Patt Lind-Kyle's Blog, page 6
February 17, 2016
Video: “You are not separate”
Patt Lind-Kyle describes her experience of the Theta brainwave state during Segment 7 of her interview with Emmett Miller, MD on Healing Times Radio. In this video, Patt describes the experience of oneness and a knowing that we are not separate from each other while experiencing the Theta brainwave state.
Video: The Enneagram – Discovering what you are NOT
In this final segment of Patt Lind Kyle’s interview with Dr. Emmett Miller of Healing Times Radio, Patt talks about The Enneagram as a tool to discover what you are not.
February 16, 2016
Patt Lind-Kyle on Conversations
Patt Lind-Kyle on KVMR Radio Conversations with Elisa Parker spoke about her soon to be released “How to Prepare to Die; an Awakening Process“. Patt shared perspectives on the fear and denial our culture holds around death.
She points that there was a time in recent history when people were born, lived and died on their own property. As people moved off the land and humans turned to mortuaries for burials, we lost our day to day familiarity with death. As we push death away, death became a painful experience. From Patt’s research and meditation, she has discovered the concept of the constricted-self which is a state we have come to life in but not the state we move into at death. Death is a mental, spiritual and physical experience. Through exercise, visualizations and meditations, Patt guides us to transform our relationship with death. Once we relearn to accept death we let go of our constricted-self.
October 29, 2015
Yes you CAN teach your brain new tricks!
Retraining Your Inner “Old Dog”: Yes, You Can Change Your Life…But First You Must-Literally-Change Your Mind.
Most of us believe that there are aspects of ourselves and the way we fit into the world that can’t be changed, whether we like it or not. But what if that’s not the case after all? Author Patt Lind-Kyle promises that you can change your life (and literally rewire your brain!) through a method that has been around for millennia: meditation.
If you’re like most people, you’re dissatisfied with some area of your life. Perhaps you’re stuck in a dead-end job or an unfulfilling relationship. Maybe you’re deep in debt from compulsive spending, or you abuse substances, or you habitually overeat. Or it could be that you just feel unhappy in general: anxious, stressed, depressed, or chronically angry. But no matter how fervently you vow to stop your unhealthy behaviors or change your attitude, you find yourself backsliding-eating another doughnut, sneaking another cigarette, or dwelling on the painful memories that make you miserable.
Maybe life has to be this way, you find yourself thinking. Maybe unhappiness is just a big part of the human condition. Maybe the best we can hope for is to distract ourselves from time to time and just try to endure. Sure it’s a bleak outlook, but isn’t it also a realistic one?
“Absolutely not,” asserts Patt Lind-Kyle, author of Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain: Applying the Exciting New Science of Brain Synchrony for Creativity, Peace and Presence (Energy Psychology Press, 2009, ISBN: 1604150564) and mind training guide whose voice appears on the book’s companion CDs. “It is possible to change your life in any way you want to change it. But first you have to understand what’s at the root of your problems: your mind and the way it directs your brain to function-basically, where you place your attention.”
Breakthroughs in scientific understanding have shown us that the brain is constantly rewiring itself in response to events in our lives. In fact, the human brain exhibits a high degree of adaptability, and can actually change the size and function of its structures by strengthening the neuronal connections between different areas of the brain-a quality known as neuroplasticity. Lind-Kyle’s book and companion CDs apply this new science in practical ways, giving us a training program that will literally rewire our brains and repattern our behaviors, enabling us to consciously change mental frequencies.
Once we become aware of the habitual and automatic attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors that are determining our life conditions-dependency on an emotionally abusive partner, say, or a compulsion to devour a box of doughnuts a day-we can make the decision to change them. From there, we simply need to learn how to effect this transformation. Our previous failed attempts to change our lives show that it’s not simply a matter of willpower.
According to Lind-Kyle, we must literally reprogram the neural networks through which information and energy flows. The key? Mind training.
“Over the years I have come to realize how immensely powerful mind training really is,” she says. “Our minds can essentially be trapped by the ways in which they function, which can put us into frantic and depressed conditions. Mind training helps us focus our attention, quiets a scattered mind, and brings flexibility and clarity that enable us to see other options.”
