Taken from SoM magazine by neuroscientists Mark Waldman and Andrew Newberg, MD Think From the Left Side of Your Brain We’re sure you’ve heard the expression “thinking with the right side of your brain.” It’s supposed to mean that you are more in touch with your creative feelings rather than your intellect, but as far as neuroscience is concerned, it’s not true. Both sides of your brain are filled with creative thoughts and feelings, and both sides are involved in sophisticated abstract processing. A constant dialogue continuously goes on, and you need both sides to accomplish any task in the world. It’s called inter-hemispheric communication, a whole-brain process that occurs mainly in a tiny area in your frontal lobes, but it never reaches your conscious mind. New research shows that your right frontal lobe tends to be more pessimistic. It continuously dreams up problems that haven’t occurred, and your left lobe constantly imagines possible solutions. It also tends to be more optimistic, and when you meditate on positive images, feelings, and thoughts, more activity is generated. But the moment you shift your conscious attention to your doubts and worries, your right frontal lobe becomes more active. Both lobes constantly generate positive and negative fantasies about the future, but your conscious mind can only focus on one side at a time. Yes, you can go rapidly back and forth between optimism and pessimism, but that creates anxiety and stops your brain from taking action. If you can train yourself to neutrally *observe* both the positive and negative fantasies, a deeper awareness occurs and consciousness actually increases. Try this simple exercise. Take out a sheet of paper and write down a positive thought. Now write down a negative thought or feeling. Keep doing this until you have ten of each. Notice how each fantasy makes you feel. Then ask yourself: “Is there any *real* threat occurring right now?” Ninety percent of the time the answer is “No,” and that simple recognition allows your positivity to dominate. It becomes easier to design strategies to help you reach your goal, and with practice—using meditation, affirmations, and gratitude—you can train your brain to become habitually optimistic. Activity decreases in your right frontal lobe, and the fear circuits in your brain can actually begin to shrink. Affirmation: I have the power to create heaven wherever I am and I wallow in the beauty of this moment in perfect peace and heavenly bliss. And So It Is!
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 10:48:38 +0000
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