Did you know that rescent medical research now shows that people with chronic stress, anxiety, and depression age faster, as much as six times faster? Catch the latest podcast of AWAKE with Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show, as we explore some simple things you can do to increase your longevity, health, and happiness!
AWAKE & ENJOY!
Dr. Jay Kumar
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Brain Waves and the Power of Attention
Neuropsychology now believes that the human brain allows us to process two distinct types of attention. The first is a “voluntary or direct” attention that enables us to focus our thoughts and neural energy to tasks that require our direct concentration, e.g. writing this article, watching a movie, or reading a book. The other type is an “involuntary or indirect” attention that our brain does with little or no effort, e.g. watching a sunset, meditating, having a casual conversation, or dancing.
Additionally, there are corresponding brain waves associated with these two types of attention. When our brains are engaged in voluntary, direct attention requiring focused concentration, beta waves tend to be predominant. On the contrary, our brains produce alpha waves when we experience involuntary, indirect attention requiring no fixed awareness. The two other brain waves, theta and delta, are predominant during sleep with theta waves occurring in deep-sleep and delta waves during REM dream-sleep.
While having our brain in beta-wave state is important, as it helps us to focus on daily tasks, unfortunately, many of us live a typical life with our brains disproportionately in the stressful beta-wave state and barely enough time in the healing and regenerative alpha-wave state. Unlike theta and delta waves that occur predominantly in sleep, the healing and regenerative properties of alpha waves are produced only when we are conscious and awake.
In our current technologically driven world, we are on average bombarded with 4,000 bits of information/second and about 700 ads a day. The brain is overwhelmed with all this sensory data, as it requires our attention to be in “voluntary or direct” mode and our brains to reside in the constantly stressful beta-waves for the majority of our day while awake. Rarely, do we take the time in our waking state for the brain to go into the calming, soothing alpha-waves and into “involuntary and indirect” attention.
Mind-Body Connection
In the growing medical field of psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI), there appears to be a correlation between the various brain waves with our health and wellbeing. When our brains are highly amped up in focused direct attention for long hours at a time, we live our day predominantly in a beta-wave state accompanied with the release of cortisol, the stress-hormone that eventually may lead to chronic anxiety, illness and disease. The good news is that involuntary, indirect attention produces the alpha-waves that produce beta-endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin, neurotransmitters that enable us to become relaxed, calm, and centered when we’re in stress throughout our day. This evolutionary mechanism wired into our neurology is known as the relaxation response. This built-in relaxation response suggests that our brains and nervous systems enable us to experience a state of calm and relaxation in moments of stress and anxiety.
Natrue as Healer
So can you guess what’s one of the easiest ways for us to enhance the alpha-waves of calm and centeredness and to stimulate our natural relaxation response? The answer, of course, is NATURE! Another emerging field of study, known as ecopsychology, advocates that even though the human brain is currently shaped for our modern and technologically-driven environment, its original function was to interact with and respond to the natural world in which it evolved over the millennia. In essence, the human brain is literally “hard-wired” to BE IN NATURE, as being in nature is natural for the brain.
According to this field of study, human beings have an instinctual biological need to connect with nature, something known as the biophilic instinct, a concept advanced by the Harvard biologist Edward Wilson. The idea is that humans and the human brain evolved over millennia as beings deeply enmeshed with and inexorably linked to the intricacies of nature. Wilson describes biophilia as the "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes." Even though our human brain has recently adapted to an environment of technology and sensory stimulation, we each still have this affinity for nature ingrained in our genotype and in our neurobiology. This evolutionary connection to nature activates in the part of the brain known as the insula, the area that governs our internal feelings and sensations. So when we dance, do yoga meditate, focus on our breath, swim, run, or are in nature we begin to connect to the internal terrain of our body. The insula gauges how we’re feeling and what we’re experiencing within our body and mind in the present moment.
