This physical machine that we call our body has two centers/organs with “perception intelligence” – the heart and the brain. These two organs, in combination, dictate and create our physical experience.
The heart is constantly feeding the brain through its emotional signals and the brain in turn feeds the heart out of the vibrations created from its perceptions. It has been studied biologically that the signals of the heart are transmitted to the brain via the blood stream (through “coded information” protein-molecules called neuropeptides) while the brain’s signals are transmitted to the entire body (including the heart) in terms of the vibration it produces (for example, a fearful thought creates a vibration of fear which is felt in the body and accessed by the heart).
So the heart feeds the brain, which in turn feeds the heart and thus creates a cycle of amplification of any signal that got started.
In an unconscious state of being, the heart and the brain can enter into a some specific “cycles” that they get used to and keep replaying it, causing repetition of certain experiences on daily basis.
Your childhood is when specific cycles get started. If you were brought up in unhappy surroundings the cycle that gets created is one of unhappiness where the heart feeds signals of unhappiness to the brain which in turn creates images of unhappiness (which create a vibration of resistance) and feeds this vibration back to the heart, creating a cycle.
On the other hand if you were brought up in happy surroundings the cycle that gets created is one that reinforces the happy state of being.
The cycle that gets activated in you during your childhood is not in your in control because you hardly have the awareness to make a conscious change as a child. But as an adult, who is conscious of his/her choice of aligning with positivity, one can consciously change their “default” cycle into the type of cycle they want – which is a cycle of happiness.
How the brain gets addicted to a cycle of emotion
The heart senses the signals around it (signals created by its own brain and signals created around it in its surroundings from other brains) and sends messages about these signals to the brain by packaging this information in messenger molecules (called neuropeptides) and pushing then into the blood stream.
When the heart senses signals of sadness it creates a certain type of neuro-peptides, when it senses signals of fear it creates a certain type of neuropeptides, in the same way for signals of peace/calm, joy, hatred etc.
In simple words, the heart creates a specific type of neuropeptide cell for every type of emotion. These molecules are received by the brain via the blood stream, and the information coded in these neuropeptide molecules are imbibed by the brain cells – this is how the heart feeds the brain.
Depending on the type of neuropeptide cell that the brain receives, from the heart, it creates “interpretations”, and perceptions, in the form of images or sounds.
For example, a neuropeptide of fear makes the brain create perceptions, images, and sounds (self-talk), of fear. The vibration created by the brain, due to these perceptions, is felt in the body, and accessed by the heart, which in turn produces more neuropeptides of the same type to feed into the brain.
The focus of your awareness on the images and self-talk of the brain causes an amplification of these vibrations (anything you focus on activates a force of attraction or amplification) creating strong signals to the heart which responds by incrementing the number of neuropeptides it sends out. This is how a cycle of emotion gets created.
Here’s the reason why the brain gets addicted to a certain emotional cycle:
The brain is constantly shedding old brain cells and creating new brain cells. When it creates a new brain cell it takes into consideration the type of neuropeptide that it’s most frequently getting from the heart and designs the new brain cell with higher receptivity to that particular neuropeptide. For example, if sadness is the neuropeptide it receives on constant basis from the heart, then the new brain cells will be designed with a cell-membrane that has higher/easy receptivity to neuropeptides of sadness and less receptivity to neuropeptides of joy. In simple words, the new brain cells would find it easier to identify with sadness and would find it “confusing” to identify with joy.
Over the years, your brain gets shaped with cells that have strong receptivity to a certain type of emotion – so if you’ve been predominantly living in negative emotional states, your brain has cells with highest receptivity to neuropeptides of negative emotions. So when you become conscious of your negativity and decide to become positive, you sense that it’s really tough to be positive for more than few seconds because your brain cells “don’t get it”, they want negative emotional states because that’s what they are programmed to receive.
The withdrawal symptoms of letting go of negativity
Hopefully the explanation above makes it clear to you why you have such a hard time becoming positive now when you’ve predominantly been in negative emotional states through your life time. This the reason why you need to be easy on yourself, though you understand “positivity”, the majority of your brain cells are not ready yet to be receptivity of these new neuropeptides of positivity. Your brain cells are addicted to neuropeptides that they are used to, and will create images, and self-talk, to cause the heart to produce them. This the reason why your brain feels out of control and focuses on negative thoughts when you want to think positive. The brain simply creates negative images and self-talk in order to create signals of negativity so that the heart can produce neuropeptides of negative emotions that the brain cells are familiar with, and have a receptivity for.
This whole process is in sync with the law of attraction which is the principle of creation in your being. It’s not possible to “immediately” shift your brain into positive after having unconsciously fed it neuropeptides of negative emotion for so many years. Your brain craves the neuropeptides that it’s used to, even if they are negative and create negative feelings (just like how the brain of a smoker craves nicotine molecules in its blood cells). To break free from the cycle of negative emotion is like breaking a huge addiction in the brain, and it takes time and willingness to go through some unpleasant “withdrawal symptoms” for a while (that’s why I sometimes refer to the phase of letting go of negativity as the “detox” phase).
How letting go reprograms the brain cells
The practice of letting go is the swiftest way to reprogram your brain cells. Letting go is simply about staying as a space of relaxed awareness allowing the brain to get over its withdrawal symptoms, to allow the brain to get over its craving for negative emotions. When you stay as a space of relaxed awareness you don’t “focus” on the negative images and self-talk that the brain creates (in its hunger for negative neuropeptides) and thus you don’t amplify/fuel these signals. Also, your state of being as a relaxed space causes your heart to send out neuropeptides of peace/calm to the brain more and more. Within a few months of staying in this state of being, on consistent basis, your brain cells will get programmed to be receptive to neuropeptides of peace/calm/joy and less receptive to negative neuropeptides. This will create a “positive cycle” to start between your heart and your brain, and from here on it just keeps getting rooted in positivity.
If you want you can also use some “tricks”, now and then, to expedite this process of entering into a positive cycle. Here are few pointers.
– Put a smile on your face every time the brain gets into a negative cycle. The brain constantly creates the image of your facial expression, so when you have a smile on your face it’s forced to create an image of a smiling face. This causes a contradiction within it and it will sooner be forced to create images that match the expression of a smiling face.
– Most of us have a fondness for music. So whenever the brain gets into a negative cycle, just plug on some of your favorite music (even if your brain is not in the mood for it). The music will soon have an effect on the brain in that it will create positive images and sounds, this relaxation causes the heart to generate neuropeptides of happiness/peace.
– Take up an activity that’s relaxing to your being, go out for a walk, go on a drive, hit the treadmill, read a positive book, watch something entertaining etc your brain may not feel in the mood for a positive activity because of its craving for negative neuropeptides, but when you consciously shift into a positive activity it causes your brain to have no choice but to plug into positive signals soon enough.
These techniques may be tough to execute initially especially when there is a strong momentum of negativity in the brain. So the best thing to do is just stay as space of open awareness allowing the momentum to die down slowly. In fact, when you stay as a space of relaxed awareness you are automatically inspired by the intelligence of your life stream in the right activity for the moment that aligns you with peace/joy.
To stay in a space of relaxed awareness is by far the most effective means to reprogram your brain because it causes you to connect with the intelligence of your wholeness (which touches your brain through its intelligences) and causes your heart to have access to the joy/peace/love inherent to your being or life-stream. The state of relaxed awareness disconnects your focus from the negativity in the mind and the external reality, and allows your focus to rest on the “inner” space of wholeness of life. Once the “positive cycle” falls into place in between your heart and brain, it’s a cinch for you to maintain a positive state being on consistent basis thus attracting a strongly positive reality.