Got Any Ideas?

"Changing the Brain"

Is it really possible to change the brain?

Do I have to learn how? Is it hard? As far as our brains are concerned we do one of two things everyday. We either introduce different data, or we reinforce old data. If we are not happy, not at peace with ourselves, the only thing we need to change is our thinking. It's not hard to be convinced of this. What is the alternative? The only alternative would be to get the world to conform to our presently held ideas. So it's change one brain or try to change a few billion brains. So the choice, in this regard, is simple. But you say, "there is nothing wrong with my brain, it's all the other stuff that goes on. It drives me crazy". Here is the bottom line, if you're not happy, the problem is you. This doesn't mean the problems you see around you aren't there. This isn't a discourse in righting the wrongs of society. There are millions of brains, spinning, arguing, killing each other and plotting the future of mankind. Anyone can join in the fray. It's been the topic of choice for complainers, activist critics, artists, authors and dreamers since the beginning of societies and will go on till the end. None of that stuff out there has anything to do with personal happiness. Happiness is created in you. If you don't understand this, start at the beginning of the site and read up to here. At this point we're focusing on useful exercises and methods.

Although the major neurological pathway construction has taken place it is not necessarily permanent. Although this is an accurate statement, it's not meant to suggest that it's easy. The longer we are unaware of these mental habits the more entrenched they become. While this adds difficulty for us it does not make it impossible. We will want to understand, to some degree, how the brain works. We also want the picture of this operation to be as clear, simple and vivid as possible. Think about all the data we take in everyday. Multiply this by a year and so on. That's a lot of stuff. All that stuff is recorded. It may not be consciously accessible, but its there. The content of the brain is a result of a data entry operation. Largely unintentional. For example, take the thought/feeling of self worth. Feelings like, "I'm not really of much value...", aren't something any of us are born with. It is something we have learned. We don't get to choose the type of data we absorb when we're young and absorbing tons of data. That is really to bad, if you got crummy data. It is also true that during the period we are being flooded with data our discernment quotient is also in the development stage. Passing over the fact that this doesn't seem an ideal system, since it won't help us, we'll just take what advantage we can from knowing it. Doesn't it stand to reason that if all the stuff in our heads got there through the data input method, and if pathways become more entrenched with repeating this data through habitual thinking, that we need different data? First, we need different data. We can't have better thoughts without better data. Have I said that enough?

So the first thing we can do for ourselves is start our own data input campaign. If you want better stuff in your head and as a result, think the best thoughts, you have to find the stuff yourself and control the input. Next we need to identify those ideas which create the negative thought syndrome. For example, low self opinion. If we pay attention we can see these habitual thoughts when they happen. The more we shift our attention to a conscious activity (meditation?) the more apt we are to catch the patterns when they occur. We want to discard any data that produces these thoughts. We want to replace it with something different. It's essential to be rid of any data that doesn't result in our over all well being. Our main asset in this process will be paying attention. Everything we do must become an intentional process. We must become aware, as much as possible, of what we are thinking. Here is another aspect of the self-image we really want to get a handle on. We want to grab on to this and never let it go.

"None of our self-image troubles lie in how we naturally feel about ourselves. It is all in how we think we should see ourselves. It is all one hundred percent learned."

There are only two items that cause us trouble. One is the vision we have of ourselves. The other is the vision we have of the world around us. There is one thing to remember. These visions, these pictures of ourselves and the world out there fall into one of two categories. They are (1) real, or (2) imagined. There is nothing inherently wrong with either. The real vision never gives us any trouble. The imagined vision will cause us trouble - if - we don't know it's not real. This is the blurring of lines that was mentioned as the cause of all troubles, big and small, personal and global. So it follows that if you are unhappy, you have confused the real with the imaginary. That's all. So then, in order to restore the state of happiness we need only to identify the imaginary vision and replace it with one that is real. In order to truly help the global community one must first free themselves. How would we get in this condition? How did we come to believe, or accept things, that aren't real? Learning is just taking in data. Here is just one example of some goof ball data. We're constantly presented with images for the purpose of comparison. It's intentional and any entity that wants something from you uses this tactic. The message may be, you're not quite good enough, but if you do this you can be. Watch for it. You'll see it everywhere. People drinking beer are happier than you. So are people eating tacos. So are people who believe Jesus is there savior. People who work at certain jobs and have a certain status, are happier than you. Conforming to a societal convention creates happy living conditions. People who drive, own, belong to, believe in...It's an insidious assault being waged against us. This mass hypnosis is the dark plague of the century. This is a Key.