Each structure of the brain is characterized by a specific brainwave, Lind-Kyle explains in her book. For many people, one wave dominates the others, which leads to dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors. However, focusing on each brainwave separately through mind training eventually enables all four brainwaves to work in harmony with one another. Neuronal circuits fire in tandem, resulting in a state of whole brain-mind integration. This is called synchrony, which balances brain disharmony and produces a heightened sense of peace and awareness. When you achieve brain synchrony, you will consciously begin to change the way you do things.
In addition to the easy-to-follow mind training instructions in her book, Lind-Kyle’s companion CDs guide listeners through the mind training exercises for each of the four brain frequencies. When the book and the CDs are used together, Lind-Kyle insists, readers tend to have significantly more success in their mind training efforts. A free mp3 of one exercise can be downloaded at http://www.pattlindkyle.com/cds.
Many people might initially and unfairly associate mind training (which involves meditation) with flaky, touchy-feely, New-Agey segments of society. A quick flip-through of Lind-Kyle’s book will dispel that notion. It’s a richly detailed, highly readable science lesson, delving into the evolution of the brain and the electrochemical reactions that give rise to the mind-and explaining precisely how meditative exercises change neurological structures and functions.
Read on for a taste of what you’ll find inside of Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain:
The mind is the CEO of the brain. The words “brain” and “mind” are often used casually as synonyms, but in reality they refer to two distinct concepts. The brain itself is a physical organ-“a three-pound tofu-like structure that sits on the top of our spinal cord,” as Lind-Kyle puts it, that regulates our physical functioning and emotional behaviors. In contrast, the mind is not located in any specific place in the brain, yet it is intimately involved in all the brain’s activities. It is the flow of information in the nervous system of your brain and body.
Recently, neuroscientists have defined the mind as “what the brain does.” To use an analogy to which most of us can easily relate, the mind is the CEO who decides what instructions to give the brain so that things will “get done” in and through our bodies. For example, the mind holds the intention that you’d like to turn the page of the book you’re reading. In response, the brain sends messages through your nervous system to the muscles in your arm and hand, enabling you to complete the action. “Of course, the mind can (and does!) lead us astray,” Lind-Kyle acknowledges, “but it also has the ability to reform itself when it achieves synchrony.”
It might be Western culture that’s making you unhappy. We live in an intense, fast-paced, goal-driven, and competitive society. Frankly, it can be exhausting! No matter how much we achieve professionally, socially, or personally, there always seems to be another level of success to attain. And by reaching for that next level, we’re allowing society to mold us into something other than what we naturally are. To make it worse, few of us ever meet the standards of “success” for which we strive. No wonder we’re under so much stress! In fact, according to Lind-Kyle, much of our unhappiness and many of our bad habits are linked to the pressures we feel to be something we’re not.
“That’s why it’s so important to work toward brain synchrony, which will allow you to consciously switch mental frequencies,” Lind-Kyle stresses. “True peace can only come from finding a sort of ‘home base’ inside yourself. Even though the world around you might be in turmoil, you’ll always have that refuge. Of course, you can move your mind into other frequencies and shift your attention to the outside world when you need to take care of business. But underlying everything, you’ve got a permanent refuge that will help you stay grounded and centered. It is possible to live a Western lifestyle and still be at peace!”
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks. It’s true! Your eight-year-old dog can learn the “Sit!” command as well as your four-month-old puppy. The same principal holds true for humans. Our brains have a huge capacity for change, and we can choose which new tricks we want to teach them-at any age! It almost sounds too good to be true, but there exists strong evidence that the brain continues to evolve throughout adult life, long after we’ve put away the schoolbooks. Neuroscientists have termed this ability to continually change and adjust “neuroplasticity.”
“The actions that we take physically, emotionally, and mentally can literally expand or contract areas of the brain, depending on the functions that are used most frequently,” explains Lind-Kyle. “When you do something new (like learn a second language) or practice something repetitively (like your tennis serve), your brain’s neural networks fire up, and a tissue region is actually sculpted or increased in response to that activity. In fact, the neuroplasticity of the brain is the leading edge of your own personal evolution. The more you train your mind, the more you change your brain. The more your brain changes, the more your mind evolves. In this way, you will heal your mind and discover your Home Base, a source of peace, calm, and vitality in your life.”
