ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY HUMANIST FAMILY BRAIN STUDY SECTION 5 HOW CAN THE NEW BRAIN SCIENCE HELP HUMANISTS? The new scientific brain vocabulary validates the philosophical assumptions of modern secular humanism. Now it is known scientifically that specific evolutionary brain functions and systems are the fundamental causes of your behavior and not mysterious religious supernatural forces outside your mind and culture. The structure of this website is designed to help you learn how to use critical thinking and reading skills to cope with the enormous complexity of your brain's interactive organic structures as you learn about your evolutionary brain's functional neuronal feedback circuits. You were born with the ability to choose ideas and ideals, which can help you thrive in the future, no matter what challenges you face or what problems you need to solve. Your learned mindsets (attitudes) and learned cultural behaviors (habits) are the genuine causes of your behavior, including your moment to moment conscious self-awareness. Moreover, these mental and cultural causes, especially language, make your free will possible due to the evolutionary microscopic molecular quantum processes that make your human consciousness and your self-awareness possible and therefore your sense of self. You can discover which brain circuits cause normal positive behaviors, such as creative decision making, and which brain circuits cause abnormal negative behaviors, such as chemical addictions, chronic anxiety, and learned helplessness. The new brain knowledge on this website can empower you to make correct decisions which can support your long-term health and happiness goals and give you the confidence to overcome low self-esteem, including shyness. The new scientific research is proving that your sense of self (self-awareness) has a primary role in influencing the quality of your own consciousness, whether you take advantage of your personal mental force (brainpower) or not! This fact is based upon your brain's ability to learn new knowledge, which derives from your brain's plasticity or ability to adapt to changes in the environment for survival purposes. It took hundreds of thousands of years of evolution progressing to more complex brains, especially the growth of the cerebrum and prefrontal cortex and long-term memory resources until the culture of learning started 50,000 to 60,000 years ago with the great leap forward by using collaborative symbols and more complex tool formation. This adaptability function is known by brain scientists as your brain's synaptic plasticity. Synaptic plasticity means that you can use rational thinking (reasoning) to change any incorrect dysfunctional thoughts or emotions that may be cluttering your mind and making you depressed or giving you low self-esteem. In addition, with the new brain knowledge, you can use your own sensible observations about the world around you and your reasonable thoughts to control any unwanted intrusive emotions that you may be experiencing now but want to stop. Your mind's ability to learn how to make reasonable choices is primarily due to the degree of your own literacy, the complexity of your country's language database of words and ethical principles in addition to the educational level and professionalism of your country's teachers, writers, and journalists. Fortunately, you can become more mindful about yourself and your true humanistic nature and realize that you were born to be more than a consumer of other people's products and services. WHY THIS MATTERS: The new brain vocabulary can help you reinvent yourself and transform your attitudes and habits into successful skill-sets for fearlessly expressing your humanistic values. instantly go to: SECTION 6 TEACHING CHILDREN TO LOVE THEIR BRAINS or instantly return to: INTRODUCTION TO THE IDEA OF YOUR HUMANISTIC MENTAL FORCE or instantly return to: ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY INDEX produced by Infinite Interactive Ideas™