| Copyright 2006 Cole's Poetic License | | | | amazing results. Dr. Richard Davidson of the |
| | | | W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain |
| If you are in good health, you're balanced. | | | | Imaging and Behavior studied the brain waves |
| If you are sick, you've lost some balance, | | | | of some Tibetan Buddhist monks, including the |
| temporarily I hope. | | | | Dalai Lama. He found unusually high amounts |
| | | | of gamma brain waves-brain waves that |
| Hang with me here. | | | | increase compassion for others. |
| | | | |
| Picture yourself swinging between Yang and | | | | Compassion comes out of good balance and good |
| Yin over a precipice. When you stop swinging | | | | health. |
| you see a ledge. You stand on it, safely. | | | | |
| | | | Bill Harris, Director of Centerpointe, |
| Now, if you're unfamiliar with Eastern | | | | created a sound track designed to create the |
| medicine, consider the Aristotelian Mean. | | | | same brain waves experienced by the Buddhist |
| Aristotle advocated following a path between | | | | monks. I have benefited from Centerpointe's |
| two extremes. If you swing too far in either | | | | sound tracks. They put my left and right |
| direction you are apt to get sick. | | | | brains in balance and kicked out my shy bone |
| | | | by broadcasting my words subliminally into |
| Since I have skimmed the surface of Eastern | | | | each ear at different rates of speed. |
| Philosophy, Aristotle, Stephen Hawkings' | | | | |
| string theory, brain research, religions, | | | | Learning Strategies, Inc. has a program |
| meditation, and Western medical science, I am | | | | called Spring Forest QiGong that teaches you |
| no authority, but I can show you how they | | | | how to heal yourself whenever you get sick. |
| relate to good health. | | | | Guess how-balancing energy! I recommend the |
| | | | book, "Born a Healer" by Chunyi Lin. |
| First, Yang refers to the masculine, | | | | |
| left-brained energy in everyone and Yin the | | | | Finally, there's nothing like Western |
| right-brained, feminine energy. When these | | | | medicine when you tear a meniscus or get a |
| two are out of balance, things go awry. | | | | concussion, among other off-balance things. |
| Acupuncture is the medical practice of | | | | |
| releasing blocked flow of energy to regain | | | | In our Western World fear hovers below the |
| balance and good health. Obviously, it | | | | surface. The more money and power we have, |
| works. | | | | the more fear. We are not openly afraid. It |
| | | | shows up as anxiety in our dreams and in our |
| String theory, I think, says everything in | | | | bodies. |
| the universe consists of strings of energy. | | | | |
| Nothing is solid. (Phew, wish I could | | | | Anxiety is catching, like bird flu. I spent |
| understand physics!) | | | | a lifetime hunching up my shoulders, |
| | | | anxiously expecting to be yelled at for |
| Brain research shows three major parts to the | | | | something I did wrong. My shoulders finally |
| human brain: reptile, limbic, and neo-cortex. | | | | gave out. I had them replaced. Now they set |
| We use our reptile brain whenever we feel | | | | off security alarms. Sweet revenge? |
| our survival threatened. (Explains continual | | | | |
| warfare.) The limbic system, our midbrain or | | | | Since you have read this far, you will be |
| early mammalian brain, stores our emotions. | | | | fascinated by "Does Mind-Over-Body Healing |
| We use the neo-cortex for thinking, forward | | | | Work?" It's an article by an African |
| planning and problem solving. All three | | | | professor of Western Medicine that begins, |
| brains are interdependent and function | | | | "Life is energy, and all living beings are |
| together. The neo-cortex houses the right and | | | | energy beings." |
| left brain. When either of these is too far | | | | |
| out of balance we suffer. | | | | Google the title. You may be surprised by his |
| | | | thesis. |
| You may know, slightly, an accountant or | | | | |
| computer programmer who is so left-brained he | | | | Here's to your good balance and good health. |
| is practically a hermit. Or you may know an | | | | |
| artist who is so right-brained he forgets to | | | | © Evelyn Cole, MA, MFA, The Whole-mind |
| pay his rent and is often in some kind of | | | | Writer, |
| trouble. | | | | |
| | | | Cole's chief aim in life is to convince |
| I think most physicists use all three brains | | | | everyone to understand the power of the |
| in balance. I may be wrong. | | | | subconscious mind and synchronize it with |
| | | | goals of the conscious mind. |
| Experiments with meditation have shown some | | | | |