THERE ARE THREE PARTS TO THE BRAIN
- Brain Stem
- Limbic System
- Neocortex
All three parts of the brain are connected through a series of nerve fibers. The subconscious mind is found in the Brain Stem and in the Limbic System. The conscious mind is found in the Neocortex. Intuition, that little voice inside our heads, is found in all three parts of the brain.
Brain Stem:
The Brain Stem is the oldest part of the brain. It is sometimes referred to as the Reptilian Brain, the Reactive Brain or the Instinctive Brain. At one time, it was the first and only part of our brain. The brain stem connects to our spinal cord that branches out to form our central nervous system. It is primarily made up of the Medulla Oblongata and the Pons. The brain stem controls all of our autonomic processes such as breathing, heart rate, swallowing, and organ function. It prompts hunger, our drive reproduce and the fight or flight mechanism. There is no thinking involved with the brain stem. It exists to ensure our survival.
Limbic System:
The limbic system is the second oldest part of the brain. It is sometimes referred to as the Emotional Brain. It is where all of our emotions reside and takes part in memory storage, both long-term and short-term. It includes the following components:
- Amygdala – Memory and emotions. Sense of smell, and taste tied to the amygdala. Negativity, Fear and Anxiety are all connected to the Amygdala.
- Hypothalmus – Muscle vibrations and internal temperature. This is why you shiver when you are sick. The hypothalmus increases body temperature to kill bacteria. Muscle vibrations generate heat to kill bacteria. The hypothalmus also controls appetite and hormones.
- Thalmus – Sits right next to the basal ganglia. Affects touch, pain, temperature and muscles.
- Hippocampus – Where short-term memory is stored. Occasionally it will move short-term memory to long-term storage in the neocortex.
- Olfactory Lobe – Triggers smell. This is why smell sometimes evokes emotions. They are both connected in the limbic system.
- Recticular Activating System – Vets the sensory information we take in. Most sensory information is blocked out by the recticular activating system.
- Cingulate Cortex – Creates Mirror Neurons that are critical to developing new skills and for survival. These mirror neurons program children to mirror the behavior and emotions of their parents either good or bad. It is sometimes called the Monkey See, Monkey Do process.
- Basal Ganglia – This is where habits are stored. The basal ganglia acts like the hub of a wheel for neural pathways created in the neocortex. Habits are formed when we repeatedly use certain neural pathways. The brain will create a hub inside the basal ganglia and link to that often used neural path. The hub stays there forever. That is why habits are hard to break. It takes 18 to 254 days for the brain to create a hub in the basal ganglia and, thus form a habit.
Neocortex:
This is the newest, most unusual part of the brain. It is found only in mammals. It is most of our brain. Fully 5/6ths of our brain mass is made up of the neocortex. It has the most neurons – 40 billion. It is sometimes referred to as the Thinking Brain, Higher Brain, Conscious Brain, Cerebrum or Cerebral Cortex. It is responsible for learning, long-term memory, thought creation and decision making. It is comprised of the four lobes: Parietal (frontal), Temporal (vision) and Occipital (vision), the Amygdalae and the Corpus Callosum – a bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the neocortex. It takes in and processes all sensory data, recommended reprogramming tools and strategies.
PRACTICED GRATITUDE
Every day give thanks for any good things that have come into your life in the past or the present. Try to find at least one good thing that happened yesterday and give thanks for it. Practiced Gratitude is like software that reprograms our brains. Once this programming is accepted by the brain, through repetition it becomes a daily habit and will actually create new permanent neural pathways inside our brains. These new neural pathways then go to work directing our behavior in such a way as to cause the creation of more things to be grateful for. It changes our behavior from bad behavior to success-oriented behavior in order to draw in more things to be grateful for. We become a success-seeking GPS. The more we seek success, the more certain we become that we will find it.
PRACTICED OPTIMISM
Practiced Optimism means not allowing any doubt thoughts even a second of life. It requires that you monitor your thoughts and when one flashes in your mind you stop yourself and replace the doubt thought with an optimistic thought. “I can’t” become “I will”. “Nothing ever goes my way” becomes “everything goes my way”. When you Practice Optimism every day you are creating new neural pathways that will eventually become habits. Once they become habits, they then go to work directing our behavior in such a way as to create success. Much like the Practiced Gratitude Habit, we become success-seeking GPS. Again, The more we seek success, the more certain we become that we will find it.
THE FUTURE LETTER
Write a letter to yourself from the future about how incredible your life is. Be lavish in your details about the home you live in, the car you drive, the ideal job you have etc. Read this letter every day for a month. After a month revise it and repeat the process of reading it every day. The future letter works by agitating the brain into altering your behavior in order to create the ideal life you persistently think about every day. When your letter becomes your subconscious reality – the more certain you become.
VISUALIZATION
Create a pictorial Vision Board of all of the things you hope to accomplish and have in life. Keep adding to it every so often. The brain thinks in pictures. The Vision Board is the perfect software to feed the brain. By viewing your Vision Board every day you are reprogramming your mind and creating new neural pathways. Once these pathways become habitual thinking, the brain will then go to work to alter your behavior in order to obtain those things that are on your Vision Board.
DAILY AFFIRMATIONS
As if all of the above were not enough, I give you more. Daily Affirmations are repeated daily software programming that agitate the brain by asserting something that is not true about yourself. Saying “I weigh 135 pounds” every day, when you clearly weigh 180 just pisses off the brain. If you keep repeating this affirmation the brain will eventually seek to alter your behavior in order to get down to 135 pounds. You may find yourself eating less, eating healthier, exercising more. Once the brain accepts the affirmation as reality it then forces you to change your behavior. You don’t have a choice. In order for affirmations to work they have to be tied to some goal. Goals are only goals if they are 100% achievable and require some action. Otherwise they’re wishes and the brain cannot make wishes come true. The brain isn’t magical. It doesn’t manifest things out of thin air. It’s an organic computer. Its real magic is in altering your behavior, by directing you to perform an action that will allow a goal to be realized.
(Sample Affirmations – from Dollars Want Me by Henry Harrison Brown)
God is my supply. My supply is infinite. Dollars want me.
I am part of the one and in the one possess all. I possess all.
I am supplied with all that I need from infinite substance.
My supply is infinite.
All I desire is mine from infinite abundance.
God is my supply. My supply never fails me.
I am supplied with all that I need form infinite substance.
Dollar I do not need you. You need me. You are of no use to me until my hands use you. You come to me to be used.
I do not need a dollar. Dollars need me.
A thought of the righteousness of the spending stands guard over my dollars. I send them forth with blessing.
I possess that which the world wants.
Dollars want me to use them in scattering that which I have to bless.
DAILY AFFIRMATIONS (cont)
Dollars love me. Dollars want me.
I am ready to use dollars and they freely come to me to be used.
Without me dollars have no power. Dollars come to me that they may accomplish their mission.
Dollars find their wants supplied in me and I find my supply unlimited.
All power is in man. Dollars are machines with power delegated to them by man. They are useless without man. Dollars want me.
There is enough in the universal one from which all things materialize for each one to have enough to meet all desires without robbing any.
Infinite supply is all about me.
Dollars want me.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
Have you ever been at a party or on vacation, on a golf course or in a bar and thought about nothing but work, family problems, financial problems, etc?
It puts your focus somewhere other than the present.
Stay in the present. It relaxes the brain, increase your confidence and your certainty.
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