Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Our Brain's Function In Relation To Happiness

Hello folks!
Happiness in the net
The other day I surfed the net about happiness, checking if my blog would come out from the search; I tried google and yahoo. To my dismay, it did not. Lots and lots of blogs and websites about happiness were already there. Sure, I was disappointed. For this means to me, my chances of being read by any possible searcher was zero if not a negative one. Thanks to my Lord for my guardian angel who tapped my shoulder and said, "Come on lady, why cast down your soul? You already know what it means." Right then an idea sprung up. It only means more people want to heal this illing world. Those people were there, offering what they could, sharing happiness according to how they were blessed with it. This is not a bad world after all. Our world has a big chance of healing. Most importantly, there is still a large part of humanity who were not all that "bad."
The call
If my calling is in sharing happiness, then surely, God will find a way on how would I fulfill it. So, why worry? I just need to close my eyes, take a deep breath and allow the urgings of the Spirit to guide me. I will go my merry way then.
Our brain's chemistry
With the previous blog I share about the power of our brain or our personal computer that varies according to its chemistry. Again, I acknowledge Michael Anthony who is the original author of it. In continuation, we can increase our natural abilities and happiness by consciously adjusting the chemistry of our brain's cranial fluid. This fluid is affected by our thoughts, diet/nutrition, exercise, rest, environment and physiology.
Thoughts
As previously discussed our thoughts, positive and negative cause our brain to secrete chemicals, which in turn, affect all our abilities and functions. Our thoughts have two components: facts and emotions. A fact is the stimulus that we receive through our nervous system. However, we attach emotions to this fact. As negative emotions cause adverse chemical secretions, therefore hindering our natural abilities and happiness, we should be more objective and must restructure any negative emotional attachment we have to certain facts. Facts are merely facts. The good thing is, we can choose any emotional response to them. Remember, we are what we think.
Diet/Nutrition
As is the case, everything we eat and drink is chemical and affects our performance and feelings. This is true with people who drink alcohol, their attitude change as they increase their intake. Likewise, people whose diet consist mostly of vegetables and fruits tend to be healthier physically and mentally.
Exercise
Our body is designed to function properly with physical exertion so it can remove toxins and secrete beneficial chemicals. A depressive person feels better after exercising.
Rest
Sufficient rest is necessary for the body to eliminate toxins and rejuvenate itself. While we sleep, our brain is busy processing all the information it received during the day so that it can make spontaneous decisions when we are awake.
Environment
Environment in relation to happiness does not only limit to our physical surroundings but also to the people around us as well. If we are to be happy, it helps more when we are surrounded by positive people. There is what they call mood "infection". We would not be infected with negative mood if our electromagnetic field and positive thoughts are very strong; rather it works the other way round.
Physiology
How we carry our body reflects our emotional state whether we are positive and confident or negative and depressed. To improve our chemistry we must change our physiology. One step is to take slow, deep breaths, stand tall and stick the chest out. Another, is to raise the eyes to the sky and smile. We will then feel alert and energized. If we always carry ourselves like a winner, we will feel like a winner.
There, I have my share of happiness tips. I share this not because I already live this way; but I share this to ensure that I will live this way and walk my talk.
Get Happy!:)

Monday, May 11, 2009

Improve Your Brain's Chemistry

Growth is a daily effort. There are days when I grow; days when I just stay afloat not knowing what to do; days that I just shrink back. But the good thing is, knowing that I hold the key to my growth.

At the previous blog I talked about the Owner's Manual for Human Beings. Well, no one is born having one. I'm just glad I have a mentor like Michael Anthony who had gone ahead of me at the path I long to trod. From experience, he is wiser enough to teach me how to trod such a path easier. Of course, I know I learn hard when I bump into reality the hardest. Yet, it makes the journey much lighter when I know not only the problems but also the cause of the problems.

My objective is getting happy. Good enough, MC points to me that happiness is not only a state of the spirit or soul but also a state of the brain. I will borrow the words from his book "How To Be Happy And Have Fun Changing The World" because he is able to explain this in details much better than I do.

"Human beings were designed by the Creator to all function the same way. A good analogy is the hardware of a computer. We are all hard-wired the same. What makes us behave differently from each other is the way we think, feel and act, which is our software.
"What most individuals don't realize is that the power of your brain or computer's hardware varies according to the chemistry of your brain. You can dramatically increase the power and efficiency of your brain or personal computer by optimizing the chemistry of its cranial fluid.
"It is critical to conceptually understand that your brain actually secretes chemicals corresponding to your positive and negative thoughts. The resulting chemistry of your brain's cranial fluid influences all of your natural abilities and functions. This, in turn, determines how well you perform in everything you do because your brain is like a powerful computer. This fact is very easy to demonstrate in the world of sports with athletic performance because of the mind/body connection....
"Your mind and body function together. Athletes live and die by the performance of their bodies. From their own personal experiences, they easily relate to the concept that their negative thoughts cause their brain to secrete chemicals that immediately impair their performance. This awareness helps them to be more objective and positive when dealing with challenges. It helps them to control their emotions and increase their performance.
"A good metaphor to help you understand the influence of your brain's chemistry on your performance is a fine-tuned racing engine. Those engines, designed to run on super high-octane gasoline, sputter when using regular gasoline.
"This is similar to what happens when you are negative. You put low octane chemicals in your brain, causing your performance to suffer. When you are positive and operating on instinct, your brain, metaphorically, secretes super high-octane chemicals and your ability to perform excels as you enter the "zone."
"Your brain receives input through your five senses.Whenever you 'see', 'hear', 'feel', 'taste', and 'smell' something (stimuli), it enters your nervous system as an electrical impulse through a neuron (nerve cell). Once the electrical message reaches the end of the neuron (called a synapse) the electrical impulse/message converts into a biochemical (called a neurotransmitter). Then, this chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse/message when it reaches the next neuron. This process repeats itself over and over until the message reaches the brain and is acted upon.
"In reality you have an electrochemical nervous system. As the chemicals change, the message change and your brain's performance varies accordingly. When you are positive and operating on instinct, your brain, metaphorically, runs on super high-octane chemicals. Your performance excels and you feel at your best.
"It is important to realize that your electrochemical nervous system is an alternating electric current that generates an electromagnetic field, which is infinite in nature. The strength and quality of your electrmagnetic field is felt by those around you. As your awareness increases you will realize that you can't hide your feelings from those you interact with and they can't hide theirs from you. That's why you have good chemistry with people you enjoy being with and bad chemistry with those that you don't.
"What is even more important to realize is that the electromagnetic field that your thoughts create cause attractor fields which affect your life and happiness."

Amazing words! This explanation is not new to me since I studied this in college as part of the curriculum. Only that the study focused only on the body and not so much on the person. What makes this amazing to me is the way I acted on it - the reality of it.

Everything is relative to each other. One wise man says it all depends on what we plant in the garden of our brain. For the brain is just a system waiting for whatever is stored in there. With regards to attractor fields, New Age Enlightenment call it as aura - that energy which people felt even when you are far. I will focus more on this on my next blogs and the continuation of our brain's function in relation to happiness.

Get Happy!:)

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