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You will learn that your true potential for living a happy and satisfyingly successful life requires a comprehensive systematic scientific vision --- a systematic rational philosophical viewpoint. You need to seek valid factual ideas about everything related to how your brain works. This challenge means that you must understand what evolutionary biology and psychology and sociology and medical science have discovered about the true reality of your human nature, during the past 50 years and especially during the past 10 years. The true brain science facts of life must be distinguished from "metaphorical myths" or "literary allusions" that were used by previous generations of educated people to describe what they thought was the absolute truth. In this regard, there is a compelling need to update political and religious traditions to match the awesome scientific and technological breakthroughs and achievements made during the past four hundred years and especially the past few decades. The latest reports concerning the new brain discoveries about how your brain functions can provide you with a treasure chest full of new ideas that you can apply in your life now. However, it is important to realize that most of the basic research began in the 1990s, when the U.S. government sponsored and funded a massive research program called the "Decade of the Brain." The results of our national effort to study and understand how our human brains work was first documented in detail in the Dana Institute's book called The Brain: A User's Manual. This comprehensive account of the early brain research facts and ideas is outlined at the following link: The Brain --- A User's Manual In addition, more recently, The Healthy Brain Kit, which includes a printed workbook, a CD-ROM, and memory flash cards, provides a comprehensive kit of factual information about how human brains work: The Healthy Brain Kit --- A Workbook and CD-ROM As your scientific knowledge of the "brain science facts" increases and your Brainpower Mindset begins to influence your consciousness and memories, new brain cell connections will increase in your brain tissue. The additional "neuronal networks" will increase your conscious control over all your thoughts and feelings about your behavior and core values --- if you choose to pay attention to them. You will be connected to the reality of true scientific knowledge and at the same time you will feel freer and actually be freer to use your own wonderful brainpower knowledge and the rational humanistic ethical values of the Broadband Brainpower Mindset Categories to experience both authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction. Your freedom to adapt to changes in the natural world and to evolve your own conscious awareness of your SELF depends upon the fact that your brain is attached to a healthy body. You are truly what your amazing brain or "mindbody" can perceive and do: Seeing Red --- a Study in Consciousness Projections of future world population growth show that a 50% increase is expected by 2050, if our world population of six and one-half billion people continues to grow at the same alarming rate that it has during the past few decades. According to official United Nations estimates of world population growth, 9.1 billion people will exist on planet earth by 2050. They will all come from the less developed regions of the world. The developed regions will remain mostly unchanged, at 1.2 billion people:
United Nations 2050 World Population Estimate (Use Left Arrow on Toolbar to Return to Brainpower Website Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) People experience this "cognitive dissonance", or the need to justify their actions and decisions, especially the wrong ones, when they are mistaken and unable to correct their perceptions about reality in the present moment. When you fully understand the new brain science "facts of life," you will be able to comprehend how the trillions of microscopic brain cells and millions of intricate neuron networks, which make up your brain and nervous system, provide information that can help you form new ideas from the richer "neuron networks" at the dynamic molecular level of your brain tissue. Understanding the recent discoveries by brain scientists can transform your existence and give you the solid hope that you can achieve authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction. This information can help you change and grow no matter what kinds of problems you have had in the past or what kinds of challenges you face in the future. For example, by both seeing and writing down the brain-related words and phrases with the new meanings that describe your brain parts and brain functions, you can transfer that potential brainpower knowledge from your short-term memory resources to your working memory and later to your long-term memory more efficiently and quickly. This specific learning activity can create new brain cell connections, which in turn can actually create new memories because of the "assemblies" of brain tissue at the ends of your dendrites are like jelly. When you have creative ideas, you are adding new connections of assemblies at the ends of your "dendrites" which connect millions of "neuron networks" in your brain. Also they can send electrical signals up and down your nervous system. Your brain's ability to "reorganize itself" also takes place by mechanisms such as "axonal sprouting" in which undamaged axons grow new nerve endings to reconnect neurons whose links were injured or severed. Your neuron's "axons" can sprout nerve endings and connect with other undamaged nerve cells, forming new neural pathways to accomplish a needed function. This crucial process is called "neuroplasticity." The following book and Time Magazine article by reporter Sharon Begley both provide excellent introductions to the new brain research findings regarding the neuroplasticity of human brains: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain Time Magazine: How the Brain Rewires Itself Book Source: Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain Book Source: My Stroke of Insight Book Source: The Brain That Changes Itself --- Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science Book Source: A User's Guide to the Brain --- Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain Book Source: An Alchemy of Mind --- the Marvel and Mystery of the Brain In the book, The Brain that Changes Itself, the difference between biology-based behaviors and "acquired tastes" is explained in the context of love and sexual attraction, and practically every other aspect of your behavior, based on your brains plasticity (page 100-102). You can choose to use this profound idea, if you memorize it and make it a high priority philosophical assumption in your life. This memorization method, when applied to your own unique memories of