Over The Fence Community Group
A quote from one of our happy Over The Fence members: "Hi JS- Thank you for the welcome message. Do you remember that show Home Improvement and the neighbor Wilson Wilson Jr. who would meet Tim the Tool Man at the fence, but never showed anything but his eyes? He was so funny. This group reminds me of those encounters... you get the wisdom, humor, and support from your DS...
Did you know you have around 100 trillion nerve cells in your brain? Each one is capable of growing up to 70,000 branches called dendrites. Scientists have been able to understand more about the nature and function of dendrites with advances in imaging technology, electrophysiology and molecular approaches. They have discovered that the brain builds a double memory of the content of every thought, one on the left side of the brain and one on the right.
The left brain's perspective on information processes it detail to big picture, while the right side processes it big picture to detail. Both sides of the brain take part in every activity, just from different perspectives. Referring to left-brain function as academic, and the right-brain function as creative no longer makes sense.
In the physical, biochemical and neurological process involved in the formation of thought there is a certain point when you can control the thought and decide whether to accept or reject it. Once the thought is beyond this cut-off point, it is no longer controllable and if negative, has the potential to become a constant internal stressor with all the negative implications for your health in body and mind.
Reference: “Who Switched off my Brain” by Dr. Carolyn Leaf.
http://drleaf.com/thought_life.php
The left brain's perspective on information processes it detail to big picture, while the right side processes it big picture to detail. Both sides of the brain take part in every activity, just from different perspectives. Referring to left-brain function as academic, and the right-brain function as creative no longer makes sense.
In the physical, biochemical and neurological process involved in the formation of thought there is a certain point when you can control the thought and decide whether to accept or reject it. Once the thought is beyond this cut-off point, it is no longer controllable and if negative, has the potential to become a constant internal stressor with all the negative implications for your health in body and mind.
Reference: “Who Switched off my Brain” by Dr. Carolyn Leaf.
http://drleaf.com/thought_life.php
DETOX STEP ONE: Controlling Your Thought Life
• According to medical research, this is the best way to detoxing your brain.
• According to the word of God: “Bring all thoughts into captivity to Christ…!!!”
• Consciously controlling your thought life means not letting thoughts rampage through our mind.
• It means learning to engage interactively with every single thought that you have, and to analyze it before you decide to either accept or reject it.
For example…
• How many “could-have, would-have, should-have, if-only”, statements have you made today? (these are guilt statements)
• How many times have you replayed in your head a conversation or situation that pained you, or one that hasn’t even occurred yet?
• How many scenarios have you created of the unpredictable future?
• How much of speculation taking out of your day?
• Are you saying one thing but meaning another? (incongruent with body and mind causes toxic breakdowns)
• Do you speak about “my arthritis, my heart problem, my depression”? (taking ownership of something that is really not yours) Nero-chemical bond that is created when you own something as yours.
KEY PRINCIPLES:
• Thoughts create your moods – your attitude (must control your attitude)
• Fear-based emotions make you depressed and your thoughts will become negative
• A negative thought linked to emotional turmoil will be distorted
HOW TO CONTROL YOUR THOUGHT LIFE:
• Understand how a thought forms
• When thoughts come into our mind - Using the sieve - (breeze through the trees), corpus callosum, limbic system and free will.
• Making a conscious decision to accept or reject the thought (free will)
• Building a memory and dealing with these emotional strongholds (attitude).
i. Feed your consciousness with the word of God to replace the negative with the truth. Use journal, make this an exercise.
ii. Consciously Control your thought life
iii. Never let a thought go unchecked
iv. How much is speculation taking out of your day?
v. Monitor what comes in from media or movies etc. because of there affect on your thought life and the resulting chemicals
ATTITUDE: This is a state of mind that influences behavior. Attitude and hope and free will are linked
CONTROLLING ATTITUDE
1. Become alert: become aware of your response to information (your thoughts and feelings) – is it good or bad? This is just on the tip of consciousness (breeze through the trees)
2. Don’t react to your first emotion – stand back and analyze it first (amygdale)
(1.)Leaf, C. PhD. (2007) Your Body His Temple, 13 Steps to Detox Your Thought Life 46:53. www.lifetoday.org
Let me know if you can relate, and/or what your experiences with your thoughts have been like.
