Mind Wellness Recipes

Learning How to Think

To think, you need data or information -- which comes from your life experiences perceived by your five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching). The data is then stored in the brain in both your conscious mind and subconscious mind.

When you think, you recall voluntarily the information stored in your conscious mind. However, your subconscious mind involuntarily controls or even directs your conscious mind in the thinking process without your knowing it.

The data becomes the knowledge or the raw materials with which you think. Therefore, the more knowledgeable you are, that is, the more exposure you have, the more data becomes available to help you think

Having said that, more knowledge does not necessarily make you become any wiser. The explanation is that "how you think" is affected by many other factors, such as your subconscious mind.

Your thoughts are important because they become the essence of your personality, and you are who you are by virtue of your thinking. It is how you think, not just with what you think, that makes you wise or otherwise. In other words, wisdom has more to do with the thinking process, rather than just the knowledge that provides the resources for thinking. In other words, how you process the mental data holds the key to acquiring true human wisdom.

The bottom line: Intelligence is related more to the application than to the accumulation of knowledge; by the same token, wisdom is more about enlightenment than about intelligence. Enlightenment is the wisdom to discern what is the ultimate-truth, what is the quasi-truth, and what is the myth -- they all involve "how you think."

Asking Self-Intuitive Questions

Life is about asking questions and finding intelligent answers to the questions asked.

In the Bible, Jesus said. "Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and you shall find..." (Matthew 7:7) In real life, you must ask yourself questions at all times.

Asking questions is introspection, which is a process of self-reflection, without which there is no self-awareness, and hence no personal growth and development -- they are all the essentials of mind wellness wisdom.

The human mind naturally responds when focused on a thought that provokes a question that in turn demands an answer. It is the natural habit of the mind to try to solve problems. By solving problems, the mind then makes things happen. Therefore, the art of asking questions is your source of wisdom. Always ask self-intuitive questions to seek intelligent answers.

The kind of questions you ask determines the kind of life you are going to lead, as well as the kind of person you are going to become. Your questions trigger a set of mental answers, which may lead to actions or inactions, based on the choices you are going to make from the answers you have obtained. Your life is always the sum of the choices you make in the process; you are the product of our own thoughts.

There is one simple but difficult question you should always ask yourself: "Am I happy?" If yes, why?; if no, why not? One question may lead to another, and yet another.

The more questions you ask yourself, the more you know yourself, and knowing yourself is true wisdom.

"Knowing others is intelligence.
Knowing ourselves is true wisdom.
Overcoming others is strength.
Overcoming ourselves is true power."
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33)

Emptying the Conditioned Mind

To think correctly and creatively, you must, first and foremost, empty your conditioned mind.

Throughout the years, you may have accumulated and stored in your subconscious mind thoughts that have pre-conditioned your mind into a certain pattern of habitual thinking that is damaging to the right-thinking process. Therefore, you must now empty your mind of such destructive and toxic thoughts involuntarily inculcated into your subconscious mind by your culture, your own upbringing, and your media exposure.

There was the story of a professor seeking information about Zen from a reputable Zen master. On his first visit, the professor kept talking, while the Zen master kept pouring tea into the already-filled-to-the-brim teacup in the professor's hand.

The moral of the story is that you must empty your conditioned mind first before it can be receptive to new ideas.

Developing the Reverse Mindset

A reverse mindset complements the emptying of the pre-conditioned mind.

Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, who was the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, which has been extensively translated worldwide, emphasized the importance of developing the reverse mindset for profound wisdom.

A reverse mindset is more than thinking out of the box: it is creating your own box of thinking that is totally free from any pre-conditioned thinking.

"The softest thing in the world
overcomes what seems to the hardest.
That which has no form
penetrates what seems to be impenetrable."
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 43)

"Like water, soft and yielding,
yet it overcomes the hard and the rigid , , , .
We all intuitively know
that flexibility and tenderness
are the Way to go.
Yet our conditioned mind
tells us to go the other way."
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78)

Reverse your thinking, and you will be enlightened. The enlightenment is understanding that everything exists because of its opposite, and that everything will ultimately become its opposite: youth becomes old age, and life becomes death. Reverse mindset thus helps you see the opposite of everything in life.

