BRAIN FOCUS

The UPS man drove around the cul-de-sac, ran to the door, threw the package and ran off as my little rescue dog went crazy.  I know he was scared to death not knowing if my other dog would be rushing around the corner to nip at his heels.  This is something that happens every time I receive a package.  I was so excited to receive my Amazon order.  As I rushed to the door just like an excited child, I couldn’t remember what book it was going to be, but I was anxious to open the box and find out.  It was a book I had ordered by Dr. Amen.  Dr. Amen is a psychiatrist and brain-imaging expert who is also a co-author of The Daniel Plan.  He is the FOCUS part of the plan.  I couldn’t wait to start reading even though the delivery of the package probably gave the UPS man a heart attack.

When I was working on my masters one of my favorite classes was “teaching with the brain in mind.”  We learned information that would make us understand how our students learned and why some of our students didn’t learn.  This was always very fascinating to me.  So why not expand my knowledge and read about how our brains can change our bodies.  As I cut off the tape, I opened the box to find the book, “Change Your brain Change Your Body.”

God works in mysterious ways sometimes.  Today in bible study we had a 30-minute discussion about our thoughts.  Our thoughts, which are like ping pong balls in our heads, bounce off one side of our brain to the other at a rapid pace.  At times these ping-pong balls are positive, but at times they are negative.  So how do we smash the negative balls and keep the positive ones moving?

First we must remember that God made us in His image.  When we think negative thoughts about ourselves we aren’t just bringing us down we are criticizing God.  God is proud of His creation, as we should be.  He didn’t make us not to be a masterpiece.  . We must accept who we are, work with what we have, and become the person God created us to be. 

The second thing is what I learned from reading Dr. Amen's deck of brain cards.  In our brain we can have ANT’s crawling around.  How do you feel when you have ants crawling all over you?  Miserable I would think.  ANT’s are Automatic Negative Thoughts.  So what do we do about the ANT’s?  We must learn how to change them.  Dr. Amen gives 9 steps to get rid of ANT’s.

·      Don’t let your brain think bad things will happen (quit always, never thinking)

·      Look for the good even in the bad

·      Don’t be a fortune teller and predict something bad will happen

·      Don’t think others are thinking bad things about you

·      Be careful of your feelings

·      Don’t feel guilty, get rid of the should of, would of, could of

·      Don’t put a negative label on you or anyone else

·      Don’t think you are the reason why someone acts negative

·      Don’t blame

Your brain is the hardware of your soul.  How your brain works determines how happy you are, how effective you feel, and how well you interact with others.  So to solve those negative thoughts that bounce around in your brain and cause you to be depressed and unhealthy begin by realizing that you are special.  God made you just the way you are and for a reason.  Kill the ANT’s in your head and say the serenity prayer everyday.  Focus on how wonderful you are!

Change Your brain Change Your Life, Daniel G. Amen, M.D., Three Rivers Press.com, 2010