Build Your Brain Muscles

Last week I wrote about 17 different ways to increase your energy. Many of the 17 methods of boosting your energy came right from your brain. It’s pretty amazing that your thinking can actually lift your physical energy. How can this be? I found a possible explanation in an article in Time Magazine, of all places.

A University of Wisconsin professor, Richard Davidson, who Time Magazine had honored as one of the “100 People Who Shape Our World,” was actually asked by the Dalai Lama to study the connection between the meditative state of mind of his Buddhist monks and their emotional and mental health.  Davidson first hooked 128 electrodes to the head of a French-born monk, Mattieu Ricard, and recorded an immediate increase in the gamma activity when the monk began to meditate. Later studies with a control group showed that “monks produce gamma waves that were thirty times stronger than the control group.”

But what does all this mean? Simply put, this, and others research, unveils the real possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered intentionally. Just as we build up our muscles through exercise, we can also build our mental capacities that can lead to better brain function and an increase in essential cognitive functions, including memory and perception. This all creates a more positive mental state. And that’s what, in turn, creates more energy, both mental and physical.

Sorry, but I just cannot help but tell you about my meeting with the Dalai Lama back a few years ago. Wow, what a great man and what a tremendous mood lifter and experience it was meeting such a great person. I was selected to be the one to introduce him at a big fundraiser we did.  I went to his hotel room and escorted him to the ballroom filled with people and introduced him. Talking and listening to him before and after his speech was a thrill. I was so impressed by how humble he was, regardless of his worldwide fame.

That momentous experience was a personal revelation to me of how certain situations and experiences can stimulate the brain and create mental and physical energy. That sure happened to me that day and, now, many years later, I think I still have some of that energy which has continued to help me and my life.

One last thought … I find it very interesting that when you meet famous people, you think that makes you more important. Have you ever noticed that? Hmm. I guess, in a way, it does since it can lift your brain to greater heights!