Harnessing Mind-Power Tools

Concentration

To empower your mind, harness the power of concentration. When you focus on your mind, you increase its strength. Concentration enables you to gain full control of your body and mind; as a result, you become the master of your inclinations, instead of being their slave.

Use the following mind-concentration tools:

Sit still! That's not as easy as it sounds; it requires much mental concentration. Be aware of any involuntary muscular movement. Sit absolutely still to avoid any movement of muscles for as long as you can.

Sir comfortably while gazing your fingers of one hand raised eye-level in front of you. By fixing your gaze on your fingers and keeping your arm still, you empower your mind concentration.

Lie down comfortably and thoroughly relax your muscles. Concentrate on the beating of your heart, or the inhaling and exhaling of your breaths. Practice paying attention to small things to enhance your power of concentration.

Paying attention to all the little things in life may help your concentration, such as: having adequate sleep; frequent self-induced yawning to cool your brain to increase mental alertness; eating dark chocolate (containing phenylethylamine and anandamide to boost your brain power); drinking enough water to avoid dehydration; practicing yoga exercise to increase oxygen to your brain.

Concentration is the capability of your mind to direct your thinking in whatever direction you would intend. If you can concentrate, you can become the person you were intended to be.

Affirmations

Affirmations are positive self-suggestions or subliminal messages sent directly to your subconscious mind that controls your conscious mind, and hence everything you do in life. Use affirmations to consciously control what you may be doing all day -- thinking uncreatively and unintelligently.

Subliminal messages are powerful mental tools to increase your mind power. In a mild form of self-hypnosis, these affirmations bypass your "logical" conscious mind to get into your subconscious mind, and thus instrumental not only in changing any incorrect self-beliefs (e.g. "I cannot do that") or wrong ways of thinking, but also in overcoming any internal resistance that may be holding you back.

To effectively use this mind-power tool, you must remember the following:

Always use "I" because it is about you and not someone else: "I am strong and healthy."

Always use the "present tense"; it is NOW, and not in the future.

Always be positive, and not the reverse of a negative, e.g. "I am not weak." Always prompt your subconscious mind to remember what you desire, and not what you don't desire, e.g. "I am going to be sober" and NOT "I am going to give up alcohol" (you want your subconscious mind to remember "sober" and not "alcohol.")

Practice and repeat your affirmations consistently and diligently, especially when you are mentally relaxed, to achieve the desired effect.

Visualization

Visualization is another powerful mental tool to help you achieve your goals in life. Visualization is looking at your future in your mind's eye. A picture is worth a thousand words. Albert Einstein once said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

To visualize effectively, you must remember the following:

You must be mentally relaxed.

You must "strongly feel" that you have already got what you desired. "Getting" is the opposite of "wanting."

You must visualize with "specific details" to authenticate the reality of your visualization.

You must be in full control. A positive image shows your internal focus of control: you are always acting, instead of reacting.

You must be consistent in your visualization. Your mind is a muscle, which must be exercised consistently to create the strength to accomplish its mission.

You must be patient with the outcome of your visualization.

Relaxing the Mind

Meditation

Relaxation is an important component of wellness. Relaxation begins with the mind first, and not the body: the body cannot relax if the mind is in distress.

The best way to relax the mind is by meditation. Meditation is a non-doing state of your mind in which you consciously cultivate a harmonious relationship with your inner world. Your mind slows down only when you sleep. The difference between meditation and sleep is that in meditation your mind slows down but your awareness is enhanced, while in your sleep both your mind and your alertness are reduced to a minimum. In meditation, you experience the presence of your mind, which holds the key to mind wellness.

According to recent research studies, after several months of intense meditation, participants demonstrate a significant increase of brain chemicals responsible for increased happiness, as well as enhanced mental perceptions to uncover more details about their past.

