The Biology of Belief; What Could Possibly Be More Important?
The Biology of Belief; What Could Possibly Be More Important?
There is a great deal of attention being paid today to the new age concept that belief drives our reality, our biology, and our health.
There is some real scientific validity to this.
However, forcing oneself to “think positive thoughts” while simultaneously suppressing or sublimating what one feels inside is not necessarily the fast track to better mental (or physical) health.
If anything, it’s likely to make things worse.
Cultivating authenticity in one’s experience of emotions is far healthier.
Very often the quality of our lives boils down to the quality of the questions we habitually ask ourselves, consciously and unconsciously.
Being more aware of this can make a big difference.
Instead of asking Why do I always feel so lousy?
Make a point of asking yourself What can I do today, right now to make myself feel healthier and happier?
Your mind will always seek to answer any question you pose.
Ask a crappy question, and get a crappy answer.
One type of question entrenches you in negativity and keeps you in a negative feedback loop.
The other serves a far more constructive purpose.
Take charge of your internal questions
If you’re asking yourself Why does this always happen to me?
Your mind will probably answer you with something like Because you’re such a loser (or something equally helpful).
Remember: garbage in, garbage out.
If you ask yourself a question that automatically inspires a constructive answer, then you have taken your first step toward self-mastery.
Fear, anger, and anxiety effectively do away with clear thinking.
Fear, anger, and anxiety in the brain generate an erratic EEG (electrical brain signal pattern) along with a heart-mind incoherence pattern not at all compatible with intellectual processing or the higher-order thinking that one can associate with being functional in the world.
Choosing to focus on emotions such as compassion, appreciation, gratitude, empathy, and love (if love can be relegated to so trivial and transient a thing as emotion) enhances healthy coherence, mental clarity, higher-order thinking, and expanded ability.
Such higher-order thinking is also more directly associated with what is termed anomalous human capabilities and the extraordinary intuitive capacities studied by those dedicated to human potential research.
The degree to which we can release (not simply sublimate) nonconstructive, self-limiting influences such as fear and anger and cultivate a focus on love, gratitude, and compassion is the degree to which we have greater access to our fullest resourcefulness and potential.
This does not mean to deny possible dangers in our surroundings or to simply accept injustices, but rather to learn to confront them with greater clarity, coherence, and centered resourcefulness.
The exhaustive body of research one can access through the Institute of Heart Math shows conclusively the extraordinary benefit of cultivating heart-mind coherence, accessed through the highest human states of love, appreciation, gratitude, and compassion.
This is not just “fuzzy-wuzzy new age thinking” here.
Not by a long shot.
The scientific evidence for this is overwhelming.
Additionally,
Learning to effectively release negative thoughts and feelings is much easier and more natural than trying to force positive thinking.
By simply letting go which is so simple it can seem difficult to some you can instantly free yourself from a negative thought, belief, or habit, rather than trying to force positivity.
When you release the negative (not simply suppress it), then what is left over is more naturally positive with a whole lot less effort.
It can be as simple as unclenching and gently releasing a pebble from your hand.
Try it; you might be surprised at just how easy it is.
New age guilt is rampant, but feeling somehow responsible for your illness or tragedy in life and beating yourself up because you “harboured negative thoughts” is a pointless pastime.
If there is one single belief that people should cultivate, however, it’s that we are ultimately responsible for our health and that it is up to us to take this responsibility seriously and not simply entrust it to others who claim to have the answers but have their agenda.
Let go of the pointless guilt and empower yourself with knowledge and positive action instead.
It has never been more important for us all to fundamentally understand how our body and mind work, and it has never been more important to take our diet, mental state, and stress management seriously.
Take charge of your own mental, emotional, and physical health, and recognize that anything is possible
Given the appropriate raw materials (diet) and the removal of toxic burdens and unhealthy lifestyle factors, positive thinking and feeling become a natural state that doesn’t need to be artificially cultivated.
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