Your brain has 86 billion neurons, each of them poised to drive your responses to the world around you. But is your mind focused on your deepest wishes and values – or is it running on autopilot?
Neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart is convinced that we all have the power to lead the lives we want. That’s because the things we most wish for – health, happiness, wealth, love – are not governed by mysterious forces, but by our ability to think, feel and act; in other worlds, by our brains.
From her book, The Source, we extract four things you can do today to change your life.
Set Your Intention
Law of attraction enthusiasts define ‘intention point’ as the meeting place between ‘heart’ and ‘mind’, but science shows us that there is more than just blind faith in this notion. When we set a goal from the ‘intention point’ what actually happens scientifically is that our intuition, our deepest emotions and our rational thinking line up and work in harmony rather than conflict. It’s almost impossible to reach our goals when we are out of kilter in these three dimensions.
Reframe Failure
‘Abundance’ correlates with positive thinking and generosity, with the central belief that there is enough out there for everyone, and that by carving our niche and claiming our success we will add to the realm of possibility.
One of the simplest ways to begin thinking more abundantly is to change the way you consider failure. Abundant thinkers regard failure as an essential element of success.
Visualise Your Goal
The language of self-belief and achievement is rich with visual metaphors. We ‘dream’ of doing something great or we see something happening in our ‘mind’s eye’: this is the language we use more when we are in touch with all our senses and comfortable with daydreaming and mind-wandering rather than focusing on rational thought and concrete examples only.
Visualisation works because there is surprisingly little difference to the brain between experiencing an event directly in the outside world and a strongly imagined vision (plus somethings imagined action) of the same event.
Self-Care of the Brain
The demands of modernity conspire to throw our brains into a constant state of overwhelm and stress, so The Source (i.e. the brain) needs our help to maintain its focus and maximize its efficiency. This is where changes to our lifestyle – everything from the foods we eat, number of hours each night we sleep and physical exercise we get – can bring huge incremental gains.