This data, that makes me feel I should be something, or that things should be this way, has to be replaced. This unconscious responding to programming is creating whatever unhappiness we're involved in.

Myself: as a case scenario. I had one of many possible reactions to peoples constant attempt to shape me. I was at my wits end sooner than most. I started getting in fights in grade school and by the time I was in middle school I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to make it in the world I saw (society and it's demands on me). More and more as I slid away I was told that if I conformed everything would be better. I would be better. Eventually I got so full of being told what to do that if someone raised there voice at me I'd just lose it. I really couldn't take any more. I didn't want to think about anything. I was done thinking. I didn't have any satisfactory stuff to think about. All thinking did was lead me into a deeper state of bewilderment. Other people will stop thinking and just conform. We are all assaulted with a bombardment of data. It is much like finding ourselves in a never ending hailstorm. One way or another we have to survive it. We all start with a brain and data. This, reacting instead of thinking, is far from an isolated case. Most people are simply reacting. There are a lot of people in prison who aren't able, in a given situation, to think. They aren't sure what happens but situations arise and they snap and its over. The deed, whatever it may be, is done. It could be said this reaction comes from the primitive part of the brain. That these peoples brains didn't develop normally due to catastrophic environmental events or a genetic defect. Or we've stunted the natural brain development process with drugs. That using drugs altered the brain chemistry. Well, that's true. It's just not exclusive. Neither is the condition confined to any of the previously mentioned scenarios. This being the case what tools are available for rewiring or augmenting the system? What will help reengage the frontal cortex in the reasoning process. What would that tool look like? A molecule? Can adding or subtracting a chemical change us into a thinking, reasoning creature, instead of a crocodile? What if I stop taking the molecule?

Was my anger a product of my genetic brain structure or data? What if a person never takes enough drugs? What if a person doesn't take any drugs. I know that's hard to imagine but it's possible. Are they susceptible to the condition? Of course they are. Differences in brain chemistry cause people to behave differently. This is not a mystery or cause for debate. What are the environmental factors in brain chemistry? Something that most people don't want to talk about? What are the probable causes for chemical alterations in the brain? Whatever they are and they are many we have to find the ones we can deal with and deal with them. We can all control, to some degree, the ingesting of toxins. Chemically toxic environments cause us a tremendous amount of mental and physical suffering. Stressful environments at work and at home are also causes we can do something about. If we dealt with all this stuff and we still had visions of ourselves and the world that were fictitious we would still have the same problems. On the other hand if we rid ourselves of our "unrecognized fictitious believe systems" we could be happy as we were slowly poisoned and worked to death.

Back to the kooky reactions and recognition. Whether its a violent act or one where you find yourself sitting on the bed looking at a pile of purchases you couldn't afford, its all the same. Maybe you could afford them. Maybe you just didn't need them or had decided to stop spending money so you could save some, its all the same. Things happen and we don't know why. This is no way to live. The source of this trouble, whether you're in prison for assault or sitting at work unable to stop thinking about all the things that annoy you, it's the same. Therefore the solution is the same.

First, we need to catch this stuff in the act. We need to start acting instead of reacting. Or better put, become our own bosses. We will, when we are ready, get started on a self determined path. At some point we realize there is no point in blaming anyone.

For now we might not want to refer to these processes as thoughts at all. Its not as if there was a identifiable thought process. We don't examine an emotional state-put on our thinking caps-and decide to go shopping. We don't shop because we find the acquisition of things healthy and therapeutic. With this type of stuff it just doesn't go like that. We're usually: just there. At the store, at the fridge, wrestling on the lawn or whatever. We only have, at this point, two options. We either run the show, or read the lines we're handed. I, speaking only for myself, want to have absolute dominion over my brain. I don't want it to take me places. I want to decide what I want to do, how I'm going to feel, choose what thoughts to think and gain as much autonomy as possible. Don't you? In order to start the process of changing the brain we first have to decide what we want to be. We have to understand why we want to act different than we are. We don't look at who we want to be. We're good there because "what" we are defines and creates the "who". The what involves action. We must see a what that is real.

