Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Detoxing Your Brain and Thinking - Torah Portion Shlach L'kha - June 13

Brain/Thought  13 June 2015

Torah Parashah - Shlach L’kha - Send on your behalf
          B’midbar 13:1- 15:41 RSTNE p 117
Brain/thought teaching based on Dr Caroline Leaf’s book
“Who Switched Off My Brain?”

Torah Parashah Shlach L’kha
B’midbar 13:1 - 15:41 RSTNE p 117

How to Detox Your Brain from Toxic Thoughts - Harbour Light Ministries

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Yochanan (John) 10:10 p 765
          “The thief comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:  I am come that they might have chayim, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

We know this.
WE’ve known this for a very long time.

So what have we done...
We’ll we first understood the obvious.
and somewhere in our lives - we figured out Y’shua and the Hebrew Messiah and more and more Hebrew understanding.

And through most of our lives we have learned about wellness - you know - exercise and eating well...
to the point where we have learned about not eating blood and not eating things that YHWH said are unclean...
and understanding GMO are mixed seed and YHWH said not to mix seed in the field (field represents people in Torah)...

but ...

BUT...

“Research shows that around 87% of illnesses can be attributed to our THOUGHT LIFE,  and approximately 13% to diet, genetics and environment.”

87% of illness - from our thought life

13% of illness - from our diet, genetics and environment.

So we’ve been focusing so much on the small fraction of the problem.

It is way way WAY past time to look at the big part of the problems... our thought life.

*
What does the Word say about this??

Romans 12:1-2 p 848
          “I beg you therefore, Yisraelite brothers, by the rachamim of YHWH, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, kadosh, acceptable to YHWH, which is your act of reasonable worship.  2  And be not conformed to this olam hazeh: but be transformed by the ongoing renewing of your mind, that you m ay discern what is tov, acceptable, and even the perfect, will of YHWH.”

Qorintyah Bet (2 Corinthians) 10:4-5 p 870
          “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through our Elohiym to the pulling down of strongholds;  5 Casting down imaginations, and every high human matter that exalts itself against the da’at (knowledge) of YHWH taking captive everyt thought to be obedient to Moshiach”

Mishlei (Proverbs) 23:7 p 561
          “For as he thinks in his lev (heart), so is he:”

Luka 5:22 p 731  “....What are you reasoning in your levavot (hearts)?”

**
Interesting those verses of Torah....
To paraphrase an old TV show...
“Let me take you where not many have gone before.”....
Because these verses are about to make a whole lot more sense!

*
Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health issue in our nation.
The KIM Foundation says one in four persons in USA have anxiety issues.

www.healthline.com says that 1 in 10 persons have depression. 
Depression diagnosis increases by 20% each year

BUT - an article on the CDC website reported that in the five year period from 2005-2009... the  amount of prescriptions written for antidepressants increased by 400 % from the previous five year period!

  There is a crisis afoot!!

 So what do we do?
          We can say - “Well, think positively!”

 and we can say - “focus on YHWH”

and we can say ... “Just worship when you feel down.”

and these things are true...

But i think it is time we understood what is going on and what to do about it... instead of “nice” answers.

“Research shows that around 87% of illnesses can be attributed to our THOUGHT LIFE,  and approximately 13% to diet, genetics and environment.”
~
In 2002 Joyce Meyer’s book “Battlefield of the Mind” was published....  Someone started to get a clue.

Dr Caroline Leaf says...
When you feel happy and think happy - your brain releases chemicals or neurotransmitters called endorphins or “feel-good chemicals”

But when you feel sad and think sad - your brain releases a different kind of chemicals than the “happy” ones...  that are harmful to you.

~~  We could just stop there.. that’s the main concept right there...

Think positively and you have happy chemicals that do good things for all your cells ...

or think negatively and you have awful chemicals that do bad things for all your cells...

But there is more...

What we THINK - effects our emotional and physical state.

But we just read Torah - Romans 12:2... “... Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

*
Stress ...
It’s normal to have stress in our life.
Stress can be positive and stress can be negative.

