another renowned brain researcher, Robert Ornstein, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, the number of possible connections in the brain is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. Therefore, Dr. Benson believes, the brain's potential for forming new pathways--and thus new habits of thought and behavior--seems to be practically unlimited.
"It's largely the established circuits of the left side of our brain that are telling us, 'You can't change your way of living . . . Your bad habits are forever . . . You're just made in a certain way, and you have to live with that fact.' That simply is not true."
"Scientific research has shown that electrical activity between the left and right sides of the brain becomes coordinated during certain kinds of meditation or prayer," he explains. "Through these processes, the mind definitely becomes more capable of being altered and having its capacities maximized . . . When you are in this state of enhanced left-right hemispheric communication . . . 'plasticity of cognition' occurs, in which you actually change the way you view the world . . . If you focus or concentrate on some sort of written passage which represents the direction in which you wish your life to be heading, [this] more directed thought process will help you to rewire the circuits in your brain in more positive directions . . . When we change our patterns of thinking and acting, the brain cells begin to establish additional connections, or new 'wirings.' These new connections then communicate in fresh ways with other cells, and before long, the pathways or wirings that kept the phobia or other habit alive are replaced or altered . . . Changed actions and a changed life will follow. The implications are exciting and even staggering." (Publisher's Note)
