Balancing the mind.

Functions of the mind (see below)

emotional life, heart affected by all emotions and thought patterns

the senses: all 5

coordinating and integrating the 4 other shens

This is of incredible importance when we look at how the brain processes information, if the eyes are under mechanical stress the mind interprets that as emotional stress and we assign a belief system to that stress. “I feel anxious when driving therefore I must belief driving is unsafe”. Correctly interpreting this information and reducing mechanical stress on the mind can dramatically reduce emotional responses to various events.

If the mind is under stress either emotional or mechanical, sleep becomes very difficult. One of the more common things we see with insomnia is that the ability to filter out sounds in your brain is not efficient and the brain is rapidly asking if the sound of the house creaking, the cat walking, the wind outside…if these sounds are safe or harmful. If you feel like a lion is hunting you all night you will not be getting great sleep.

Our Mind is responsible for many different mental activities including but not limited to:

  • Thinking
    • Working through a task, problem solving, organizing and the tendency to over-think.
  • Memory
    • Includes things like your ability to remember what you see or hear, names and directions as well as implicit memory such as remembering how to ride a bike after many years have past.
  • Emotional Life
    • This refers to the perception and the feeling associated with an emotional stimulus. The body “feels” the emotion but the mind assigns meaning to that “feeling”. Anger may make you “feel” tense but it is the mind that tells you that because you feel tense you must be angry.
  • Sleep
    • The ability for the mind to rest is of vital importance with sleep. You have experienced difficulty sleeping when you are stressed out right?
  • Intelligence
    • This is your true IQ. Your genetic innate intelligence. It should be remembered here that if the brain is not working efficiently we can seem “stupid” even when we are actually very intelligent. If your brain is not wired efficiently to perform the tasks you are asking it to do; you will struggle. (More on that can be found on the Brain Integration page.)
  • Wisdom
    • The ability to apply what we know critically and wisely. This becomes very difficult if your emotions are highjacking your ability to think critically and rationally.
  • Ideas
    • This is responcible for our projects, and the dreams which give our lives purpose. Inspiration, creativity, music and the arts all come under this category.

In addition our Mind is responsible for our 5 senses:

Lack of proper internal health can cause problems with our ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and recognize positive touch. This perspective is strong in the western medicine model where loss of vision and hearing are common “diseases” associated with aging but it is important to remember that our ability to use our 5 senses relies also on how efficient the mind makes that task. Inefficient movement of the eyes, difficulty processing what we hear; these processes in the brain can draw a tremendous amount of energy from the body and prevent you from thriving.