Thinking positively can restore your mental health. We’ve all heard (and heard, and heard, and heard) about what a difference seeing the glass half-full can make. Whatever, the skeptics among us might think. I can play “Pollyanna” all day. But I’ll just be living in denial about how I really feel. Right? Wrong, says Lind-Kyle. Research actually indicates that the brain can be sculpted by pure mental activity. For example, the size of the brain’s motor cortex will increase if you simply imagine yourself practicing the piano, even if your fingers haven’t actually come close to a keyboard.
“You can change the way you react to a situation by practicing a new ideal response,” explains Lind-Kyle. “When you generate new thoughts, you change neuronal pathways in your brain and release the hold of old emotional patterns. And that will enable you to feel, think, and behave differently. You can alleviate depression, anxiety, and stress-literally bringing health to the physical body-by changing the way you think. Your mind and brain are naturally wired to give you peace and happiness. You’ve just got to give that wiring the TLC it needs in the form of practice, attention, experience, and conscious awareness.”
Happiness is your birthright. That’s right. Life isn’t meant to be characterized by one struggle after another, with a little joy thrown in every now and then. Humans were designed to be happy-all of the time! So why aren’t we? Essentially, we are driven by the desire to be special, to be liked, and to be the best. In fact, The Buddha classified these desires as a form of suffering, because they mainly produce stress, tension, and discontentment.
“The good news is that we are all wired for what will make us happy,” Lind-Kyle asserts, “and what we really want is not success and fame-it’s peace, kindness, and happiness. Fulfillment does not come from attaining your desires in the outer world, but from embracing your inner self, which is the real source of your greater identity and peace of mind. You need to be comfortable with yourself as you are, not as how society tells you to be.
“This is achieved through attaining brain synchrony via meditative mind training. With practice, you are able to release yourself from your negative automatic thinking, focus on what doesn’t work in your life and in the world, and change it. I’ll admit-cutting yourself off from the outside world through inward-focused mind training can initially be frightening for some, because that’s where they perceive their identities to be-but mind training is ultimately freeing.”
Mental training can enable you to find your Flow. Have you ever had one of those days during which you were “on fire”? You were mentally focused, engaged, and immersed in what you were doing. Perhaps you even felt that the people with whom you needed to connect simply showed up exactly when you needed them. This is the notion of “Flow,” which moves in the direction of the prefrontal lobes, the area of self-awareness that gathers meaning from the external world. (Carl Jung has called this flow between the inner and outer experience of reality “synchronicity.”) By whatever name, Flow is a mental state that merges action with acute awareness, and it is usually accompanied by a sense of being alive and joyful. At such a time, your brain functions and neural networks are working together optimally.
“Unfortunately, your experience of Flow can very easily be disrupted,” says Lind-Kyle. “Often, your thoughts, emotions, and actions are stuck in automatic patterns that perpetuate stress, as well as its negative effects on your health. With mental training, though, you can begin to identify and remove the automatic thoughts and reactions that cause your stress. You can maximize your ability to be aware and your potential to be peaceful. When information is moving through your brain in an optimal manner, you will have flexible responses, be rational in your thinking, self-aware and reflective in your thought processes, intentional in your communication, and positive in your attitude.”
Mind training literally grows the brain. The practice of meditative mind training is a central component of consciously rewiring the brain, and Lind-Kyle acknowledges this by weaving both the science behind meditation as well as practical instructions for doing so throughout the second half of her book. The mental focus that meditation requires activates your brain’s circuitry and literally promotes brain tissue growth. (Lind-Kyle cites one study by Dr. Sara Lazar that suggests the more often a person meditates, the thicker his or her gray matter becomes.) Furthermore, the awareness and self-knowledge that come from regularly meditating enable you to regulate your emotions in a more positive manner and respond to difficulties with greater ease.