The good news about using meditation for relaxation is that you don't need to know how the brain works in order to meditate. Meditation simply helps your mind to stay in a state of mindfulness in which your mind becomes more relaxed with greater clarity of thinking. The explanation is that in meditation the mind is thinking only one thing at a time.

St. Theresa of Avila once said that the mind is like "an unbridled horse" wandering where it will, and your role is to train the horse, bringing it gently and lovingly to the right course. That is what meditation is all about: quieting and taming a compulsive mind.

Learn the basics of meditation to meditate:

Sit comfortably in a quiet environment. Keep your body relaxed but erect to maintain its awareness.

Breathe in and breathe out slowly and softly. A relaxed breath is slow and soft.

Do not expect anything to happen during your meditation session.

Gently close your eyes, and listen to your breaths.

Your first thought may not come right away. When your first thought finally comes, do not deliberately dismiss it.

Gently bring your mind back to your breaths, focusing on the breathing in and the breathing out.

Another thought may come after a while. Again, do not dismiss it. Instead, refocus on your breathing.

You can focus on your breaths or the sensations of any part of your body to clear your mind of unbridled thoughts.

A 20-minute meditation session can totally relax your mind. Do not expect any transcendental state of mind to come to you right away. Just practice meditation consistently and persistently for total mind relaxation.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is deep concentration of the body and mind for their inter-connection and relaxation.

If you feel that your body, mind, and soul are not connected, most probably there is lack of body awareness by the mind in the first place Therefore, mindfulness begins with awareness of the body.

Most of us do not pay much attention to the body -- except when we are experiencing some physical pain -- let alone paying attention to the mind. Mindfulness is mental attention, which is your body consciousness or attention to the physical conditions and the needs of your body in relation to how your mind thinks.

Train your mind to pay more attention to how your body reacts when you are eating, instead of watching the TV, listening to the radio, or talking on the cell phone. You mind will become relaxed after the meal.

Again, while waiting for your bus, train your mind to observe a nearby building by tracing its outline with your eyes while concentrating on your breaths.

Mindfulness is concentrating your mental attention on something insignificant or irrelevant in order to quiet your mind, thereby instrumental in relaxing your compulsive mind.

Maintaining Brain Health

Remember, what is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Eat a heart-healthy diet.

An anti-Alzheimer's diet also includes the use of coconut oil, eating egg yolk and purple foods, such as purple rice, purple yam, purple cabbage, and beets.

Avoiding Mind Disorders

Anxiety and Depression

Lack of mind wellness wisdom may lead to many mind disorders, including anxiety and depression, among others.

Mental health is complicated: there are many mind disorders that have a great deal of overlap and yet they are separate mind conditions. This makes it difficult not only for diagnosis but also for treatment of these mind disorders.

Anxiety

Anxiety is apprehension over what is about to happen and what could happen in the future. Worried thoughts, or a belief that something could go very wrong, can be devastating for the mind.

There are many types of anxiety disorders, including panic disorder (undue fear of foreboding), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (obsessive behaviors or routines due to fear), among others.

Depression

Depression is feeling of sadness or even hopelessness about the future, as though the hopeless is for real. It is a negative emotion that may cause lack of energy, despair, and even thoughts of suicide.

Depression can also result from anxiety.

Emotional Intelligence

Mind disorders are often attributed to chemical imbalance (neurotransmitters responsible for communication between brain cells). But the mind itself plays a pivotal role in mind disorders because all negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear, anger, remorse, and frustration, prevent the mind from thinking sensibly and behaving rationally. It is all mind over matter.

Emotional intelligence plays a pivotal role in how the the mind functions because all human organs, tissues, and cells have their own energetic frequencies, which are quire different from those of negative thoughts and emotions. Therefore, it is critical that your process your negative thoughts and emotions, not letting them get trapped inside your body and mind. Emotional intelligence is about awareness, control, and management of your negative emotions.