Relaxation Response
This ability to tap into the relaxation response through nature appears also to have a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing. Scientific studies have already begun and continue to demonstrate the powerful healing aspects of nature. Dr. Ulrich published one of the earliest studies in 1984 Science, in which he noticed that patients who were recovering from surgery healed more quickly and required less pain medication when placed in hospital rooms that had views of nature, versus patients placed in rooms facing brick walls. Ulrich conjectured that this acceleration in healing was perhaps a result of the brain connecting to nature. It appears that when we are immersed in nature, our brains go automatically into the involuntary, indirect attention-mode that is connected with the healing alpha-wave brain state. Research suggests that even a short walk in the park during your lunch break, touching a tree on your walk to the office, or literally “stopping to smell the roses” once in a while is beneficial, as it is an evolutionary trait that our brains evolved to do. Furthermore, even passive contact with nature such as viewing an open pasture in your car or hearing the sound of birds chirping from your window can have the same powerful benefits as an actual immersion in nature.
When the brain’s alpha and beta waves are equally in balance throughout our waking day, we experience psycho-physiological coherence, a deep and profound state of integration of the body, mind, and brain. The longer we can produce coherence, the stronger our immune system, our health, and wellbeing. Being in nature, again, is one of the easiest and most effective ways to cultivate this balance of the brain waves and to switch into our involuntary, calm mode of attention. So it appears that science is beginning to validate that nature truly has a profound calming and soothing effect on the mind and our neurobiology. So what better time than spring to get out in nature and experience its healing power! As the poet Thoreau beautifully states, “I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.”
Have a joyous and beautiful spring as you continue Living Your Light®
Dr. Jay Kumar
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The key to authentic health and happiness may actualy be in how you choose to breathe. Enjoy the latest podcast by Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show explaining the science, spirituality, and the healing power of the breath!
Remember to BREATHE!
Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
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I’ll give an example of just how powerful our thoughts can be on our brain and body. Scientists at Columbia University conducted an experiment where volunteers were connected to a PET (positron emission tomography) as part of a study to see how neurochemicals in the brain react to pain in the body. The people in the experiment received a pain-producing stimulus of minor heat on their arm. As predicted, the brain registered the pain and released opioids, a neurochemical that relieves pain. The same people were then told to apply a lotion on their arm that they believed was a new experimental painkiller, when in actuality it was just simple body lotion. When the volunteers received the same stimulus, the scientists discovered that higher levels of opioids were produced and secreted from the brain in response to the pain on the area of the arm where the placebo cream was placed. (Full article here)
To quote Dr. Tor Wager, the leading researcher of the experiment, “These results extend our knowledge of how beliefs and expectations affect the brain's neurochemistry and show that one's mental response to a challenge can affect the brain and body in ways that are relevant to health….Understanding these interactions can pave the way for new treatments that are informed by knowledge of mind-body interactions.” In essence this amazing research now validates the adage that our psychology does indeed influence our biology!
The point here is that science is only now beginning to understand the power of human thought, an idea that has existed for millennia in indigenous medical system and in spiritual traditions throughout human history. I’ve always believed that the next major scientific breakthrough will occur when we truly understand the vast capacity of human consciousness and how we ALL ARE HEALERS! As Dr. W. Ross Adey of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA rightfully declares, “The ultimate creative capacity of your brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite.” I would like to amend his statement by saying, “The ultimate healing capacity of your brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite.”
Always remember just how amazing, and incredible you are. The key to your health and happiness is to cultivate more empowering thoughts, intentions, words and emotions as part of your daily life. I will discuss more ways in which we can do this in the next blog. Until then, keep on Living Your Light® as you keep on Believing In Your Light!
Dr. Jay Kumar
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Change is one of the most challenging aspects of life, especially when change manifests suddenly or unexpectedly as loss, a matter I’ve blogged about in previous posts. (Read more here) Specifically, fear of change or feeling out of control amidst change is a topic that I find myself often exploring with clients. As the noted scientist and natural philosopher Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” No matter how fit or strong you are physically, it is your mental and psychological ability to adapt and respond to change that is the most important survival tool in life.
