Tag: brain
-
The plasticity of negative types
The negative patterns punch with more frequency — how else do they supersede positive thoughts? The gloomy preset spells doom for mental states. Even worse, the emotional wires get tripped up in knots of ruthless avoidance; only if we could think ourselves better to project and attract the magnet of our desires. People inherit the…
-
Without a positive doubt
Thinking is the process of juggling with active uncertainty. Thinking is hard because it requires the mind to search for clarity in a sea of indifference. The mind impedes itself, as it’s the source of all the information we seek to find. It is nearly impossible to control; the brain elides into a blob of…
-
Head to head
Two people live inside our heads, one left-brained and analytical and the other right-brained and more free-flowing and creative. Together, the two opposing cognitive forces work in harmony. There’s also a part of the brain that spaces out and permits the subconscious to connect the dots. The mind works like a dishwasher amidst sleep and daydreaming, cleaning…
-
Brain on fire
Like putty, we can reshape the brain. The mind is elastic, not stagnant. We can birth new neurons until the day we die. Yet, we live on with the assumption of slow decay, where aging is a self-fulfilling prophecy. While most of what happens in the world is a consequence of natural, universal laws, there’s no stopping…
-
Information is the sum of parts
The brain is just a collection of tangled wires with neuron connectivity levels. We call its output ‘information’ because we need some way of describing chemical synchronicity. The computer works the same way. On the inside, it’s a collection of chips and wires with various voltage levels. What we see on screen is what we…
-
We can redesign our brain
“Who you are depends on what your neurons are up to, moment by moment,” writes David Eagleman in his book The Brain: The Story of You. The classical textbook tells us that our brains are immutable after a certain age, that in fact, our neurocognitive code is set in place right after our teens. But…
-
Where it sings
A mind running on the “factory setting” defaults to organizational distraction. Everydayness overtakes what was inherent fascination. A mind surrendering to the television or the internet sits stuck in a ludic loop of changing the channels or flicking to the next app. A mind in search of its stimulation stumbles upon daydreams and mind wandering.…
-
How complaining affects the brain
—
by
“Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses, just do the best you can do,” said UCLA coach John Wooden. It turns out the coach was on to something. Recent studies show that complaining every day changes the structure of the brain. Harmful behaviors such as complaining, if allowed to loop within the brain continually, will…
-
Procrastinators can be finishers
We are told to ship it; release it before it’s finished, get it out of our hands so we can get the feedback we need to iterate and perfect our product. It’s a grueling process that fires up the anxiety. Is this thing going to work or go out to the void? In his latest…