Your New Year's Resolution: Change Your Brain!
Check out this new offering from Rick Hanson - one of my all time favourite teachers - who I had the privilege to meet during a Mindfulness Conference at Samye Linge some years ago.
FOR OVER 30 YEARS, DR. RICK HANSON HAS TAUGHT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HOW TO:
• Feel less stressed, worried, or blue.
• Have more fulfilling relationships.
• Find an authentic, deep sense of self-worth.
• Achieve lasting well-being in a changing world.
Starting on January 7, he's sharing the lessons of a lifetime in one step-by-step,down-to-earth, and practical package: The Foundations of Well-Being.
https://www.thefoundationsofwellbeing.com/
As we get closer to the beginning of 2020, you may be starting to think about New Year's resolutions. However, as past experience may have shown you, these promises made to ourselves at the beginning of each year are often broken or forgotten as the grind of daily life carries us along, back into old and familiar routines. Or, you may have found that while you can keep up with a single resolution, it doesn't increase your overall satisfaction and happiness.
So this year, you could do something different: 12 Resolutions - one for each month - that together will help you feel happier, stronger, and calmer.
Rick says: THESE DAYS, IT'S HARD TO COUNT ON THE WORLD OUTSIDE US.
So it's more important than ever to grow inner strengths and resources inside ourselves. In just an hour a week, Dr. Hanson will show you how to cope with life's challenges by developing the 12 Pillars of Well-Being, a guided path for you to follow, with new tools each week so that you can:
1. Be on your own side
2. Steady your mind
3. Learn to take in the good
4. Become more determined
5. Find the beauty in life
6. Let go of shame and grow confidence
7. Cool your anger and become calmer
8. Honor your desires and increase motivation
9. Create better relationships
10. Become assertive and rise to challenges
11. Deal with fears and realize your dreams
12. Resource yourself and become compassionate
So starting January 7th, you'll get an email every Tuesday with access to a new video talk, guided practice, and self-assessment quiz. Sign up by January 3rd and take advantage of the special discounted pricing.
WHY? or most important HOW?
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR BRAIN
PERHAPS THE MOST COMPLEX OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE!
Although your brain is just three pounds of soft, gooshy tofu-like tissue–it has about 1.1 trillion cells.
There are 100 billion neurons in your brain, averaging about 5,000 connections each–called synapses– like having 500 trillion microprocessors wired together in a vast network.
When a neuron fires, that excites or inhibits its receiving neurons. Basically, the sum of all the signals a neuron receives determines whether it will fire–sort of like the dominant message from a crowd of people all shouting “go!” or “stop!”
Adding up all possible combinations of 100 billion neurons firing or not, the number of potential states of your neural network is at least 10 to the millionth power: one followed by one million zeros. (There are "just" 10 to the 80th power atoms in the entire universe.)
FAST AS LIGHTNING
Neurons typically fire 5-50 times a second, with millions and even billions of them pulsing together.
In the half second it takes you to clap your hands, billions of synapses have activated in your brain.
Most brain activity is lightning fast and forever outside of awareness. The slower stuff that we call thoughts and feelings is just the observable tip of an iceberg of lightning quick electrical, chemical - and possibly quantum - activities.
3.5 BILLION YEARS OF EVOLUTION
Human DNA is 98-99% identical to chimpanzee DNA. The crucial 1-2% difference is mainly about the brain–especially its relationship functions.
More than learning how to use tools, more than adapting to moving out of the forest into the grasslands of Africa, it was learning how to love and live with each other that drove recent human evolution.
IT'S ALWAYS HUMMING
Like a refrigerator, the brain is always “on,”with billions of neurons firing every minute in order to keep your body alive and ready for urgent needs.
Even though your brain is just 2-3% of your weight, it uses about 20-25% of the oxygen and glucose circulating in your blood.
THE MIND IS WHAT THE BRAIN DOES
What is the purpose of the remarkable complexity, activity, speed, and evolution of the brain? It is the mind.
The function of the nervous system is to process information. All the information in your nervous system is your mind.
Your mind–like any information–is not physical: you can’t touch it, but it is still real. The brain represents your mind.
Therefore, all mental activity–your thoughts and feelings, joys and sorrows–requires neural activity.
NEURONS THAT FIRE TOGETHER, WIRE TOGETHER
Repeated patterns of mental activity require repeated patterns of brain activity.
Repeated patterns of brain activity change neural structure and function.
YOU CAN USE YOUR MIND TO CHANGE YOUR BRAIN TO CHANGE YOUR MIND
TO BENEFIT YOURSELF AND OTHER BEINGS
much of the above is taken from Rick's website: https://www.rickhanson.net)
Also recommended are Rick's:
weekly Podcast: https://www.rickhanson.net › multimedia › being-well-podcast
and his book RESILIENT
Rick also has You Tube talks + Ted talks that are worth listening too. Enjoy!