The problem is - our bodies are designed to cope with stress that comes and goes - and mostly goes! 

But in our world... STRESS is mostly constant!

*

Dr Candace Pert is the pioneering neuroscientist who began to understand there are biochemicals  she calls “molecules of emotion”...

...These are information molecules that carry a literal photocopy of the thought formulated in the depths of the memory network of our brains. 

“Information molecules are then able to cause changes at the cellular level,
          -actually restructuring the cells’ makeup on the outside and the DNA on the inside. 

          This is how diseases are able to take hold in the body.”  !!!!

According to Dr Leaf... STRESS works like this...

SEE - handout - “Stress Response”

-  You feel fear

-  your hypothalamus secretes a hormone called CRH (the “negative emotion hormone”).

-  CRH goes to the pituitary gland and causes

-  the pituitary to release another stress hormone called ACTH

-  ACTH races down to the adrenal glands

-  The adrenal glands then release the biochemicals cortisol and adrenaline (This is NOT good news)

-  When cortisol and adrenaline race unchecked through the body  - they have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system causing high blood pressure, heart palpitations and even aneurysms and strokes.  They also attack the immune system - so it becomes less able to protect us from infection and disease.

-  Next the cortisol bathes the brain’s nerve cells causing memories to literally shrink, affecting the ability to remember and think creatively.

~ and this is the state that we mostly live in... No wonder there is so much worry / anxiety and sickness in the world.

So what do we do... we learn how not just to cope but
HOW to ACTUALLY BE TRANSFORMED!!!

So the first thing we need to do is understand what a thought is.

In simple form we could say
A thought looks like a tree in your brain.

A tree with a trunk and many branches. (see pic of axon and dendrite tree on handout)

The more branches there are, the more intelligent and accessible the thought will be

-There are around 100 trillion trees in your brain.
-Each tree is capable of growing up to 70,000 branches!
=This means you have approximately three million years worth of storage space for information in your brain!

~
The more  you think, the more you understand. 

The more focused and aware your thinking, the more this synergy will occur, and the stronger the memory you will build. 

 = So the more strongly the branches of the trees are attached to the tree trunk.

If you pay only cursory attention to the content of your thoughts, your thinking will be on a lower level with less synergy. 

          And the memory you build in the tree will be correspondingly weak and pruned off when you sleep by little vacuum cleaners called glial cells. 

=This is what it means to forget.

Glial cells sort out your thinking, but they can’t do a good job unless you think clearly.

“Toxic thoughts, emotions and the chemicals they generate ... can and do negatively affect the free flow of these important electrochemical process in your brain.”
and
“When things aren’t flowing properly, the toxic waste builds up and diminishes the quality of stored memory.” 

“While toxic thoughts do not keep you from building memory, the memory you build is distorted and harmful.”

(So if i experience something and am in negative thinking or “fear”... then  the stuff in my “trees”... will be negative or fear based.)  wow.

~
There are 2 important groups of emotions (according to Dr Leaf)... and it is amazing how this lines up with Torah!

2 Types of emotions:
           1. Positive - faith based emotions
           2. Negative - fear-based emotions.

“Faith and Fear are not just emotions,
but spiritual forces with chemical and electrical representation in the body.  So they directly impact body function!!”

amazing!

Negative emotions evolve out of fear.
Positive emotions evolve out of faith.
Faith based emotion - examples:
love, joy, peace, happiness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, forgiveness and patience. (sound familiar? :) )

Fear automatically puts the body into stress mode and reaction. 

Fear based emotion - examples:
hate, worry, anxiety, anger, hostility, rage, ill-will, resentment, frustration, impatience, and irritation.

Anxiety - is one of the most toxic and can linger long after the threat has come and gone.  (Didn’t we mention anxiety is a crisis today?)

Hate goes with bitterness and resentment and anger ....
          .....and normally begins with a grievance. 

“Fear is the root of all stress.”
“Fear triggers 1,400 known physical and chemical responses and activates more than 30 different hormones and neurotransmitters!”

