THINKING BRAIN
DIRECTORY/LINKS
THE MECHANICAL BRAIN
Minimum to read for now (return later and finish the whole section)
How The Mind Works - Essential Knowledge!!!! (4 1/2 pages) - How it developed, how it is only physical, body/mind?, limits of primitive brain, harnessing the highest
How The Brain Works - Super Short Version - From which you may wish to
go to deeper levels...or not.
Mechanical Brain/Body - Summary (2+ pages) - Brief summary of the 20
page briefing
The key in depth piece:
How You And Your Brain/Body Operate, which should be read for
deeper knowledge/understanding.
Brain 101 (3 pages) - Your "executive function" must, absolutely rule!
Simplifies the structure (CEO, Monkey, Lizard brains), the organization,
and how the subconscious mind is actually not the master.
More about the mechanics
Evolution And The Logic Of How Our Minds and Bodies Work (6 pages)- How did the brain come about, what it is "designed" to do, our monkeyness, a brain "beyond beyond", to manage our lives and our emotions with mastery. And we made up stuff about it, attributing wrong "powers" to it. (As in The Believing Brain; just read the summary part for now.)
The Biochemistry Of "Love" - Seeking To Perpetuate The Species - But what about "love"? Learn the chemicals and processes behind seeking reproductive success.
Understanding How The Primitive Brain Thoughts Work - Not Understanding This Perpetuates Ideas That Keep You Stuck! (4 pages)- A Super-Key distinction; the brain is stricty mechanical. Literally, there is no thought to be upset over. Any thought can be altered (wiring), as thought is simply a physical thing, with the thought presenting no real danger; the process is that circuits get misactivated, sending out chemicals we interpret to mean something, so we "need" to do some behavior...; but we actually better have coping statement for untrue thoughts. This is essential if you are to have Emotional Intelligence.
Brain Waves - How Can I Use This Information For A Better Life? (2 pages) - No mysteries, just mechanics called "waves" (alpha, beta, theta, delta), affecting sleep/rest, brain calmness, actual scientific effect of music
The Care Of Your Frontal Lobes - The Key To What Creates A Happy Life - This affects all of your psychology and functioning. You must, absolutely must, honor and do these things!
The System One, System Two Analogy - System One, automatic, highly efficient, 'unintelligent', not to be fought with as it controls the body/emotions etc.; System Two, how to put the higher brain into gear, to manage one's life for maximum effectiveness and happiness.
The Structure Of The Brain - Know the pieces (9 pages) - A table of each part of the brain, its functions, with comments. Neurons, synapses, neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, etc.) and what they do(!). Must know this to "manage the mind"; unbelievable capacity, the decision not to let lower brains rule, and then a commitment form for you to decide whether to manage your brain. Learn how to manage the chemicals of the mind to affect your mood and functioning:. (See also: Chemicals In The Body, below.)
The Three Layers Of The Brain - A clear snapshot of what they do, and detail
of functions, together with a listing of what is key to understand, with links.
Understand, manage, create...
The Unconscious - Not A Woo-Woo, Magical "Being" - Understand It And Learn How To Use It In A Practical Way - Our brain "fills in" what is missing and then we believe we remember it and it is the truth, when it isn't. So we need to process that part differently and also learn how to manage it!
HOW TO USE THE BRAIN MORE EFFECTIVELY FOR HAPPINESS, ETC.
Stupid Brain, Stupid Patterns, Smart Brain Redesign - Caution, don't let the idiot savant (smart monkeys) run the show. Instead use a re-design.
Thoughts, Beliefs Are Just "Mind Recordings" - Mastering This Is Essential To A Happy Life! (13 pages) - Ties it all together with psychology and practical application. Thoughts and beliefs are nothing more than complex (neuronal pathways) recordings, essentially programs, which we can modify and have dominion over, if we don't attribute magical or mysterious forces to them. You must "get" this, or you'll not direct your life well!.
Rewiring The Brain - Very Practical And Very Doable (3 pages)- In a practical and very mechanical way, you can actually physically rewire the brain, so that you are doing what is right and workable, but without effort or resistance.
Retraining Your Brain For Calmness And Health - If you do this, then calmness will be more naturally
occurring, as well as better health. Definitely reduces stress.
Using The Higher Brain As It Should Be Used- The "Secret" To A Greater Life - Do this or you'll not live nearly as well, including "The Pause" and questions to kick it into gear for making better decisions that you like alot..
The Attention Units Of The Conscious And Unconscious Mind - Utilizing Them Well; Not Wasting Them - You can increase your "through-put" in life and your apparent intelligence.
Intuition - Useful But Not Accurate! - We can misuse this ability of the brain to put together seemingly unrelated or "unknown" information. Using it to our advantage takes understanding what it is first. It is not mystical, despite what humans make up about it!.
Why We Do What We Do - And How To Remove The Negative Part Of That - Humans are a mechanism (whether you like it or not), but one that can create purpose and happiness if we pull the right levers at the right time; amount of time spend in "relief" is a key signal.
Chemicals In The Body - Balancing And Using For Functioning Better - Run your chemical factory for a better life, the players, when you are...do this chemically, short term plays and long term plays. This determines the emotions that run you (if you let them) and the discomfort feelings that you spend so much time handling (or avoiding). Manage them instead of them running you.
Use Of Chemicals To Reduce Depression And Anxiety - Strategies to getting
to more workability.
INTERESTING
The Physics Of The Mind - A perspective piece, the mind and the emotions, pathways, the "key addiction" in life; learning and managing, choosing, committing. Written after seeing the movie What The Bleep Do We Know.
Getting What You Want - Converting From "In The Mind" Into Getting The Results - No, passive wishful thinking will not get what you want, even if you saw the movie The Secret! It takes doing the things listed in the Success section, alot of which are very mechanical and not mysterious. Read the piece: The Believing Brain, to get the nonsense out of the way!
The following use the mechanics of the brain:
The Physiology Of Power - Effective way to match patterns to achieve a way of being.
Visualize-Feel Exercise - From how you feel, in deep touch to creating a way of being.
WHERE TO GO NEXT
It's may be best to follow the sequence in a learning/implementation program:
Specifically related:
Behavior
Emotional Management
This area helps blow out much of the nonsense we get "bad" emotions about.
VIDEOS (FREE)
Our Brains: Predictably Irrational (Playlist, TED)
The Pattern Behind Self-Deception, Shermer (19:01) TED
How Does My Brain Work? (Playlist, TED)
SOME "THINKING"
Diminished Capacity, Effects of - Its a good idea to know when you are in "diminished capacity", such as in fear, so you can regain your sharpness in order to choose better.
Elephant In The Room Of Human Life - Who Is In Charge? - Fighting "human nature" or working with it. And this leads into that whole area called Willpower
Metaprograms = Alot of programs stuck into one. The "bad" ones should be restructured. The "good" ones can automatically and easily create what you want - "get in touch with your heart", even how you stand, calm signals to brain, a knowing of what to do as a particular type of imagined person...
CONTENTS OVERVIEW
How the mechanical brain works!
How to use the brain more effectively for happiness, etc.
Interesting!
Understand this as it is essential that you know how the brain works, so that you can then "work it" to the best advantage for yourself.
Consider this as if it were a book, reading it in the order below, hopefully skipping nothing (scan something if you think it is less important or you think you already know it, as something new might pop out at you).
For a quicker overview (return later): Read the summary pieces or just the bolded pieces.
Related: Thinking Contents/Links