brain-related facts and ideas makes a "creative loop" that in turn will allow you to create even stronger connections of ideas related to your style of thinking and feeling as you conscientiously seek more "self-control" by understanding how your brain works: An Anatomy of Thought --- the Origin and Machinery of the Mind The scientific knowledge and specific skills related to your thinking and memorizing processes, which are necessary to enhance your brainpower, have been developed from the results of hundreds of brain studies by thousands of brain scientists during the past few decades as well as more than a century of more general psychological studies of human behavior. As you gain increased mastery of the essential brain facts and increase your ability to improve aspects of your brain health, your new understanding of your SELF can give you new confidence to evaluate your core values and focus on more planning activities as you re-attribute more positive feelings to all of your personal and civic goals. The book, Reality Check, by David L. Weiner, explains how your brain's "amygdala", which is the regulator of your brain's "limbic system", appears not only to create fear to help you get through and survive a threatening situation, but it also uses fear and anxiety to protect your "self-esteem:" Reality Check --- What Your Mind Knows, But Isn't Telling You
For example, the word "amygdala" comes from the Greek language. It stands for the word almond in English, since your brain's "amygdala" is a small almond-sized and almond-shaped structure deep inside the middle of your brain's limbic system. Many people feel that when their general "self-esteem" is at risk they should stick to what they know and do relatively well. Those people are more vulnerable when challenged by changing situations. However, persons with higher levels of general self-esteem are less vulnerable to what other people think and do since they accept the challenges of changing situations better. The little "status boosts" we give ourselves may raise our self-esteem temporarily but have little or no effect on a relatively low baseline of self-esteem or a low "happiness setpoint." The effective way to raise your self-esteem is to use your assertiveness skills in order to attack the fears that inhibit you. However, others will continue to challenge their social hierarchies that create "status tension" in their lives. This may be due to the odd way a person's drive for status and their baseline level of self-esteem seem to work together in an intriguingly paradoxical way as Richard L. Bednar explained in the book, Self-Esteem Paradoxes and Innovations. They can either raise or lower their baseline self-esteem over long periods of time, or they will sometimes achieve only temporary results. Until more is known about this paradoxical process centered in your limbic region, you need to work with the brain you have now. Your limbic components produce your "limbic function" or the strong emotions associated with the "status imperative," which causes you to want to be superior, or at least not be defeated. Since you are fortunate enough to have a "cerebral cortex" that is capable of observing any irrational drives or reactive emotions caused by your brain's limbic region, you can learn to control the treacherous "status imperative" by repressing or controlling its impulses when they are inappropriate and ultimately would be damaging to you and others around you. It is only by acknowledging their existence that you can begin to transcend or overcome your strong emotions, as well as the virtual realities or memories that contain your fears and anxieties. 2.2: BRAINPOWER MINDSET CATEGORIES AND CHANGE: You Have the Power to Change Your Attitudes and Habits The word "mindset" refers to your habitual routine way of thinking about a particular thing or idea. Recognizing that you have a mindset or attitude that expresses a discernible pattern of thought or belief or values about a thing or an idea is very important. The problem is that some people do not realize that they have a particular mindset because it is "unconsciously" held. If you do not understand how your mindsets operate in your life, then you are at a disadvantage since you may lose some self-control over them. Details about why it is important for you to be aware that you have a discernible mindset are explained in the outlines at the following two book links: Mindset --- the New Psychology of Success Book Source: Mind Set! --- Reset Your Thinking and See the Future Essay 2.3: THE ROLE OF YOUR MEMORY IN CREATING YOUR CONSCIOUS AWARENESS How Your Memory Works to Create Your Self-Awareness How you define yourself SELF in the context of the new brainpower knowledge can assist you in creating a new understanding of who you are and what your potential is for expressing and achieving your goals and plans and values. If you want to change your perception of your SELF, you will need to change the way you organize your memories, especially your childhood memories, since they likely happened before you knew you had a brain with such amazing powers. By improving your memory skills, you will be able to learn the new brain vocabulary faster and remember the facts and ideas better. Through focused study, you will be making new connections in your brain cell tissues at the dynamic microscopic neuron network level. This process of creating new memories starts at the ends of your brain cells or neurons in the "dendrites" or roots of your brain cells, which are called "assemblies". The "Look, Snap, and Connect" method of memory building can be used in conjunction with the "spaced repetition" memory technique to learn how your brain's main parts and functional areas operate together to create your awesome conscious awareness of your SELF. This proven memory building strategy is based on the breakthrough research done by Gary Small and his colleagues at UCLA: The Memory Bible --- An Innovative Strategy for Keeping Your Brain Young Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
when our brains are working right!" To explain the idea of neuroplasticity in more detail, namely, how your brain's functions --- "mind" --- can control or change your brain's development, the free online Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines the word "neuroplasticity" as follows:
For example, if one hemisphere of the brain is damaged, the intact hemisphere may take over some of its functions. The brain compensates for damage in effect by reorganizing and forming new connections between intact neurons. In order to reconnect, the neurons need to be stimulated through activity. Neuroplasticity sometimes may also contribute to impairment. For example, people who are deaf may suffer from a continual ringing in their ears (tinnitus), the result of the rewiring of brain cells starved for sound. For neurons to form beneficial connections, they must be correctly stimulated.