Emotions such as hate demand more and more space physically in the brain as well as in the thought life, causing many thorns to grow on the trees of the mind. 
Like weeds, they grow in abundance crowding everything else out.
When hate is allowed all that space, it integrates and eventually takes control of the trees of the mind and insidiously affects all your thoughts and emotions!!

(Think of this with the parable of the Sower!!!)

~
Your thoughts are represented in the body as 2 different electrochemical reactions:
          1.  Chemical - the endocrine system
          2.  Electrical - the nervous system

= Essentially this means
           = that the currency of your body is electromagnetic energy and      chemicals.

          What it also means is =
          =thoughts and emotions are connected and can never be separated.

So a thought and an emotion = a feeling take shape in your body and mind as electrochemical responses in the brain.

Don’t bail out on me here.... we can keep talking about brain physiology a bit and all understand enough...

*
To begin  to understand how we can control our thought lives...
 - we have to understand the limbic system...

The limbic system is not just part of your endocrine (hormone) system -  = it is the emotional center of your brain.

So let’s look at handout -  “A Thought is...”

The steps are:

1.     There is a stimulation - either internal (as a thought / idea)
          or external - from your 5 senses.

2.    This stimulation effects the Thalamus and Hypothalamus.  
          This is the “tree” center...  
          This activates memories.. and if the memory is :( or :)  I will respond :( or :) if i don’t have healing and maturation.
3.     It stimulates the Amygdala .. this is like a library of books and the books are the emotional perceptions of all the memories... 

-      We have to note that the connection from Thalamus/hypothalamus to Amygdala is much weaker than the connection of Amygdala to thalamus/hypothalamus... 
-      So what this means is - EMOTIONS ALWAYS RULE LOGIC!!

4.     The “breeze in the trees” happens = this is Dr. Leaf’s term for your brain goes looking for a tree with the memory in it that is similar to the new stimulation.... AND  Amygdala goes through the library books looking for an emotion like the current stimulation.

5.     Once a memory if sound in the trees and the books - the Thalamus releases chemicals - either destructive or life giving - based on what kind of memory this is - fear or faith... negative or positive...

6.     Thalamus also send message to Hippocampus - which holds the information for 48-72 hours... and Corpus Callosum “thinks/ analyzes the new stimuli... and it must decide to accept or reject the idea/ thought / stimulation etc.
7.    The Thalamus builds a new tree memory... 

8.    biochemicals continue to be sent out - washing over all the cells of the body, constantly effecting them positively or negatively.

What happens is - if this is negative... it is STRESS response that is on going...  or chronic...

and long term cortisol and other biochemicals cause weight gain, bone demineralization, decreased memory, decreased motivation, decreased joy and ANXIETY!!

So look at the bottom of the handout...


“So WE  add “comfort foods”.

Comfort foods are great ... short term... they pick us up and lift our mood and we feel better - usually for about 20 minutes...

and then... long term ... the comfort foods which are usually simple carbohydrates... cause a “downward spiral of negative feelings. 

Dr Leaf says... “Carbohydrates anesthetize the mind and dull the thinking process by acting  as a blanket that prevents you from listening to all the good news your peptides might be telling you.”

wow... so they really are way more harm than good. 
-         BUT -- they sure are good :)

~~
Something else to think about in all of this...  the LEV / HEART.

So now you know that your brain secretes chemicals according to the emotions your thoughts generate.

These chemicals have an electromagnetic charge that carries a photocopy of memories developed and sorted within the mind.

          = These are the information molecules (we talked about them in the beginning).. and they travel around the body influencing the various systems in an ordered sequence.

          Example.:  .. excessive STRESS =

First these chemicals go to your heart....

See on the handout where thalamus / hypothalamus are releasing chemicals...?...

The first place they go is your heart!

So Your heart literally FEELS the emotion that is causing the stress!!

Dr Leaf says....
-                            “Your heart, also has a mini-brain that operates like a “checking station” that evaluates the wisdom of thoughts, keeping rash decisions and impulsive thinking under control.  It struggles when a flood of rampaging thoughts and stress chemicals overwhelms it. 