“Meditation is a scientifically proven method of training the mind, and thereby of changing aspects of your life,” asserts Lind-Kyle. “Meditation can train the mind to reduce health problems and stress, and it can also increase your potential and success in life by enabling you to attain synchrony. Essentially, it will allow you to reprogram and evolve your brain to a higher state of consciousness and function. Quite simply, meditation is one of the most valuable tools available to people-if only they would use it.”
There are four mental tools that can help us make desired changes in our lives. Lind-Kyle uses four tools to train and awaken the mind. Each is used in the brainwave mind training processes that are described in her book and guided meditation CDs.
Intention. Quite simply, the brain thrives on direction and purpose. When you give yourself intentional directions, you give each level of your brain a specific focus to explore how that particular “frequency” functions. For example, you might set your intention on having emotional awareness. Intention is about “what.”
Attention. Attention is where you place your focus. When teamed with intention, it enables you to establish a field of awareness and sustain your mind in a single-focused manner. Since concentration can bring balance and stability, attention is an essential stress-reducing tool. Attention is about “where.”
Receptivity. The mind is adept at blocking out what it does not wish to acknowledge. By learning to combat this instinct through embracing what is in your mind, you will become more sensitive to what is happening in each moment. Your responses will be more flexible because past thoughts and automatic influences will be disrupted. Receptivity is about “when.”
Awareness. True awareness helps you distinguish between your perceptions of what is happening and what is actually happening. It comes from being attentive, and keeps you from getting lost in the randomness of your thoughts. When you are truly aware, you are open to meaning, purpose, and hope, and you are able to penetrate the “me-focus” that veils your mind. Awareness is about “how.”
“As more and more people experience these deeper states of mind and rewire their brain circuits and chemistry, we are collectively evolving the brain of the human species and manifesting in our behavior a state of kindness, love, and caring for our planet,” writes Lind-Kyle. “The simple mental practices that we can do every day are important steps on this evolutionary path.
“The mind-brain is facile, flexible and plastic. With training, such as the tools provided in this book, it is possible to reprogram what blocks the mind’s Flow and move quite rapidly from a less evolved state of mind to a higher state of synchrony, one that better serves us and the life around us.”
* For a review copy of Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain or an interview with Patt Lind-Kyle, please contact Dottie DeHart, DeHart & Company Public Relations, at (828) 325-4966.
June 28, 2015
SMILE: It May Save Your Life!
Years ago Nat King Cole sang a song called “Smile.” According to new research these lyrics may have some scientific value. Here are a few of the lyrics of the song.
“Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for you, just smile”
SCIENCE OF SMILING
So what happens to our brain when we smile? Here is an example.
You are shopping and you see an old friend you have not seen in a long time. You smile and greet your friend warmly. Inside your head your brain’s neuronal signals travel towards your smiling muscles and moves them to form a smile. But that is not all that is happening. The next thing occurring is that there is a positive signal feedback loop back to your brain. This feedback loop creates a feeling of joy as your smile stimulates the brain’s reward center in a way that chocolate can’t even match. In short, our brain tells us to smile, we smile and the smile muscles tell our brain this is a wonderful feeling and so it continues as long as you keep smiling.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SMILING
Smiling can change your brain through this powerful feed back loop because it gives us the same feeling of euphoria as if we were physically exercising. What is really interesting is that the brain does not know the difference between a fake or real smile. With either type of smile the brain will stimulate the same areas in the brain. The brain also knows how often you smile and what emotional state you are experiencing when you smile.
Smiling is invaluable to you as it reduces stress in your brain, in your mind as well as your body. Your physical and emotional tensions as well as your personal stress patterns are reduced when you mentally shift to 
positive thoughts of caring, gratitude, and appreciation. These 
types of thoughts do not create tension; rather they quickly reduce tension in your body. In fact, these thoughts reduce stress all the way down into your cells. Sandra Barrett PhD is a biochemist that shares exciting emerging cell research in her new book, Secrets of your cells.
