Training our brains

The brain. What a complex piece of organ living in our crane. It’s where all the thoughts, memories, dreams, imaginations, visions, hallucinations, ideas, self judgements, etc. reside. I will try not to talk purely science especially that am not officially entitled but instead share with you its effect on us as humans emotionally as well as spiritually. Its soft texture can easily fool us on the power it generates. Positively or negatively our brain will determine our state and we usually miss being aware of that phenomena. Any thoughts whatsoever can be twisted to connote negative or positive. There is a very thin line and nuance and how to think and the attitudes we chose to have towards it are up to us. Let’s take the simplest and most shallow example of a situation; coming late for a class instead of saying “I am sorry, am late” you could actually say “thank you for being patient and waiting for me”. “Chitta Vritti” is a Sanskrit term used in Yoga meaning “monkey mind” or mind chatter that is when the mind fluctuates from a thought to another constantly. There are five main fluctuations and are as follow: 1 Correct knowledge (pramana) 2 Incorrect knowledge (viparyaya) 3 Imagination or fantasy (vikalpa) 4 Sleep (nidra) 5 Memory (smrti) These turnings of the mind whether good or bad obscure the view of our real self and need to be calmed. Being aware of their existence is the first step towards helping to increase our ability to calm them and eventually learn to shut them down and be still. Meditation is the next best thing we can practice to help us focus our mind and eventually achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. Think about this: our thoughts and actions actually change the chemical composition of the brain. When we practice deep slow breathing, relax our muscles and think positive thoughts, we are actually rewiring the brain. Serotonin just like adrenaline or oxytocin is the chemical that contributes to our feeling of wellbeing and happiness. Being happy and positive boost that liquid up and vice versa if we are overwhelming it with negative thoughts constantly the liquid will decrease and can eventually lead to depression. So take a break, start breathing, be aware of every thought that comes to your head knowing that you have the power over it and not the opposite. Welcome these thoughts, observe them without judgements without allowing them to affect you and send them back to the universe with a big smile focusing again on your inner soul on your breath until the next thought jumps in, send it away take a deeper breath, take a moment keep going still, be present, be solely in the now... that my friends is called training your brain. And right after that, comes the “easy sayings” of count your gratitudes, smile, choose a daily mantra and recite it, attract positive thoughts and manifest them, etc. But the solid base of it all is mind stillness, it’s that break or breath we take to stop our mind, put it in its place and say: I have the power over you. Life puts us through experiences that gets us shattered, makes us lose ourselves, our believes, our beings, our souls. It makes us torn. But the way we outgrow them is the real magic and the best part of it all. “In Japan, when a piece of pottery breaks, some potters fill the cracks with gold. The potters, they see the repair as something beautiful. They know that the unexpected happens. Change happens. They know that nobody gets through this world in one piece. That doesn’t have to diminish us. The cracks are part of our history. They will always be with us. They made us better. They made us stronger. They made us something new.” Meredith Grey Sally Rached