          These stress chemicals affect your heart by increasing blood pressure or narrowing the arteries. 
          ... and This negatively affects your thinking as well as the physical wellbeing of your heart.”

~~
What was that verse we read in the beginning ... “As a man thinks in his heart - so is he.”   ??!!!
~~
So all the cells in your body are constantly being washed in either happy stuff or negative stuff!

It works like this:
          1. Your cells are constantly signaling other cells through the release of brain     chemicals known as neuropeptides which bind with receptors.
         
          2.  Receptors are the little locks on the outside of the cell that allow certain neuropeptides to enter the cell.  - they are very discriminating... and only allow neuropeptides in - that match their shape.

-                                           This is a big deal to your health b/c any cellular change from an excess of stress hormones actually corrode or change the shape of the receptors which allows foreign neurochemicals or viruses to get int the cell!!

So, literally positive thoughts make us well and negative thoughts really make us sick!

**
An example...
If i have a negative math experience...  I have a negative tree and i also have a library book of negative emotions. 

If the math experience seems too hard and I don’t want to go there.. I can shut down and if i do - the glial cells will actually eat up the concepts in the brain - so i can’t do it if i even want to!

But if i don’t just bail out and I keep trying - my unhealthy reaction is going to be to negative... because the trees and the books about math are negative. 

~~ This is a better explanation of my story of the burnt hand in warm dishwater.... If you don’t know i have a burn and i just put my hands in the warm dishwater and you see me cry out and jump back... you don’t know why my reaction is what it is...  a hurt not healed...
...well that is what those negative trees and books are - hurts that are not healed. 

So i can decide... the new “thought” that is coming in as stimulation etc... Is something that i want to keep - or something that i am not keeping. 

Just because it is there in my little brain - doesn’t mean i have to keep it!!

And nobody tells us this!!!

~~
It is important to understand that our emotions are not separate from our thoughts!
          After all the years of us being told they are and / or acting like they are...  (ugh.)

         
“Your emotions are literally cellular signals that translate information into a physical reality.”
         
-                        The billions of cells in your body are covered with receptors  - little receivers on the cell membrane. 
-                         As these bio-chemicals flow over the receptors they look for the ones they will fit into, much like  key fits into a lock.  When they find the one that fits- they latch on and transfer the message into the cell and then bump off again.

This goes on and on throughout your body and brain at the same time.

This means that not just your brain has memory. 
But our CELLS ALSO HAVE MEMORY.

Because of this cellular memory and all the communication going on all the time between the cells of your body and brain, your body literally reflects your thought life.     Wow!

~~
So... as soon as you are exposed to a stimuli / stressor - what you do NEXT is a BIG DEAL!!

What if a stimuli or stressor comes... and i find a memory in a tree and i find a book with an emotion in.... that somehow relates into the current stimuli/stressor.... 
what if it is there - not for me to panic (which most of the world does) but what if that is there as a sign that i need to decide something and i need to RESPOND  AFTER i get past the FEAR.????

You need  to ask questions like “Can I handle it?  How do i handle it?” 
At this point, you need to work out logically and analytically how you will handle a situation.

This allows you to move from a reactive to a proactive state.  you take control back again.

Dr Leaf says... “When your thoughts go wrong, your emotions rule; to overcome that, you need to learn to rule your emotions with wisdom and rational thinking.”

Emotional perceptions aren’t reliable b/c they can misinterpret the truth:  they mix truth and fact.... 

          ...when allowed to run unchecked, their chemical nature, causes them to rule the brain....
          The resulting biochemistry immediately throws the body into a stress reaction that is potentially dangerous.

The intensity of the stress response will depend on how serious you think the consequences will be if you fail to cope adequately with the challenge that faces you.

Emotional perceptions are designed to create alertness,
 to guide but not rule.

 You need to TAKE THEM CAPTIVE, tame, and control them, take the opportunity to evaluate them thoroughly before believing them and acting upon them!!

***
So ... what can we do?... How do we change things in us?

          How do we detox our brains and our whole selves???