Before exploring how you can deal with the fear of change, let’s briefly talk about the emotion of fear. Neuroscience advocates that fear is a natural evolutionary product of our collective biology that we inherited from our early human ancestors. Fear was a survival mechanism that protected us from real and immediate threats. Even though most humans now live in a world relatively free from constant danger, our brains are incapable of distinguishing between real versus perceived fear. For example, you experience “fight or flight” fear when your life is truly at risk, e.g. think of being chased by a lion in the African savannah. Contrarily, the fear of public speaking or of confronting your boss for a raise is a self-inflicted perceived fear of a future, non-imminent situation. While “fight or flight” fear is an autonomic biological response that is real and crucial for survival, all other types of perceived fear are self-created and, therefore, can be controlled. In essence, there’s a difference when your life is truly at risk and when you’re taking a risk. Our neurobiology makes it difficult, but not impossible, for many of us to harness the primal areas of our brain that produce biological fear. However, the good news is that perceived and self-created fear appears to be a product of our higher cognitive brain that, with practice, we can more readily tame. Fear of change, which falls into the latter category, is something we fortunately have the power to manage.
So why, then, do we fear change? I believe the answer is that change creates the perception that we have no control of our life. It is the dread of not being in control that we really fear, which in turn produces the accompanying anxiety and stress. While many of us might enjoy the status quo and feel complacent in a life without change, we must understand that change is the fundamental rule of nature. Your cells, skin, hair, and nails change regularly to keep your bodies healthy and strong. The seasons in nature change annually to produce new life and food on the planet. Therefore, change is literally within and all around helping us and all life on the planet to thrive. Basically, without change life would perish.
So how can you cope with your fear of change? Here are some tools that you might find helpful.
1) The first step to control your fear of change is your ability to view it as an inherent part of your life. In a previous post, I mentioned that “Suffering = Resistance to Change.” (Read more here) The more you resist change in your life, the more anguish you experience.
2) Another handy tool is to re-conceptualize the word “change” with other terms. Words such as growth, renewal, evolution, or transformation are all synonyms for change. What those words have in common is the underlying and inherent principle of change.
3) Another key to embracing change is to practice mindfulness and to focus your thoughts on the present moment. (Read more here) Doing so allows your thoughts and consciousness not to dwell on the unknown future, but rather on the “here and now.”
4) Deep-belly breathing is another scientifically proven method to alleviate the emotion of fear and the physical sensations that accompany it. (Watch breathing video here) Remember, fear is just a form of energy. As energy can never be destroyed but merely transformed from one state to another, your fear can also be transformed. I strongly believe that fear is nothing more than excitement without the breath.
5) Another effective tool that I personally use and highly encourage to my clients is to make a daily affirmation. While it can be anything that you find helpful, I regularly use the following, “I live my day as I embrace change as part of my life. I am powerful and have the strength to create the life that I wish. I know that the universe (God) is conspiring for my greatest good and happiness!”
On a final note, when your fear of change is not properly checked, it can manifest in unhealthy ways in your life. Not only are there physical dangers of living constantly in a state of fear, but there are also emotional and psychological concerns when you fear change. On an individual level, you may react to change with resistance, anger, and violence toward yourself and even toward the world. On a national and political level, when a society or a culture fears change, it often leads to war, violence, and acts of terror. I venture to say that many of the terrorist acts we witness of late are the result of those who fear the massive changes happening in society and who choose to respond from a place of anger and hatred . I’ll discuss more of this in a later post.
Again, the key to your finding harmony and peace in life is to embrace the fundamental law of nature that everything changes. How you choose to respond to life’s changes, either with fear and resistance or with acceptance and flow, is the key to your health and wellbeing. The more you can embrace the power of change in your life and not fear it, the more we all will thrive as individuals, a culture, and a planet. To rephrase Darwin’s original quote with an example in nature, the bamboo that has the ability to bend is much stronger and endures longer than the oak that resists!
Keep on Living Your Light® as you learn to embrace the flow and change in your life!
Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
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Check out the latest episode (My 13, 2010) of Reality Sandwich with guest Dr. William Stewart, acclaimed author, physician and Director of The Institute for Health & Healing at California Pacific Medical Center as he shares his insights on integrative medicine and tips on how you can achieve "personal and planetary" health from his book Deep Medicine.