New 3D brain scan technology has changed even recently-held theories about how the brain works.
On the positive side, many brain injuries, learning disabilities, paralysis from strokes, mental disorders and addictions can now be treated with targeted exercises that cause brain re-mapping. The subsequent brain scans evidence the improvement.
Also proven: Things like prayer and meditation are verifiably shown to improve not only health and well-being but to alter brain mapping not just down to the cellular level but to the level of DNA itself.
The area of study is termed neuroplasticity.
Even into very old age, the brain now shows us its ability to continually adapt to the environment, and improve depending on how it’s utilized. Certain thoughts alter us. The proof is empirical.
On the negative side certain things the brain engages in make future change very difficult because chemical changes from events can permanently alter the brain’s structure. Nevertheless, the idea that the brain works like a computer or that it “hardens” like wet cement at around age 6 have been debunked.
Of course most of us already knew at some level. In spiritual formation we study this historically as well. The anecdotal evidence has always been there.
Proverbs 23:7a “For as a man thinketh in his heart [mind+will], so he is.”
In his book, Dr Norman Doidge gives us many case studies that appear simply miraculous at first blush. It’s worth the read.
• An eye surgeon paralyzed by a catastrophic stroke is give a rehabilitative treatment that allowed him to be a successful surgeon again.
• People born with congenital blindness are able to re-map their brains and perceive vision through through–of all things–their tongues!
• Wounded soldiers with phantom limb pain find relief for the first time.
(and much more)
Re-mapping is not science fiction nor is it fluffy positive thinking. Re-mapping just requires effort and specific therapy.
So if you could re-map your brain what would you like to change?
Don’t give up.
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Fear is jail.
The world has so much information to offer.
Libraries, schools, experts, and the troves of resources on the internet make learning almost anything possible.
But is success probable? Only sometimes.
Education and information don’t create success. If it did, success would be simple and assured.
Since it’s not, there’s always some psychology to understand first.
Namely, fear.
Despite the resources, we hit bumps. We stagnant. We get discouraged. We give up too soon.
We are both afraid to fail and afraid to succeed. We fear the unknown and the too familiar. We fear change and we fear sameness.
Just knowing this can take a few teeth out of fear and can give us a cell key.
Information can help us through our fear. It’s a tool, key. But, we can sit in a cell whose door is wide open.
We assume information is the solution sometimes. It’s certainly not.
That’s why when you make resources and opportunities available to a frightened population success is still rare.
People–whether they know it or not–get stuck being afraid. Jailed.
But, back to the key: Information.
We live in a time were we can pick so many things for ourselves. The rich and powerful used to corner this market. Not just recently in the Industrial Age, but in every age. Social classes, gender, skin color and many other inescapable factors determined what you could accomplish in a lifetime. No more.
But so much will stop us. So, back to fear. It must be tamed. Always.
A path, a formula, or expert advice make wading through a bit easier. But here is the best key: As we utilize our resources we sill have to be honest that we are fearful and it affects us greatly.
If you sense that you aren’t moving forward, or you’re distracting your self routinely, ask yourself some hard questions about what you fear.
Armed with those answers you can push through if you get brave. Fear will be back of course, but you’ll be more prepared for it. You’ll do battle again and again. Know your enemy. Use your tools. Work your key.
Theophilos Papadopoulos via Compfight
Who inherits the Kingdom of Heaven?
A lot of people say “Christians”. I doubt it; not across the board.
That’s because there are some things this kingdom is not:
1. Abstract. (It’s not an “idea” to which we ascribe. It often stops there, but that’s not it. It is the dominion of God.)
2. In the “sky”. (Nope. Heaven is not “up there” or “in the sky”. That’s silly talk. The Kingdom of Heaven is here and we can be citizens of it. It is not of this world, not in the sense that it’s elsewhere, or in the sky, or a place we live in after we die. It’s not of this world because it operates outside those bounds. It does not inhabit selfishness which we are rife with.)
3. Later. (The Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of God and it happens now for you when and if you act like a citizen of it.)
4. It not about mere right belief. (It’s about right action that comes from a core conviction.)
5. It is inherited, not taken. There is no ascension to it either. God’s grace grants they we may be like him and see him as he is. The kingdom is his and we–in being as he truly is–may have a part in it.
Don’t grow callous to the pain and struggle of others. When you do, you pick your own hell because you pick the slow death of your soul. (To be clear, “soul” is not a ghosty thing, like Casper the friendly ghost. “Soul” is the core of you, the whole you, the unique piece of you joined with Divine Spirit…breath of Yahweh.)
Verses for reflection:
Luke 17:20
20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display. 21Peoplei won’t be saying, ‘Look! Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ because now the kingdom of God is among you.”
Matthew 5:3
“How blessed are those who are destitute in spirit, because the kingdom from heaven belongs to them!
(Sometimes I can’t help but do some theology on this blog.)
This is the way of Jesus. You might not be doing that.
I’m glad I live in 2013 in the U.S. It’s not a perfect time with no problems, of course. I get that.
Most of the time it seems people say they “remember the good old days,” you know, when things were simpler and better.
Sometimes I get nostalgic too.
This idea that things were better in the past is, of course, a myth generally speaking. Every era has its benefits and its downsides.
This clipping is my favorite recent example. (Buzz Feed featured it.)
It’s a newspaper clip which appears to be printed in The Mirror of New York. They ask ordinary men if it’s a good idea to “spank their wives.” (Meaning hit them, of course.) Their eyewear fashions point to a time in the 1950s or early 1960s, which might be why I remember driving in the car with my grandpa as he hauled off and cracked my grandma in the head or arm when he got upset with her. (When he was lost or frustrated, and she should have told him where to turn?) He was just a man of his times and she needed it, from his perspective.
It makes the women’s rights movement a little more palatable now, right?
Manhood is seen differently now, in this century, and for that I am immensely glad! You too?
You like the qualifier in this headline? “If she needs it,“? Priceless.
Good luck telling the police that line now. “Yes, I hit her, officer, but she needed it.”
Funny, right?
(Only looking back, and only laughing so you don’t cry for yesterday’s women.)
(click for photo source)