          Dr John Sarno  says...”Thoughts do cause illness and should thus be studied and controlled.” 

BUT the GREATEST news is...
 --- “If they are powerful enough to make us sick, they are powerful enough to make us healthy as well.”

... that’s why your thinking is essential to detox the brain.

Amazing what YHWH has given us...

You know, of all the things that have been messed up and reversed... 
the worst is the way we think!...
It is time to make changes!!

**  ~~** **~~  **~~  **~~  **~~  **~~ **~~
How to Detox your thoughts and your whole self....

STEP 1 - CONSCIOUSLY CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS

**This is not just the first step in the process - it is the MAIN STEP IN DETOXING .**

 ASK YOURSELF:
 How many “could-haves,” “would-have” or “should-have” statements have you uttered today.
How many “if-onlys” were part of your inner vocabulary today?

How many times have you replayed a conversation or situation in your head that pained you?
Is your mind passive? - are you a SHEEPEL?

Are you honest with yourself?

Do you go through the motions of the day, not really committed to a goal, saying one thing but meaning another?

Is your thinking distorted?

 Are you forming a personal identity around a problem or disease?  Do you speak about “my arthritis,” “my MS,” or “my heart problem”?

Do you ever make comments like “nothing ever goes right for me,” “everything I touch fails,” or “I always mess up” ?

--- If you answered yes  even to one of these your thought life needs detoxing RIGHT NOW.
         
Dr John Sarno’s (pain books) - says...”Thoughts do cause illness and should thus be studied and controlled”

The great news is....
 --- “If they are powerful enough to make us sick, they are powerful enough to make us healthy as well.”
... that’s why your thinking is essential to detox the brain.

“Consciously controlling your thought life means not letting thoughts rampage through your mind, but learning to engage interactively with each one. 

Your job is to analyze a thought before you decide either to accept or reject it.”

How do you do this?....  by “looking” at your mental processes - this is essential.

this process is similar to cognitive behavior therapy but you don’t need a therapist...

Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. Aaron Beck believed that toxic emotions arise from 3 negative and incorrect beliefs that people commonly think:
1.  I must do well
2.  You must treat me well
3.  The world must be easy. (Janet would say The world must be just/fair.)

-      We need to ditch unrealistic thinking.

Key principles to kick-start the process of controlling your toxic thoughts:
                  
1.  Thoughts create your mood

2.  When you experience a fear based emotion, you will feel depressed               and your thoughts will be characterized by negativity.
                  
3.  A negative thought linked to emotional turmoil will be distorted
                  
4 Simple techniques involved in the first step of controlling our thought life:
           1-Understand how a thought forms. 
          2-Use your brains’ natural “strainer” that increases conscious awareness of your thoughts and feelings and leads into the process of actively analyzing incoming information and thoughts.
          But this is been here... So the question is... if the strainer was there all the time - why isn’t it doing its job??
          b/c if you are not performing the analytical (thinking) process of asking, answering and discussing required, it doesn’t filter properly.

 When you consciously engage with information that is coming into your brain and think about it purposefully, you literally switch on this strainer to work at its best capacity.

          The strainer allows you to select approximately 15%-35% of what you read, hear and see, while getting rid of the remaining 65% -85% that is superfluous.

          3- Make a conscious decision to accept  the thought (if it is good for you) or reject it (if it is bad for you).
          -Ask-answer-discuss allows your corpus callosum and frontal lobes         to effectively sift information.  (do this out loud)
          you can also talk to persons you trust
          At some point you have to decide

          4-Never let thoughts just wander through your mind unchecked. 
          If they are toxic they will eventually make you sick.
          Thoughts are real things with substance, as as such need to be        controlled.

          This requires taking TIME to look at your thoughts.

          “Until you have your thoughts and attitudes under control, no amount of knowledge , skill or medication can help you to truly detox.
          You will need courage and perseverance to confront and control your thoughts.        
          Deal with emotional strongholds and build strong memory.

          memory is important in detoxing the brain

          Toxic thoughts build toxic memories

          The only chance you have to prevent a toxic memory is in the straining process when the information is still in the hippocampus.

