Understanding our brain

Hello everyone. Today is such a beautiful day here in California. Bright and sunny. It going to be in the 70's this entire week. Sounds wonderful. Am sorry to hear about the flooding in the midwest. Weather patterns are changing in so many places in the world. Is it global warming or cooling. Hmmm!

Do you know how you brain works? I mean functionally and not the science of nerves, tissues etc. Understanding this might help you understand yourself better and why it is difficult to change yourselves. So a small lesson follows.

There are several components to the brain. In layman terms, we have the outer layer of our mind, the conscious mind. This is the mind we are most aware of during waking hours. It is supposed to be roughly 10% to 12% of our total brain power. This is the mind that takes in input from the environment (TV, Radio, Books, talking to people etc), analyzes the inputs and at times takes decisions. Based on research we use probably 5% to 6% of this mind only.

Underneath the conscious layer are several layers of the mind. For simplicity I cam calling all these layers as subconscious mind. This is roughly 90% of our brain power. For most of us, these layers of mind are beyond our control. There are various functions performed by these deeper layers of the mind. These are:

1. Automatic processes in our body such as circulation of blood, digestion of food, secretion of harmones etc etc. There are some indian gurus who can control their heart beat, blood pressure etc but for most of us these are automatic processes.

2. All our experiences since childhood and all emotions attached to the experiences are stored in the subconscious layers of the mind. Have you noticed when you meet a long lost friend after decades, all the emotions and feelings for that person surfaces to our conscious mind? We may not have thought of that person in years yet all our feelings are stored deep in our mind. There are people who carry revenge and hatred for decades and decades in their mind. All the stored negative energy affects us.

3. All our beliefs and values by which we live our life are also stored at the subconscious level. These impact our analyzing and decision making at the conscious mind. This is right, that is wrong, this is the correct behavior, that should not be done etc etc are all based on our beliefs and values. Since each one of us have differing beliefs and values, we all judge things differently.

4. Our habits are part of the deeper layers of the mind also. They are programmed and stored there and our habits prompt us to behave in a certain manner. You may not be aware of the many habits you have cultivated. Start noticing. You may realize you wear your clothes in a fixed order everyday, you like to start your day brushing your teeth, you like to eat in a fixed order etc etc. Habits are good, they structure our lives and allow us to go on without having to make a decision on everything. However habits that limit the quality of our life need changing.

5. Our behavior is mostly a product of our experiences, our beliefs and values, our habits. The same situation will evoke different behaviors from many people.

6. Your fears and phobias are stored at the subconsious mind. Your fears are a result of your experiences and phobias are fears due to unknown reasons. You were bit by a dog when you were small and now you have a fear of dogs. No amount of rationalization and statistics can remove your fear because the subconscious mind does not rationalize.

You must be wondering why this discussion on brains. Well, if we want to change something in your life such as habits or your self limiting beliefs (I am not good enough, I am not capable of..., I can never be slim, and so on) you need to learn how to access that deeper layer of the mind where this information is stored, to change things. If you try to change using just the conscious mind it is extremely difficult. You can apply will power to change but unless you can sustain will power for a looooog period of time, you will slip back into old habits, old behaviors. The subscious mind is 7 to 8 times stronger than the conscious mind and so it always wins.

Now if you can learn techniques to access the deeper layers of the mind and make changes directly in those layers, than you don't need conscious mind and will power at all to live your life differently. You can reprogram yourselves by going directly to the area of the mind where your self limiting beliefs are stored and change them there. Once you change your belief (such as believing I can become slimmer and fit) than you subscious mind will help you to live your life by the new belief.

Let's take the case of wanting to lose weight. Obesity is a big problem now. In fact World Health Organization predicts that obesity will the the 2nd largest illness in the world after Heart disease. Whoooo!

So you want to lose weight. You know you have to change some habits and behaviors and most likely some beliefs to lose weight and more importantly to maintain the weight loss. You can diet and lose weight but if you have not changed the underlying old programs in your mind, you will slip back into old habits very soon after your diet is over. Now your body will store more fat since it does not know when you might strave it again. And the yo-you will continue, lose weight, put on weight, another diet, again put on weight. Sounds familiar?

Now if you can change your beliefs about food and get the same pleasure and enjoyment out of healthy food that you get out of junk food, then you will automatically desire and eat healthy food only. Just like you crave and enjoy junk food (you believe subconsciously and consciously that the junk food taste so good) because of your existings beliefs, you will start eating and enjoying healthy food based on new beliefs. Isn't this approach better than using will power to eat healthy food and hating the healthy food?

You can change your beliefs about exercise and start enjoying exercising. Once the beliefs, habits are changed, your behavior will reflect the new beliefs and habits.

Bottom line, learn techniques to help you change your deeper layers of mind to change your life and expand the quality of your life. You are in charge of your life. You can change and improve.

Both meditation and self hypnosis provide access to deeper layers of the mind. I used to meditate for years and it took me years to learn to get into meditative state. But learning hypnosis is much easier and faster. Hypnosis is a state of focused concentration and a very natural state for the body. We slip in and out of hypnosis many many times during the day. You are watching a TV program and totally engrossed in the program, you are in hypnosis. Learn how you can use this focused state of concentration to access deeper layers of your mind and start changing your life. Read more at http://www.kjhypnotherapycenter.com/.

I hope you enjoyed the article. Have a great day.