Love you all,
Debra
• Words are electromagnetic light forces that come from a thought inside your brain and are influenced by your 5 senses.
• They are containers of power influencing the people around you and the circumstances of your life.
• The words you speak are fed back into the trees of the mind reinforcing the memory they came from in the first place.
• When you make negative statements you release negative chemicals. These lead to negative memories that grow stronger and become a negative stronghold.
• When you make positive statements you release positive chemicals
• BUT – this is more than positive thinking: the output must match the input. This is called congruence and involves the heart-brain link. “Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart…” Emotion, rational thought and heart must be in triangular balance.
How to frame your world with your words:
1. Acknowledge that an issue exists in your mind – a stronghold (out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks)
2. Reflecting on what is wrong with it
3. Considering how you can get to grips with it
4. Asking whether you can do it alone or if you need help …So, you sort out what is inside of your mind and heart before you speak
• Emotions are real, living, pulsating things – you can’t bury something what is alive – at some stage it is going to erupt! (housed in deep limbic system in chemical form) Molecules of emotion carry imprint memory from the brain.
• Expressing emotions means that you are allowing the free flow of neuropeptides.
• When you repress emotions you block the network of chemical pathways needed for proper chemical balance and function.
i. BUT admit it, quit it, beat it – or you will drown!
ii. Acknowledge them, face them, deal with them in a positive way as soon as you can.
iii. Don’t become an expert at NOT FEELING what you feel
iv. Dealing with your emotions is linked to attitude because emotions actually create your state of mind.
• Active conscious thinking forces the metacognitive (90%) non-conscious part of the mind, where most of our memories are stored, to interact with our conscious or cognitive mind which is responsible for 10% of thought.
• The non-conscious metacognitive level is where your unique metacognitive mix comes in – your “you-ness” or “truth-value”. Think hard!
• We all dream!
• When you sleep different parts of your body-mind exchange information and your memory networks are being cleaned up by glial cells (vacuum cleaners).
• The content of your dreams reaches your awareness as a story.
• Physiologically, your dream state allows the psychosomatic network to retune itself and get ready for your waking life.
• Shifts occur in your brain’s feedback loops as peptides spill out into the system and bind to receptors to cause activities necessary for homeostasis.
• Information about this enters consciousness in the form of a dream
• Because these are the biochemical’s of emotion, dreams have content and feeling.
• Badly built memories are also being cleaned up
• Unprocessed emotion will bubble up into consciousness as a dream
• Capturing your dreams can enlighten you to what is going on in your thought life.
• Dreams relate to your body and our mind and can be an early warning sign that something is going on!
• Your body is literally discussing the condition with your mind
• Write down your dreams – you will help yourself to detox
• Forgiveness is a choice, an act of your free will
• It releases those toxic thoughts of anger, resentment, bitterness, shame grief, regret, guilt, hate etc.
• You CANNOT grow healthy new thoughts over unhealthy toxic ones
• Research has proven that forgiveness makes you healthy
• Forgiveness is:
i. Not making excuses but forgiving despite behavior
ii. Not ignoring the pain, but rather choosing to let go
iii. Not letting someone off the hook, but releasing them into God’s hands
iv. Not a flaw but a sign of great strength
Perhaps I can add to this reply at another time. i just want to thank you Debbie for laying it out so concretely for us to absorb as it is a lot of information to ingest at one time!
NDY
FYI ~ these are my notes from when I watched one of Dr Leaf's DVD series.
I have most of her books and DVD's. Her work has really helped me.
Blessings,
Debbie
I have always been fascinated by the study of thought & relation to emotional stability & also learning...