INTELLIGENCE OF OUR CELLS
Dr. Barrett claims from her research that intelligence or consciousness lives and flows inside the cells. Our cells, she says, knows when you let go of your tension. In the research she found that when you are tense the inner cellular tubules rigidly attach to cell 
walls. Further, when you mentally let go of tension the cell tubules also let go of their rigidness and their old tight reaction programs. For example, when people who have a disease such as cancer let go of something emotionally big like anger toward their mother these people often go into remission of cancer. When the cells are given the signal to let go of tension they turn on another gene program like peace and healing. If we let go and open up to smiling when we are tense it can affect the cells to release any dis-ease in our lives.
From what I’ve described you can understand how a smile could save your life. When we relax through smiling our cells move into a state of resonance that produces peacefulness. There is no tug on cells or struggle to fix X, Y or Z. The cells are playing the same song and the inner tubules are vibrating all in the same rhythm. The lyrics of Nate King Cole’s song are really true.
SMILING AND MEDITATION
What we can learn from the cells about resonance is how to entrain our minds in meditation by using smiling to enter into a state of deep peacefulness.
Here are three steps to increase the depth of your meditation using smiling.
1. Prepare you body by listening to the first track in my CD
Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain. In this track you are guided to use your intention to direct the brain to relax your body.
2. Once your body is relaxed there may still be thoughts that will arise in your mind. As you become aware of these thoughts ask your brain to release them and then smile. As you smile you will notice the mind and body will relax and quiet even more.
3. Whenever your mind drifts come back to focusing on your smile. 
Remember the brain cells don’t know the difference between a genuine smile and an intentional smile. Both will bring the relaxation and a deeper state of meditation.
This practice of conscious smiling can be used when you are not sitting in meditation. Make the choice to intentionally smile when you are feeling tense or emotionally down or just having a rough day. Just smile. It could save your life!
May 8, 2014
Patt has released her new CD!
Order now by clicking through to Patt’s website
Hi, I am Patt Lind-Kyle. Many of you have listened and worked with my two CD set of guided meditations that accompany my book, Heal Your Mind, Rewire your Brain. After working with these guided meditations many people have requested to have just the music with the binaural beats of the four brain frequencies embedded in the music tracks in order to deepen their own practice. Well, we finally got it to you as instrumental music!
For those of you that have not used the two CD set you may find this CD a powerful and positive way to relax and open yourself more deeply to experience your four brain waves and to enter into your inner world.
This music has binaural beat pulsations in the background of each track to increase the effectiveness of your meditation and relaxation. The binaural beats in the music will enhance your ability to move into each brain wave more easily and more deeply. The binaural beats help you relax your body, bringing focus and concentration to each meditation or quiet relaxation session. You can learn more about binaural beats at my website.
The four tracks of this CD give different mind state experiences:
Beta – takes you into deep relaxation
Alpha widens your perception and increases concentration and memory.
Theta – opens you up to your creativity and the place of wisdom within to find answers to life’s questions.
Delta – takes you into that vast mystery of our existence and can bring you into oneness with Reality.
For more detailed information about each brain wave go to my book, Heal Your Mind, Rewire your Brain. Visit my website for other information and resources. www.pattlindkyle.com
Your Hidden World
Your hidden world has been a million years in the making. There is a part of your brain that evolved in a very important way for humans. You have an ancient brain that was once very much utilized by our ancestors. It allowed our ancestors to live life fully with much less tension and with more ease than we do today. However, today this part of our brain is not recognized, valued or seen as important either to understand or utilize in our daily life.
OUR PAST HISTORY
Imagine you were living many thousands of years ago at the time before there was spoken language. It was also a time we didn’t have an unconscious mind. Everything we experienced was conscious. Night dreams were as real as daytime experience. Many people felt the gods and spirits taught them directly and guided them how to live through their dreams. Being conscious of their dreams they lived their life by them because their gods were guiding them step-by-step.
