WHY YOU NEED LOTS OF GOOD QUALITY BRAIN JUICE, AND HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN

Ever wondered how your brain works? While we don’t know everything about it, what we do know is this:

The human brain weighs about 7 lbs and is about the size of a small head of cauliflower. It is a knot of 100 billion neurons and support cells. We can store a lifetime of memories there. We use it to write a poem, build a home, hear a song, enjoy a sunset, love and imagine…

The brain performs an incredible number of tasks:

* It controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing

* It accepts a flood of information about the world around you from your various senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching…

* It handles physical motion when walking, talking, standing or sitting

* It lets you think, dream, reason and experience emotions

Your brain is packed with neurones. A neurone, or nerve cell, is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signalling. Neurons tell your body to move, breathe, and create. They have the amazing ability to gather and transmit electrochemical signals – they are something like the gates and wires in your computer.

Given the brain’s complexity, it requires a highly developed system of communication in order to co-ordinate all of its neurons. This system is based on electrochemical impulses. Like your computer, these impulses travel along circuits.

But unlike computers, these signals are created chemically. These chemical transmissions are called neurotransmitters. And they are responsible for the incredibly rapid communication between neurons. Just imagine how quickly you feel happy when your favourite song starts to play on the radio, or when you see someone you like!

Neurotransmitters transmit information within the brain and from the brain to all the parts of the body. And abnormalities in the production or functioning of certain neurotransmitters have been implicated in a number of diseases including depression.

The effects of a neurotransmitter system depend on the connections of the neurons that use the transmitter, and the chemical properties of the receptors that the transmitter binds to.

This is why it’s so important that you get to make lots of good “brain juice” all the time. Good brain juice means nicely functioning neurotransmitters and good quality chemical transmissions.

Good quality transmissions in your brain means you get to feel good, about yourself and about things. You get to think more clearly, look at things in a more positive light, talk to yourself in more useful ways, and make better decisions. When you make good brain juice every day, you’ll notice everything goes much more smoothly in your life.

How do you make good brain juice?

As Dr. Richard Bandler (co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming) says, the trick is to feel good for no reason at all, for as long as you can.

Because I know there is something that makes you feel really good. Or, that other thing that makes you feel even better!

That thing that when you think about it makes you smile straight away. Allow yourself to fully immerse yourself in that experience now. As you keep going through this memory, close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold on to this breath for four counts, and exhale slowly for eight counts. After about five counts, you may feel the need to push the remaining air out of your lungs. Notice how much more relaxed and happier you are.

Repeat this process 8-10 times.

Congratulations, you’ve just made some great quality brain juice!

Take time to do this twice a day for the next two to three weeks, and you’ll find yourself looking happier, and feeling more centred and free.