Brain health | ||
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Can't be bothered?
This is perhaps the laziest era in recorded history.
People are not wanting a challenge.
They lack interest,
passion, patience and enthusiasm.
Rather than work, people just want to be entertained.
Like spoiled children...
Bored?
Apathy, indolence, laziness, listlessness and indifference can all be signs
of fatigue and depression.
These are not healthy.
Treat your brain with care and respect.
Rest
Just as muscular tension prevents relaxed, free movement of the joints,
psychological clutter impedes the mind. It is necessary for the mind to
become empty and relaxed.
Instead of thinking constantly, comparing, problem solving, judging and
remembering, be present, be here and now.
Water
Make sure that you drink a lot of water throughout the day. 1.5 - 2 litres
is best.
Stimulants
Contrary to what people believe, caffeine-laced stimulants will not improve
your brain health. Avoid sugar and caffeine.
Alcohol
What
alcohol does to
your body, brain & health | Huberman Lab podcast #86
Acuity
A healthy brain is capable of dealing with change. It can see things
clearly. Insights flow easily and the ability to adapt spontaneously is
heightened. You begin to learn from everything you see around you.
A more flexible, healthy brain gives you a major edge.
If there is
any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human
brain - the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool
devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can't even begin to
fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of
technology in sophistication and usefulness.
(Robert Greene)
Mind
Once you are training tai chi, you must supplement physical training by
reading the recommended books.
These titles will expand your consciousness, increase your awareness,
develop a more flexible mind and make you receptive to unforeseen
possibilities.
Ultimately, the time you commit to your mental development will prove to be
just as valuable as the physical training.
Mind leads the body
Tai chi is understood by doing. It is a physical activity. You cannot claim
to have any grasp of the art by only watching video clips or reading a book.
It is necessary to physically experience the art using your body.
Mind tension
Most people's arms are extremely tense and they don't even realise it.
Why? Why are people's arms tense?
Your hand is the primary tool employed by the mind for the exploration of
reality. You touch, you hold, you press, you pull, you manipulate most
things using your hands.
Jacob Bronowski wrote "The hand is the cutting
edge of the mind." There's your answer. A tense arm is the
by-product of a mind that is not in any way relaxed and at ease.
Staying tense
There is a direct correlation between mental tension - over-thinking,
anxiety, frustration, worrying, anger, stress - and physical tension in the
body.
Indeed, students who are actively sharing news snippets and regurgitating
political views on Facebook are inevitably the most tense in class, have the
most trouble concentrating and subsequently make little or no progress
through the syllabus. Their brains have been hijacked by the mass media. If
you want to stop being tense, you need to switch it all off.
Metacognition
Initially a student gains a certain level of understanding. This is merely a
starting place.
With further study and discussion, the student discovers more. They then
employ the insights in their tai chi practice. The student goes deeper. You
can always go deeper.
Principles
Imagine an instructor who was unfamiliar with The Tai Chi Classics? Or had never read Chuang Tzu, Tao Te Ching,
The Art of War or The Book of Five
Rings repeatedly over many years?
Reading these books provides a necessary background for the art. But more
than that; they help the student to gain the degree of mental flexibility
required to practice tai chi properly.
The classic texts cannot be quickly or easily understood. They must be read
over and over again.
Unrelated authors such as Krishnamurti can further stretch the mind and
assist in the process of comprehension.
We are checking our smartphones on
average 221 times a day. Recent research found that 80 percent of
millennials look at their phones upon waking; this addiction is a strong
one. As a result, our cognitive processing has become shallower and we have
become so distracted that we play directly into the hands of the autopilot.
Digital devices are the modern day equivalent of tranquillisers. They instil
a trance-like state almost immediately as they are anchors for our
subconscious to take over.
(Chris Barez-Brown)
Explanations
Many people imagine that everything can be explained using words. A common
myth suggests that the failure to convey reality via language is a failing
of the teacher. This is absurd.
Try explaining what a car is... A vehicle (what is a vehicle?), a
mode of transportation, a status symbol, a means of getting from one
destination to another...
Does the explanation enable you to drive a car? Do you now know how to
make your own car? The danger with explanations is that they invariably
fall short of being useful. They are often too simplistic.
Brain training
Every activity you undertake in a given day can be enhanced and improved by
exercising your mind, calming your emotions and cultivating mental
resilience.
You work more productively. You drive with greater awareness and caution.
You feel significantly less stressed. You see choices, possibilities and
options more readily.
How is this possible?
By starting the day with a brain health regime.
Regime
These five morning activities will drastically improve your mental
acuity:
Constructive rest (15 minutes)
Standing qigong (20 minutes)
Reading (20 minutes)
Sitting meditation (10 minutes)
Sceptical?
Don't take our word for it. Find out for yourself.
Earthquake in Sumatra. Plane crash
in Russia. Man holds daughter captive in cellar for thirty years. Heidi Klum
separates from Seal.
Record salaries at Bank of
America. Attack in Pakistan. Resignation of Mali's
president. New world record in shot-put. Do you really need to know all
these things?
We are incredibly well informed yet we know incredibly little. Why? Because
two centuries ago we invented a toxic form of
knowledge called 'news'. News is to the
mind what sugar is to the body: appetising, easy to digest - and highly
destructive in the long run.
(Rolf Dobelli)
Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
06 October 2023
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