LIFE IN BALANCE
These ancient ones were in harmony with themselves, with others, the natural world and the supernatural world. The reason for this harmony was that their right brain was more prominent than their left. Remember, this was before spoken language and with it the development of the left brain. Living in the right brain our ancestors possessed many talents, such as music, awareness of tones and melody so that they danced and sang the songs of birds as a major part of their life. They were open to their feelings expressing their love their sorrow and were sensitive and aware to what was happening in their inner world. They used this connection to the right brain as a guide for relationships, finding food, protection from predators and seeing things as they actually were, rather than what they would want it to be. Because they had an inner, intuitive knowing about life and animals they were in alignment with nature, supernatural forces and therefore could both survive and thrive. They were in rhythm with their bodies, communication through touch with others was natural along with sexual intimacy and there was a graceful moving within the natural process of daily life. There was the predictable tension of the dangers and physical elements in their environment, but people didn’t hold on to the flight/fright once the situation changed. In this sense life flowed and in some ways was much easier than it is today. We know from anthropological studies that our ancestors had more time to be creative, relax and have ceremonies and rituals for births, celebrations and deaths together in community.
LIFE OUT OF BALANCE
What happened to this remarkable life? Thousands of years later the left brain developed as we gained language. We began to think in words and developed sequence, logic and reason. Slowly we lost our intuition and natural rhythm. The left brain within the last few centuries has become dominate and it interferes with our emotions, our natural connection to our senses and has blocked our inner awareness. Today we are robots or slaves to this quality of mind because the left brain often refuses to utilize the right brain. Our cultural values, our education system, our technology all reinforce the left brain over the right. For example, when you make decisions how many times do you turn inside and listen to your body or a feeling in your gut or an emotion that lets you know what to decide. No, we completely by pass this interior wealth that is now socially unacceptable. We don’t know how to understand our emotions so we push them down so that when we unconsciously react to others or situations we are surprised and often overwhelmed by what we seem to feel. The result of these emotional reactions then often creates guilt, interpersonal misunderstandings and lack of acceptance toward others. Our suppressed feeling are so strong that it does not allow the natural inner world to come up to the surface to express ourselves honestly and consciously both to ourselves and others.
RETURN TO OUR NATURAL FLOW
In order to return back to reconnect to our right brain and to our natural rhythm, we must make conscious once again our inner life. We need to bring up to the surface of our conscious life our needs and desires so they can be known and heard within us. Making new choices to be more in our right brain our Life will come alive, it will be smoother, have less tension and become a life aligned with our true nature. This is our time to take back the beauty of our lives and to learn to be in balance.
Here are some suggested practices on how to tune back into your right brain.
1. Every day set a time to be quiet. Put away the left brain indoctrination of your smart phone or tablet to look at emails or Facebook comments. Sit quietly (hopefully looking at or being in nature) in order to stop the intensity of doing and thinking by practicing relaxation. Start out with just 15 minutes and increase the time gradually. Use my new CD instrumental Beta meditation track so that you learn to change the frequency of your brain into a state of physical and emotional relaxation.
2. Spend time at the end or the beginning of the day to write what is going on in your life. This practice begins to open up your inner right brain world more consciously. Create a journal just for this special time of reflection. Just write a page or two but let the writing flow so that it is a feeling of automatic writing coming from deep within. This practice begins to illicit a deeper awareness of your inner world and you will learn so much in doing it day after day. (PS: don’t type it as handwriting will activate the physical, sensory part of your right brain.)
3. Use the fourth track (theta frequency) of my guided CD, Heal Your Mind Rewire Your Brain, to start awakening your unconscious and to make it conscious once again by asking specific questions for specific answers – coming directly from your inner self.
EXCITING NEWS!!
Patt has released her new CD, Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brian, “Just Music” There are four tracks matching the four brain frequencies. The music has binaural beats embedded in the music to help us move into the different frequencies of our brain.
1. Beta takes you into deep relaxation.
2. Alpha widens your perception to look deeply within your self.
3. Theta opens you up to your creativity and the place of wisdom within to find answers to life’s questions.
4. And Delta takes you into that vast mystery of your existence and can bring you into oneness with Reality.
The tracks in this music album will help restore that connection to our right brain that Patt has written about above.
Order now by clicking Here We have both CDs and mp3 downloads.
June 28, 2013
SMILE: It May Save Your Life!