          Once a thought is received, a memory is built and it becomes easier to access the more it is used.
 If the memory is healthy the process benefits you.
If the memory is a bad one, it  hurts you every time it is accessed.

Positive, healthy, engaged and interactive thinking will literally detox your brain, b/c it forces integrated networking and the growth of links between stored memories. 

Correct, positive thinking is also shown to “grow” your brain... new connections form... this means that as you get older, you CAN increase your intelligence without limits, as long as the input is positive and health.   !!!

DETOX STEP 2  FRAME YOUR WORLD WITH YOUR WORDS

WORDS = electromagnetic life forces that come from a thought inside your brain and are influenced by your five senses.  They contain power and work hand-in-hand with your thought life, influencing the world around you and the circumstances of your life.

(Janet - that Japanese guy who spoke over water - and photographed the water crystals.)
DETOX STEP 3 : EXPRESS THOSE EMOTIONS

example  - the closet stuffed full before guests arrive ...and then      explodes.

          If you repress and hide toxic emotions, the time will surely come when those buried emotions will suddenly come pouring out.  And of course, it will happen at the most inopportune time, b/c buried emotions are not controlled, thoughtful emotions. 

Signs of suppressed emotions :  irritability, short temper, over-reactivity, anxiety, frustration, fear, impulse, a desire for control, perfectionism, self-doubt.

Don’t deny your feelings...  acknowledge them, face them and deal with them in a positive way as soon as you can.

DETOX STEP 4:  TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND TAKE CONTROL

Research shows the metacognitive  (beyond consciousness) level is responsible for 90% of what’s happening in the mind, and the cognitive level is responsible for only 10%.

Your mind holds the network together linking and coordinating the body’s systems and all its organs and cells in an intelligently orchestrated symphony.

You must consciously force the metacognitive and the cognitive levels to interact. 
-You can do this by consciously thinking about what is in your mind which allows you literally to access the psychosomatic (body-mind) network where the memories are stored and redirect it.

“Start by - brining your awareness to past experiences and conditioning -memories and emotions stored  in your trees, amygdala and in the peptides flowing  over the receptors of your cells.”
         
(Janet - Think about your attitude/s and beliefs...  are you positive or negative... what kind of memories do you constantly play over and over?  Positive or negative??      What do you hope?    Story of D’mar... the one kid who wasn’t the main ball player on the state champion baseball team... and texted Kevin ... “10 years ago today we won state”.... and has taken that and made the most out of it.)

What do you DO with what you have gotten??
Do you make the most out of it??

DETOX STEP 5 :  DREAM ON!

Detoxing your brain doesn’t just happen when you are awake.  !!
When dreaming - different parts of your body/mind are exchanging information, and your glial cells are cleaning up your memory networks.

On a physiological level,your dream state allows the psychosomatic network to retune itself and get ready for the demands of your waking life. 
-Dreams not only have content but feelings.
-Capturing the dream in some form can be enlightening and help you to control your thoughts. 
-Write down your dreams.
-This is a process by which metacognition meets cognition.
-We all dream.
-Be advised:  the more turbulent and disturbing your dreams, the more work you have to do on your thought life.

“The crucial first step to using your dreams as part of the detox process is simply to decide to remember them. 
          This is part of your free will and benefits will flow.  If you are looking for some practical, low-tech, inexpensive self-help as you detox, dream analysis is it.”

DETOX STEP 6:  THINK FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is a choice.
It enables you to release all those toxic thoughts of anger, resentment, bitterness, shame, grief, regret, guilt and hate.
As long as these toxic thoughts dominate your mind, you will not be able to grow new healthy thoughts and memories!!
Forgiveness is like taking an emotional shower: it cleanses and frees the entrapped soul.”  - Dr. Don Colbert author of Deadly Emotions.