When is anger good? When is it best to worry? Why am I in a hurry, where is it I feel I need to be and where did that idea come from? Who made that decision? Am I supposed to be somebody? These are questions I put to myself. I decided I would put an end to the entire, out of control, reactionary syndrome. It was a good decision. It didn't stop the same goofy thought/emotion stuff from happening again but that's not the function of a decision. If we have practiced meditation and discovered something of paying attention we will start to be more aware of what our brains are doing: as they do it. Again, this will be key to our success. If we don't remember anything else, remember "pay attention". We see this, its happening, now we have it, it no longer has us. It won't necessarily feel any better but we have assumed the primary role. We are in a position of power. Power to decide, power to control our own lives. This "paying attention" is where the action is. This is where the fun begins.

Now this may sound like somebodies mommy but one the "must dos" in this process is that we eat and sleep as good as we can. We'll want to take advantage of all the easy stuff. We will want to eliminate as many causal factors as we can. Diet and sleep are major causes in brain health. It won't do us much good to work at something all day and sabotage ourselves through something as simple as eating and sleeping. This is the best site I've ever found - natural health techniques for diet and health...ever. It's run by the little goddess of goodness. If you have questions, ask her. She is living among us in her human form (just so we can talk to her). Watch this video on "Nutrition and Behavior". We have to keep in mind what we're trying to change. The brain is a chemical. Under that it's energy. If we approach it in this way we can do a lot to help ourselves. The chemical balance we treat first and foremost by regulating our eating and sleeping. What do we do about the underlying energy?

Watching and spinning thoughts

We keep an eye on the brain. We keep it in our sites. We examine it. We sense the feelings associated with it. We want to become familiar with those feelings. Here is a little trick that will let you get a picture of the structure of feeling. Feelings spin. Everything spins because everything is energy. Energy has a structure. The whole structure is connected. So we can effect it because we are connected to it. Not magically. Physically. If we focus on the feeling we can sense the spin and if we stay with it we can sense the direction of the spin. Now reverse the spin. It's not a requirement that you be any good at this. There was a time you couldn't get an ear of corn to your mouth without hitting your forehead with it. We just see what it might look like. We feel where this spinning energy is happening. Then we interfere with it. See if when you do get it spinning in reverse that it feels different. Spin it sideways if you don't like reverse. Keep playing with it and see what happens.

These brain/thought processes are producing the chemicals we call feelings. These feelings are why we go shopping, why we are scared or stewing or worrying or trying to get somewhere: anywhere but here. Our path to freedom is two fold. We need to know what we do and why we do it.

Staying Focussed

When, through paying attention, we see a thought/emotion in action we are now looking at the condition of all suffering. Now, we are looking at the directly connected cause of discomfort. This we can observe from our new vantage point. Now we just stay put. Don't move or follow your brains directive, which is always move, run, get away. We will breathe and pay attention to our breath as the feeling runs through us, we will not try to fix it or analyze it we will just be there and feel it and breathe. Aware of both at once. Now you are in charge, you've made a decision and are following your own course. We don't defeat anything. Its not through force that we claim dominion of ourselves. It is recognition. We will recognize that its not going to kill us. It may be uncomfortable and even painful but we will suffer no harm. The harm comes from running: we run into things. When you go through this: when you know you can stay through the whole onslaught; this is what you are. You are the thing in charge. At this point you have changed the brain. This new memory is now logged. No doubt there is more to be done but if you can get to this point you can continue to do anything you want.

Pema Chodrin, who is a Buddhist nun, calls it creating a space around it. This is a perfect picture. To decrease the size of the feeling and the accompanying intensity we move from being trapped in the closet with it to a large open field and we see that, in comparison to all that is, its just a little insignificant...thing.