Years ago Nat King Cole sang a song called “Smile.” According to new research these lyrics may have some scientific value. Here are a few of the lyrics of the song.
“Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for you, just smile”
SCIENCE OF SMILING
So what happens to our brain when we smile? Here is an example.
You are shopping and you see an old friend you have not seen in a long time. You smile and greet your friend warmly. Inside your head your brain’s neuronal signals travel towards your smiling muscles and moves them to form a smile. But that is not all that is happening. The next thing occurring is that there is a positive signal feedback loop back to your brain. This feedback loop creates a feeling of joy as your smile stimulates the brain’s reward center in a way that chocolate can’t even match. In short, our brain tells us to smile, we smile and the smile muscles tell our brain this is a wonderful feeling and so it continues as long as you keep smiling.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SMILING
Smiling can change your brain through this powerful feed back loop because it gives us the same feeling of euphoria as if we were physically exercising. What is really interesting is that the brain does not know the difference between a fake or real smile. With either type of smile the brain will stimulate the same areas in the brain. The brain also knows how often you smile and what emotional state you are experiencing when you smile.
Smiling is invaluable to you as it reduces stress in your brain, in your mind as well as your body. Your physical and emotional tensions as well as your personal stress patterns are reduced when you mentally shift to positive thoughts of caring, gratitude, and appreciation. These types of thoughts do not create tension; rather they quickly reduce tension in your body. In fact, these thoughts reduce stress all the way down into your cells. Sandra Barrett PhD is a biochemist that shares exciting emerging cell research in her new book, Secrets of your cells.
INTELLIGENCE OF OUR CELLS
Dr. Barrett claims from her research that intelligence or consciousness lives and flows inside the cells. Our cells, she says, knows when you let go of your tension. In the research she found that when you are tense the inner cellular tubules rigidly attach to cell walls. Further, when you mentally let go of tension the cell tubules also let go of their rigidness and their old tight reaction programs. For example, when people who have a disease such as cancer let go of something emotionally big like anger toward their mother these people often go into remission of cancer. When the cells are given the signal to let go of tension they turn on another gene program like peace and healing. If we let go and open up to smiling when we are tense it can affect the cells to release any dis-ease in our lives.
From what I’ve described you can understand how a smile could save your life. When we relax through smiling our cells move into a state of resonance that produces peacefulness. There is no tug on cells or struggle to fix X, Y or Z. The cells are playing the same song and the inner tubules are vibrating all in the same rhythm. The lyrics of Nate King Cole’s song are really true.
SMILING AND MEDITATION
What we can learn from the cells about resonance is how to entrain our minds in meditation by using smiling to enter into a state of deep peacefulness.
Here are three steps to increase the depth of your meditation using smiling.
1. Prepare you body by listening to the first track in my CD
Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain. In this track you are guided to use your intention to direct the brain to relax your body.
2. Once your body is relaxed there may still be thoughts that will arise in your mind. As you become aware of these thoughts ask your brain to release them and then smile. As you smile you will notice the mind and body will relax and quiet even more.
3. Whenever your mind drifts come back to focusing on your smile. Remember the brain cells don’t know the difference between a genuine smile and an intentional smile. Both will bring the relaxation and a deeper state of meditation.
This practice of conscious smiling can be used when you are not sitting in meditation. Make the choice to intentionally smile when you are feeling tense or emotionally down or just having a rough day. Just smile. It could save your life!
May 28, 2013
YOUR BRAIN ON NEUROACTIVE STEROIDS…. Does it Improve Brain Function?
BRAIN RESEARCH
So what is a neuroactive steroid and what does it have to do with our brain? According to the research at Queensland Brain Institute, one neuroactive steroid is Vitamin D and is active in brain development.
Amazingly, our brain needs its share of Vitamin D to function properly. New evidence indicates that if Vitamin D is deficient in our system it has been linked with abnormalities in the brain. Increasingly, Vitamin D deficiency is being associated with a number of psychiatric conditions such as autistic spectrum, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and cognitive decline.
