Journal

This information is taken from the book ‘How God Changes Your Brain’ Andrew Newberg MD & Marc Waldman.

8. Smile

Smiling tells the brain you are ok. When you smile it releases dopamine and other relaxing neurochemicals. It also leads other people to respond to you in a more generous and kinder way.

It works even if you don’t feel like it so fake it until you make it! Learn to let go, lighten up and smile.

7. Intense Intellectual Stimulation

Learning new things strengthens the neural connections in your frontal lobes. This improves your ability to communicate, solve problems and make rational decisions about your behaviours. Use it or lose it!

6. Consciously Relax

Your frontal lobes are more active when you feel relaxed allowing for better brain function.

A great way to do this is to use a progressive relaxation. Just go through each part of your body and allow each part to relax as you focus on it. You can imagine a relaxing colour spreading over you or all the cells smiling as you go. Another way is to focus on your breathing, noticing the gentle rise of your abdomen as you inhale and the fall as you exhale. Otherwise just use any of your favorite ways to relax such as listening to calming music.

5. Yawn

Apparently, yawning will relax you and bring you into a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique. It improves cognitive function, memory recall, empathy, relaxation and lowers stress. Try yawning a few times when you wake up, before you go to sleep, if you feel anxious, stressed or before an important event. However it may not look so good in front of an important meeting so choose your time and place to do it!

When you yawn, this temporarily suspends all brain disorder symptoms. It resets the correct metabolism and consciousness in the brain. It is contagious like neural empathy.