Forgiveness is...
          Not making excuses for someone’s behavior, but literally IS forgiving despite behavior.
          Not ignoring pain or hurt, but it is choosing to let go of the person who hurt you.
          Not letting someone off the hook but it is leaving that person in God’s hands.
          Not a weakness, but it is a sign of great courage.
(Janet - not forgetting .  5 stages of- “i’m sorry”, forgive, cordial - not forgetting, testing, trust and restoration)

Those who develop an ability to forgive, have greater control over their emotions and are significantly less angry, upset and hurt, and consequently much healthier.  p 123 - study at Univ. of Wisconsin.


DETOX STEP 7:  LOVE - TUNE INTO YOUR HEART

“Studies show clear changes in the patterns of activity of the autonomic nervous system, immune system, hormonal system, brain and heart when you experience emotions such as appreciation, love, care and compassion.”

“Research shows that the heart considers and ‘thinks’ about info it receives from the brain.  This implies that the heart has opinions of its own.  It acts as a still small voice that checks our thoughts for accuracy, integrity and wisdom.  This ‘mini-brain’ in the heart literally functions like a conscience.”
-Listen to your heart.
          Thinking of all the blessings in your life.
          Developing an attitude of gratitude.
          Not thinking painful thoughts
          Focusing on and spending time with people who bring you joy and                    happiness
          Not allowing  fear to could the messages from the heart.

Your heart is not just a pump.  It is your body’s strongest biological oscillator, which means it has he ability to pull every other system of the body into its own rhythm.

When you experience God’s love and the love of people, your heart speeds up its communication with the mind and body through the blood flow.  Life is in the blood as it is the body’s transport system, and the heart is in charge of making sure the transport works.  Health travels from the brain to the heart in electrical signals and then through to the rest of the body.

DETOX STEP 8:  MONKEY-HUG THERAPY

“One of the most essential elements of human development”
“Powerful healing force”

Touch releases endorphins and enkephalins from the area in the brain called the periaquenductal grey (PAG), and which break the negative feedback loops.  !!!

study - baby rhesus monkeys at Univ of Wisconsin... babies - wire mom’s and bottle fed with no touch... signs of stress, trauma, and depression - but all that went away when they brought in older monkeys who hugged and cuddled them.

You need to give and receive loving touch.

DETOX STEP 9:  PLAY AND LAUGH

Play = :) form of stress reduction

Laughter = “internal jogging”
          Releases “feel-good” chemicals and boots the immune system.
          Almost spontaneously, it reduces levels of stress hormones.  A really good laugh can make cortisol drop by 39%, adrenalin by 70% and the “feel-good hormone,” endorphin increase by 29%.  It can even make growth hormones skyrocket by 87%!! 
          Laughter boots your immune system by increasing levels of gamma interferon which protects against respiratory tract infection.

          Humor promotes synergy, interaction between both hemispheres of your brain.
          laughter helps increase the flexibility of thought and is as effective as aerobic exercise in boosting health in body and mind.
          Laughing 100-200 X a day is equal to 10 minutes of rowing or jogging!

Having fun through play is the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to control toxic thoughts and emotions and their toxic stress reaction.  It rejuvenates the mind, body and the spirit and gets positive emotions flowing. 

DETOX STEP 10:  EXERCISE

This is not so much about cv fitness ... but more about increased blood flow which nourishes and cleanses the brain and organs. 

If you sweat - you will release endorphins  :)

Aerobic exercise helps to sweep away the debris left by toxic thoughts and emotions.

DETOX STEP 11:  DIET
p 130
Eating is not as simple as it may seem... it is a highly emotional and metacognitive event.

Your large and small intestines are densely lined with neuropeptides and receptors, all busily exchanging information laden with emotional content.    This is why you experience what has been called a “gut feeling”.  Do not ignore this information.

-The pancreas releases at least 20 different emotionally laden peptides that regulate the assimilation and storage of nutrients all carrying information about being full or hungry.

“Do NOT eat when you are not hungry, when you are angry, or in any other unpleasant emotion.  This will make the food you eat or drink - toxic b/c the emotions generated by toxic thoughts interfere with the proper workings of the digestive system.  You won’t assimilate the nutrients you need from the food optimally.  The digestive process will either speed up or slow down.  Either way it creates more toxins for your body.”