W. Robert J. Przybelski, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said, “We also know vitamin D activates and deactivates enzymes in the brain and the cerebrospinal fluid that are involved in neurotransmitter synthesis and nerve growth.” In addition, animal and laboratory studies suggest vitamin D protects neurons and reduces inflammation. There are vitamin D receptors throughout the central nervous system so it is important that there is available vitamin D for those receptors.
HOW MUCH VITAMIN D DO WE NEED?
So how much is enough vitamin D for our body? Experts say 1,000 to 2,000 IU daily—about the amount your body will synthesize from 15 to 30 minutes of sun exposure two to three times a week—is the ideal range for almost all healthy adults. Keep in mind, however, of your skin color, where you live, and how much skin you have exposed to the sun as all of these factors affect how much vitamin D you can produce.
THE BRAIN AND OUR SKIN HEALTH
The big push to prevent skin cancer from too much sun may have come with unintended consequences. The “sunshine vitamin” is synthesized in our skin when we are exposed to direct sunlight, but sun block impedes this process. This could impair brain function because of a deficiency of vitamin D.
Unfortunately, due to decades of professional and media misinformation, the typical American believes they should avoid the midday sun and need to use sunscreen before, and several times during, sun exposure, but research indicates this is wrong.
Let me give you a “prescription” for beneficial use of vitamin D. First some conditions to consider:
While sun exposure is your best source for vitamin D, it’s important to understand that not all sun exposure will allow for vitamin D production. The only wavelength that makes your body produce vitamin D is Ultra Violet B light rays, when they hit exposed skin. It is the Ultra Violet A rays that cause damage to your skin and is a cause of skin cancer.
The Ultra Violet B light rays from the sun must pass through the atmosphere to reach you. This does not occur in the winter for many of us in the U.S. The sun’s rays are also impeded during a fair amount of the year for people living in temperate climates as well.
PRACTICAL GUIDELINES TO OPTIMIZE YOUR VITAMIN D BENEFITS
These are Guidelines for Safe and Effective Sun Exposure
The time of day when the sun position is above 50 degrees from the horizon of where you live is the key. To determine sun position for maximum Vitamin D we need to use the following type table to calculate when to be in the sun.
1.The U.S.Navy has the Sun or Moon Altitude Azimuth Table http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Alt.... This table will help you determine the times of day when the sun is above 50 degrees from the horizon in order to get the UVB rays.
2.To use the table simply specify the date, time interval, and location then click on the “Compute Table” button. Look at the altitude list down to the 50 range and those are the times that it is safe and beneficial to be exposed to the sun. This is translated to the date and time of places on the globe. It means, for example, that some people who live in Chicago the UVB rays are not potentially present until March 25, and by September 16th it is not possible to produce any vitamin D from the sun in Chicago. Please understand it is only theoretically possible to get UVB rays during those times. If it happens to be cloudy or raining, the clouds will also block the UVB rays.
3.There is also an App at iTunes which makes the process even easier. You can download a free app called “D Minder” which will make all the calculations for you. This app sets up information about you then it computes the amount of Vitamin D you are getting. It will even tell how long you should stay out in the sun and warn you when the time is up. How good is that? Here is the URL HYPERLINK “https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/d-min...″ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/d-min...
REMEMBER
Vitamin D isn’t a frequency of light; it is a vitamin that is produced in the skin upon contact with Ultra Violet B radiation. If you are behind glass or cloudy weather blocks the UVB, then your skin will not be able to produce Vitamin D. Vitamin D alone is not enough for people to perform better. There is a complex of vitamins and proteins and other substances needed for the brain, but Vitamin D is one of the important ones.
March 6, 2013
Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain Workshop
For additional information or to sign up:
Elke Browne, E-RYT, and owner of Full Life Yoga Studio (530) 277-3783 | elke@fulllifeyogastudio.com
When:
4 Wednesdays from 3:30 – 5pm
April 3, 10, 17, 24
Cost:
$48 if registered by March 1, 2013
$60 thereafter
Where:
Full Life Yoga Studio, Nevada City
Additional:
Purchase of Patt’s book, Heal Your Mind, Rewire Your Brain and her two CD set that you will use to practice the brain frequency meditations.