Since you have an amazing "programmable brain," you can adapt your behavior to experience the freedom to create your character or SELF since you are responsible for your behavior, which means choosing your own values. This new science-based self-awareness can be the "tipping point" or turning point in your life and career. Because of your programmable brain, you are able to think about your own happiness and your relationships to other people and things --- and the happiness of the other people in your life. You are now experiencing the "freedom of choice" to navigate from link to link on this website, or to read or to study whatever interests you the most from any source --- because of your amazing brain. After you have memorized the ideas by "repetition" and "association," which can be a form of self-guided meditation and reflection, you will be able to see more alternative choices that you can make to improve your life in the future. Also, you can notice the interconnectivity of ideas organized on this website. They can facilitate your future survival and success no matter what are your reason-based goals and plans. The parts of your brain tissue that make the process of thinking possible are your brain cells, called "neurons." Your neurons contain "dendrites," which can grow like roots on a tree, if you make the right choices to help them grow. New dendrite connections make new neuronal networks whenever you have new experiences or have new ideas or see new relationships. Your neurons are the white matter that is located in special regions of your brain and that are connected by "neuron networks". The chemical switches that send signals around your brain and up and down your nervous system are called "synapses." The new connections among brain cells created by learning activities start with the "assemblies" of brain tissue "jelly" at the ends of some of the trillions of dendrites in your brain. This starting point of a memory connects to many neuron networks at the dynamic microscopic molecular level of your brain tissue where it is stored briefly or longer depending upon whether or not it is associated with strong feelings or you have undertaken a methodical repetitive process of studying whatever subject that you want to remember. This biological process gives you the ability to store new memories and reinforce old memories by repetition through the psychological memory principles known as association" and "reinforcement." The new brain science is providing a clearer understanding of how your memory works and makes possible your personal identity and awareness of your SELF. Once you understand the full importance of your amazing brain's parts and functions, you will have the opportunity to reorganize your memories in an optimum way to survive and also thrive. This self-directed evolution of your own consciousness, which is a form of consciousness raising, can make you more happy and satisfied than any other goal you will ever achieve during the rest of your lifetime. To repeat, the existence of trillions of microscopic neurons and billions of neuronal networks makes possible your fabulous memory and also your identity as a unique person. The best aspects of science and democracy are teaming up in this exciting 21st century to provide the kind of political freedom that is essential for the 6 1/2 billion people on Earth to experience true creativity, without the need to rely on mysterious imaginary spiritual forces that are not consistent with the latest scientific knowledge. The new book by David J. Linden provides a unique thought provoking evolutionary perspective about how your brain's structures and functions evolved over hundreds of thousands of years of development. The following links outline the sequential discoveries that have resulted in today's new understanding of our brainpower potential: The Accidental Mind --- How Brain Evolution has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God Book Source: The Naked Brain --- How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love Book Source: Neural Path Therapy --- How to Change Your Brain's Response to Anger, Fear, Pain, & Desire
[2] The "corpus callosum" divides the cerebrum from the rest of your body. [3] Beneath the corpus callosum are several small structures, such as your "thalamus" and your "hypothalamus." [4] At the base of your brain is your "cerebellum," which controls automatic functions, such as your breathing and heartbeat. [5] Your "brainstem" connects to your "spinal cord," which connects to the rest of your body. You can learn the basic ideas of driving a car or SUV without learning precisely how the engine works or how all of the fancy computerized gadgets operate. You just need to know how to unlock the doors, fill the gas tank with fuel, start the engine, apply the power, and steer the wheels. You don't need to know how the gasoline is vaporized inside the engine and the chemistry of the exploding molecules of gas that are mixed with air molecules to produce energy that is converted to mechanical forces governed by the laws of physics. At the same level of abstraction, if you are willing to learn the Broadband Brainpower Vocabulary, you can understand the essential brain science facts and ideas that are necessary for you to "think for yourself." Also, you can delete false memories or "fake facts" that can obstruct your creativity and ultimate success. Emotionally Free --- Letting Go of the Past to Live in the Moment Book Source: The Emotional Brain --- The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life You will be able to help your amazing brain think better when you understand how important your brainpower really is and how important it is for you to develop your thinking and memorizing skills as you cogitate and philosophize about your own self-liberation as you pursue your versions of success happiness! 
flyingeagle@earthlink.net Instantly go to Essay #3: Focus on Your Happiness Strategy Instantly return to: Brainpower Skills Website Index |
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