NDY
Thoughts and memories look like trees and are called neurons or nerve cells. You have around 100 trillion 'trees' (or neurons) in your brain, and each one is capable of growing up to 70,000 branches. At each end of the neurons are branches called dendrites, highly complex structures involved in the process of continually receiving and integrating information coming in via the five senses.
The 'breeze through the trees' is one of the processes that happens when a thought is processed. There is a network of memories, called the corpus callosum, and the structures of your limbic system operate like a filter sifting out helpful, positive information from the mass that comes in. It initiates a process that starts like a breeze through the trees of you mind, alerting you to become aware of your thoughts and preparing your brain to build new memory.
To buy books, DVD's or get more information on this subject go to drleaf.com. I think there are some free videos on her website too.
Blessings, Debra
Who Switched Off My Brain Standard Edition (Hard Cover)
• Studies show clear changes in the patterns of activity of the autonomic nervous system, immune system, hormonal system, brain and heart when you experience emotions such as love, care and compassion.
• There is a direct link between positive emotions, improved health and increased longevity.
• The mini-brain in our heart “thinks” about information it receives from the brain - the messages from our heart affect our behavior.
• Love flows from your heart
• The heart has the ability to pull every other system of the heart into it’s own rhythm
• When the heart is at peace or filled with love, the entire body, under the direction of the brain (which analyses the love), feels peace and love
• The voice from your heart is a gentle nudge, a voice of warning
• Develop your love and tune into your heart by:
i. Thinking of all your blessings
ii. Have attitude of gratitude
iii. Not thinking of painful thoughts
iv. Spend time with people who bring you joy
v. Focusing on happy memories
vi. Don’t allow fear to cloud the messages of your heart
• Love is an essential form of healing
• This is an essential element of human development
• A critical component of the health and development of infants
• A powerful healing force
• Appropriate touching breaks negative feedback loops
• Touch releases the endorphins and enkephalins to break these feedback loops
• Give loving touch
• Play reduces aggression, fear and grief
• This gives us mastery over emotions
• It stretches our emotional expressive ranges
• It is “internal jogging” – Norman Cousins because it literally lets the peptides flow
• A good ‘belly-laugh’ reduces cortisol by 39%, adrenalin by 70% and increases endorphins by 29% and increases the growth hormone by 87%!
• It boosts immune system
• Laughter improves thinking skills and the flexibility of thought
• Laughing 100 200 times a day is as effective as rowing or jogging for 10 minutes
• It rejuvenates the neurochemicals
• It connects us to others, turning our focus outwards away from ourselves
• You need to get your heart pumping in order to increase the blood flow to nourish and cleanse your brain and all of your organs
• The added benefit is a mood improvement prompted by the release of endorphins
• Aerobic exercise helps to sweep away the debris left by toxic thoughts and emotions
• Find a form that you enjoy and stick to it
DETOX STEP ELEVEN: DIET
• Eating is highly emotional and metacognitive event
• Your large and small intestines are densely lined with neurons, neuropeptides and receptors all busily exchanging information laden with emotional content – “gut-feeling” is real!
• The pancreas releases more than 20 different emotionally laden peptides that regulate the assimilation and storage of nutrients
• The principle is to “eat yourself clever”
i. Don’t eat when you are angry, not hungry, facing or trying to bury an unpleasant emotion because the toxins generated by toxic thoughts interfere with the proper workings of the digestive system
ii. Tune into your thoughts and what they have to say about what your body needs to eat, when and how much it needs
iii. Control carbohydrates – in excess they dull your thinking process
iv. Cut out refined carbohydrates – these add to your body’s toxic load
v. Without enough unheated non-processed fat, especially the good fats, the EFA’s your thoughts will career out of control. Brian is 70% fat
vi. Your brain’s primary need is for Oxygen and secondary is for protein! We need protein to build and grow.
vii. Follow the 80/20 rule – 80% great eating and 20% is okay to cheat
viii. Water lots