With awareness, you recognize your own emotions, and how they may affect your thinking and behavior. With awareness, you learn to control and restrain your emotions or negative thoughts. With awareness, you understand also the emotions of others around you. Awareness helps you develop a positive mentality towards yourself as well as those around you.

Healing deep limbic system

Heal your deep limbic system (part of your brain) to optimize your emotional intelligence to heal your mind disorders by increasing the production of your neurotransmitters.

Step 1: A negative thought comes to your mind. Your brain processes its signals and releases brain chemicals. It is "real" to you. Do not deny it, but change your perception of that negative thought.

Step 2: Be aware of your body's reactions to the brain chemicals released by your brain. For example, if you are stressed, your muscles tense up and your breathing increases its pace. Train your mind to notice the differences in your deep limbic system

Step 3: Talk back to the automatic negative thought (ANT). Change your thought, and do not believe it.

Step 4: Change or stop all negative patterns of thoughts that often come to your mind spontaneously and involuntarily. Train your mind not to "predict", "judge" or "label", and not to "think" with your feelings.

All negative thoughts and emotions come to your mind naturally simply because you permit them. They create negative energetic frequencies that upset your deep limbic system. Learn to talk back to them consistently whenever they surface in your mind.

Memory Loss

The brain is one of the most important body organs because it controls your life and well-being. But it may deteriorate over the years, causing memory loss. Besides aging, memory loss can be due to many other factors, such as brain damage, alcohol, constipation, dehydration, depression, and pharmaceutical drugs.

Learn to manage memory problems:

Learn to process new information step by step, and one step at a time. That is, allow yourself to get the hang of it before you store it in your mind.

Get off the beaten track from time to time in order to stimulate your brain. Do something out of the ordinary every now and then.

Engage in challenging endeavors, such as a crossword puzzle, learning a new musical instrument, or a new language.

Reduce stress, which interferes with concentration and staying focused.
Use meditation to quiet the mind and to avoid compulsive thinking.

Avoid the principle of "present-mindedness" to avoid absent-mindedness. Practice concentration, and appreciate living in the present moment.

You may have a great body, but you also need a great mind to go with it. To have a great and powerful mind, you need to exercise your cognitive faculties. Writing (writing a blog), reading, sleeping (you store your memories in the deepest dream state, known as Rapid Eye Movement)), gardening (sharpening your brain power with plant names, growth characteristics, soil conditions, etc.), music listening and playing (changing your neuron activities and enhancing your sensory skills)

Memory has everything to do with mental awareness. Therefore, learn how to improve your memory through concentration, creativity and imagination, and visualization.

Of course, memory has also to do with nutrients, such as iron deficiency, which may affect your brain chemicals, and anti-oxidants to prevent the formation of free radicals that may damage your brain cells.

Dementia

Dementia is a symptom, and Alzheimer's disease is the cause of that symptom.

Alzheimer;s disease is deterioration of nerve cells in the brain, which are responsible for cognitive skills and memory.

Given that there is no known cure for this mind disorder, prevention is always better than no cure.

Your brain health is your heart health: what is good for the heart is also good for the brain, since the heart pumps blood (about 20 percent) into the brain, providing it with oxygen and nutrients. Eat a healthy brain diet, which is essentially a healthy heart diet.

Control your numbers: your weight, your cholesterol, your blood pressure. Obesity in middle age increases two times the subsequent development of dementia.

Free radicals damage brain cells. Regularly detox your body to eliminate toxins from foods, the environment, and unhealthy lifestyle.

Avoid unnecessary stress in life. Relax your mind with meditation

Exercise regularly to control your blood sugar (diabetes), to pump more blood into your brain, and to maintain your heart health.

Quit smoking, which interferes with blood flow and oxygen to your brain. Nicotine damages brain cells too.

Breathe right to enhance your oxygen intake to your brain. Maintain good posture, because.good posture and correct breathing go band in hand.

Keep your brain busy. Use it or lose it

Stephen Lau
Copyright © Stephen Lau