Some experts recommend controlling or reducing your carbohydrate intake - especially refined carbohydrates.. mostly in the form of sugar, bread, pasta, rice, cakes cookies etc.  = “comfort foods”. 
          ** They do release “feel-good” chemicals but this is short lived and then they tend to precipitate a downward spiral into negative feelings.  !! p 131

“Carbohydrates are not optimum foods for thinking ... they anesthetize the mind and dull the thinking process by acting as a blanket that prevents you from listening to all the good news your peptides might be telling you.”  !!!

“ A diet overloaded with carbohydrates and bad fats (particularly trans fats  - the ones that are industrially created as  a side effect or partial hydrogenation of plant oils) will tend to add to your body’s toxic load.” p 132

“stable blood sugar levels are proving to be the key to keeping weight stable.”

“Your weight is effected by your thought life.  Your thoughts are likely to careen completely out of control without ‘good fats’, the essential fatty acids  such as the omega 3 and 6 that you get from oily fish, eggs, nuts and seeds.  They are essential because your body has to have them for all its physical and mental processes.”  !!

What you eat is an important part of controlling your thoughts!

(Janet - also chemicals and gmo issues - based on Torah and just some logic!)

Water is hugely important.  3 days without water and the membranes of your brain are irreversibly affected and within 7 days of not drinking you will be dead.

DETOX STEOP 12:  THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT

“You are a spiritual being.  No healing of toxic waste in your mind and body will be compete unless you address spirituality.”

Dr Leaf says... “In a sense, it is not energy acting on matter to create behavior, but intelligence in the form of information running all the systems and creating behavior,  This for me, is the Holy Spirit.    Spirituality moves away from the ultimate mechanical godless universe peopled by clocklike organisms ... and is instead - an intelligent information network run by an Intelligent Designer, conceived on a level where only faith operates.”

DETOX STEP 13:  RELAX!!!

“ACCELERATION SYNDROME” = The ever increasing pace of life and it is causing a global epidemic of hurry sickness.”

“There are many solutions offered for ‘hurry sickness’ - such as time management and learning to delegate and prioritize,... they are having the opposite effect.”  !!

“They are actually increasing the pace of life, creating a time squeeze in which we are encouraged to cram even more into an hour.  They only aggravate the problem they are supposed to be addressing.  They make you time poor, and that poverty is extending to your thought life.  Your time is precious and it belongs only to you.  Every day you make choices about how you are going to spend your time.  Learning to spend it wisely is an important part of controlling your thoughts.”

The next time you think you don’t have time - think again. 

Every organ and muscle in our body has a sympathetic or stress state and a parasympathetic or relaxed state.  Both of these systems are part of the autonomic nervous system.  “Researchers at the Institute of HeartMath have found that the toxic emotions experienced as a result of this “busy-rush syndrome” cause disruptions to the autonomic nervous system that lead to erratic heart rhythms and other health problems.”

“Take time to do things that generate positive emotions, and the result will be more coherent heart rhythms.  This rhythm is a balance between the sympathetic (accelerates the heartbeat) and the parasympathetic (slows the heartbeat) nervous systems.  Therefore, relaxing is not just a luxury, its a necessity.  Toxic thoughts throw this balance off and predispose you to sickness.  Learn to balance your work and rest.”

Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, stretching/flexibility, imagine a relaxing scene, meditation/ prayer, message (touch therapy), aerobic exercise, daily quiet time all to yourself, sleep. 

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So i leave you with this...

Story of Avraham...

Avraham  had a promise... that was all he had....  but he had DEFIANT  FAITH that chose to believe YHWH - no matter how his life looked....  He stood in faith that what YHWH said - HE will do. 

This is the “art” of positive thinking.  - not that he was perfect in this by any means.... but he hung on to the thread that was there....

Do you have defiant faith - to have the courage to trust - when you can’t see the positive  yet - ...

to be an overcomer ...
to be transformed...
to heal your whole being - with the EMET / TRUTH of  YHWH...

to begin to live from the Etz Chayim ???....

AMEIN.


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