| If you are in good health, you're balanced. If you are | | | | may be wrong. |
| sick, you've lost some balance, temporarily I hope. | | | | Experiments with meditation have shown some |
| Hang with me here. | | | | amazing results. Dr. Richard Davidson of the W.M. |
| Picture yourself swinging between Yang and Yin over | | | | Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and |
| a precipice. When you stop swinging you see a ledge. | | | | Behavior studied the brain waves of some Tibetan |
| You stand on it, safely. | | | | Buddhist monks, including the Dalai Lama. He found |
| Now, if you're unfamiliar with Eastern medicine, | | | | unusually high amounts of gamma brain waves--brain |
| consider the Aristotelian Mean. Aristotle advocated | | | | waves that increase compassion for others. |
| following a path between two extremes. If you swing | | | | Compassion comes out of good balance and good |
| too far in either direction you are apt to get sick. | | | | health. |
| Since I have skimmed the surface of Eastern | | | | Bill Harris, Director of Centerpointe, created a sound |
| Philosophy, Aristotle, Stephen Hawkings' string theory, | | | | track designed to create the same brain waves |
| brain research, religions, meditation, and Western | | | | experienced by the Buddhist monks. I have benefited |
| medical science, I am no authority, but I can show you | | | | from Centerpointe's sound tracks. They put my left |
| how they relate to good health. | | | | and right brains in balance and kicked out my shy bone |
| First, Yang refers to the masculine, left-brained energy | | | | by broadcasting my words subliminally into each ear at |
| in everyone and Yin the right-brained, feminine energy. | | | | different rates of speed. |
| When these two are out of balance, things go awry. | | | | Learning Strategies, Inc. has a program called Spring |
| Acupuncture is the medical practice of releasing | | | | Forest QiGong that teaches you how to heal yourself |
| blocked flow of energy to regain balance and good | | | | whenever you get sick. Guess how--balancing energy! |
| health. Obviously, it works. | | | | I recommend the book, "Born a Healer" by Chunyi Lin. |
| String theory, I think, says everything in the universe | | | | Finally, there's nothing like Western medicine when you |
| consists of strings of energy. Nothing is solid. (Phew, | | | | tear a meniscus or get a concussion, among other |
| wish I could understand physics!) | | | | off-balance things. |
| Brain research shows three major parts to the human | | | | In our Western World fear hovers below the surface. |
| brain: reptile, limbic, and neo-cortex. We use our reptile | | | | The more money and power we have, the more fear. |
| brain whenever we feel our survival threatened. | | | | We are not openly afraid. It shows up as anxiety in our |
| (Explains continual warfare.) The limbic system, our | | | | dreams and in our bodies. |
| midbrain or early mammalian brain, stores our emotions. | | | | Anxiety is catching, like bird flu. I spent a lifetime |
| We use the neo-cortex for thinking, forward planning | | | | hunching up my shoulders, anxiously expecting to be |
| and problem solving. All three brains are interdependent | | | | yelled at for something I did wrong. My shoulders finally |
| and function together. The neo-cortex houses the right | | | | gave out. I had them replaced. Now they set off |
| and left brain. When either of these is too far out of | | | | security alarms. Sweet revenge? |
| balance we suffer. | | | | Since you have read this far, you will be fascinated by |
| You may know, slightly, an accountant or computer | | | | "Does Mind-Over-Body Healing Work?" It's an article |
| programmer who is so left-brained he is practically a | | | | by an African professor of Western Medicine that |
| hermit. Or you may know an artist who is so | | | | begins, "Life is energy, and all living beings are energy |
| right-brained he forgets to pay his rent and is often in | | | | beings." |
| some kind of trouble. | | | | Google the title. You may be surprised by his thesis. |
| I think most physicists use all three brains in balance. I | | | | Here's to your good balance and good health. |