Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream....If life is a dream, might as well make it a good one!
I woke up this morning with this little ditty in my head. As quantum physics and neuro-plasticity become more and more prevalent in the media and in our awareness, the lyrics to this lovely old nursery rhyme ring true. Okay Patti, what weird concept are you talking about this time, you ask? Let me explain...
Conventional wisdom has led us to believe that our brain development hits it's peak at the age of seven or eight, and in some ways this is true. Those first years we are almost perpetually in a type of hypnotic state, like little sponges, highly influenced by our environment and easily led by suggestion. This makes learning at this time in our lives easy, and automatic. Our brains very quickly "download" the programs and behaviours that will then become the framework for our "operating systems" for the rest of our lives. Along this line of thinking, it then becomes easy to understand how a child who experiences a lot of trauma and hardship, in any of it's many potential forms, will then be more inclined to experience these things in their future.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences, or "ACES" study has recently proven this to be true. Increased levels of stress and trauma during childhood have a direct correlation on the mental and physical health of these subjects as adults. Addiction, early onset of life-threatening disease such as cancer and many auto-immune disorders are statistically more likely in those who have experienced the most trauma at an early age. These are important findings, and ones that most of us are probably not surprised by.
The twist here is this...what if, as the nursery rhyme suggests, our lives really are just a dream...the constructs of years of neural learning and programming, and thus largely, if not entirely the product of our minds? It would then stand to reason, that if there were a way to manipulate our minds, then we should be able to profoundly shift the course of our lives, and then, on a mass scale, be able to shift the trajectory of what is happening on our planet, for the better. But is this even possible, and if so, how?
Advances in neuroscience are showing us that indeed, our brains are more pliable as adults than we have previously been led to believe. There are reliable and reproducible ways to take control of our thoughts and manner in which we hold and view the difficult experiences in our lives. These techniques can have a profoundly positive effect on our nervous systems, our immune systems, and our health in general.
Anyone who has experienced the bliss of deep meditation knows that there is a place we have access to, when we step away from the inane chatter in our heads, or our "inner roommate" as Michael Singer calls it. That place where it is quiet, where you are awake and aware, but soft and peaceful. It is a beautiful place, and I believe it is who we really are. It is where our power to connect to god, universal divine intelligence, or our intuition and/or genius, (depending on what sort of language resonates with you), is most profound. In fact I would like to suggest that it is where we not only connect to this energy, but where we realize it in ourselves. There is incredible power in this place, to see ourselves and our world more clearly, for the wonder that it is. It is in this place that we have the power to change our lives for the better.
My personal experience of meditation combined with the practice of these neuro-plasticity techniques has changed my life, and the lives of my clients, in so many amazing ways, and I would love to share them with you! Wouldn't you love to be able to let go of the parts of your past that are holding you back from living a life that you love? A life based on health and vitality, and that is in line with your values and purpose? A life that you will look back on with satisfaction and joy? Reach out to me, and let's do this!
Now it is time for me to climb back into that dreamy little boat... I have more rowing to do!
