MORPHEUS SAID TO NEO, "FREE YOUR MIND!"

#Neuroscience tells us the brain is not the mind. The #brain evolves in relation to its environment. If you grew up in a home where you experienced #neglect, #abuse, #rejection, constant #criticism, or #trauma, this has influenced the development of your brain. Even when our home environments were essentially ok, it is not uncommon to receive messages from parents, relatives and early authorities that there is something wrong with us, or we are stupid, unattractive, a failure etc. When our brain is socialized in such a manner we find we experience many unhelpful brain messages. Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Dr. Rebecca Gladding list a few of these brain messages in their book, "You Are Not Your Brain":

I’m not good enough.

There’s something wrong with me.

I don’t deserve to be happy.

No one likes me.

I have no control.

I don’t matter.

My worth depends upon taking care of others.

My value depends upon being perfect.

My wishes or goals are unrealistic or unattainable.

There's something wrong with me

However, the brain is not the mind. The mind is focused attention. When I take a shower, am I taking a shower or am I making a shopping list? When we know what we are doing as we are doing it, we are using our mind. Can you sense the chair supporting your body when you are sitting? When we focus our attention, we are practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation is a practice to help free the mind from the brain and its unhelpful messages. Most of the brain messages are related to past conditioning. Mindfulness invites us to greet and live in the present.

As we practice mindfulness meditation, we grow an #Observational #Consciousness; we increase the capacity to observe the brain messages. The capacity for observation detaches us from the messages to a certain extent. One sees the thought "I am not good enough" and recognizes that is past conditioning. What gives these brain messages power to influence our emotional health is if we do not know they are there or if we give them our belief, our faith. The practice of #mindfulness #meditation makes us acutely aware of what is happening within.

With the daily practice of mindfulness, we grow in the capacity to free our mind from the clutches of the brain. You are not your brain. You are the author of your mind. What is the next chapter you will create? (Check out the Helpful Resources tab and start with the body scan.)