Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health (9 page)

but of love, power, and a sound mind (see 2 Tim. 1:7). Our

default mind mode—our soul, which is our intellect, will, and

emotions—is powerful, strong, and driven by principles of

love. Don’t let the media, doctors, or other people in your life

convince you otherwise. You have the power in your mind to

change the negative, toxic manifestations. Our minds shape

the world. This is what neuroplasticity is all about: change.

Neuroplasticity is God’s design for renewing the mind.

Our Perceptions Count

Our perception of the environment plus how we manage our

environment controls our bodies and lives. So if you change

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your perception, you change your biology. You become the

master of your life instead of a victim. But don’t do it without

Christ; remember, he is the vine from which we grow (John

15:5). The billion-dollar self-help industry does not have sus-

tainability14 because it misses the basic elements required for

success and change: Primarily, it is not connected to the vine.

These practitioners try to teach successful living without the

originator of successful living: God. Secondly, there is a lot of

visualization and verbalizations in their advice, but the intent

of the heart is not considered, leaving a disconnect between

what is being said and what is really believed and felt deep

down. This is called cognitive dissonance. Thirdly, there is

often very little real action involved. Action on both a spiri-

tual and scientific level is required for change to take place.

Research also shows that there is a negative side to positive

self-statements and affirmations, showing that individuals

with low self-esteem felt worse after repeating positive self-

statements.15 Don’t become part of that statistic.

The world may tell us that the mind is what the brain does,

but God tells us that the brain will do what the mind tells it

to do. And when your spirit, under the leading of the Holy

Spirit, controls your soul, then the gold standard of think-

ing is achieved. This is a very different perspective from the

traditional view, which tells us we are machines that just need

parts changed and chemicals added. Choices are real; you are

free to make choices about how you focus your attention,

and this affects how the chemicals and wiring of your brain

change and function.

Scientists are now proving that the relationship between

you and how you understand and perceive your inner thought

life, your community, and God has a huge impact on how

your brain works.16 Moment by moment of each day you

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Your Choices Change Your Brain

can choose who you will be in the next moment, and these

choices are captured in the resultant thought networks you

build. In that process, the precepts of Scripture should be

the overarching, undergirding, and foundational framework.

They should be so entrenched that our attention is viewed

through them and them alone as we form a view of ourselves

that God created us to be.

Personally, my spiritual life informs my scientific life. As

Joshua 1:8 says, insight, mindfulness, and wisdom come

through meditation on God’s truth versus rote study of in-

formation. I want to shape my world around God’s truth

because I know as a scientist and a believer, paying attention

to my thoughts and purposefully focusing my mind leads to

great transformations.

You Have the Power to Change

Your patterns of genetic experience don’t determine what

you are; you do. How you live, the cultural environment you

live in, whatever you immerse yourself in, your beliefs and

the beliefs of those around you, how you interact with those

people, your faith and how you grow it, what you expose

yourself to—all of these lead to differences in the way you

focus your attention and have a direct effect on how your

proteins are synthesized, how your enzymes act, and how

your neurochemicals work together. If you don’t believe you

have the power to change your thoughts and control your

choices, you are not going to do it.

Doing your own brain surgery or neuroplastic intervention

of toxic thinking and renewing your mind is based on regular

exercising of your brain; change takes place over time through

continual persistence. Intervention of the mind changes the

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

brain physically, chemically, structurally, and functionally.

Research shows there is no more effective way to produce

localized and specific changes in the brain than behavioral or

mental intervention. Since psychosocial factors modulate the

course of certain diseases—such as cardiovascular disease,

diabetes, and asthma—this means the things going on in the

environment get into the mind, changing the brain and having

an impact on the body. So it is vital for us to pay attention to

the precepts laid down in God’s Word. Understanding how

God designed neuroplasticity to work for and against us will

help us move forward.

1. Our thoughts, imagination, and choices can change

the structure and function of our brains on every level:

molecular, genetic, epigenetic, cellular, structural, neu-

rochemical, and electromagnetic, and even subatomic.

Through our thoughts, we can be our own brain sur-

geons as we make choices that change the circuits in our

brain. We are designed to do our own brain surgery.

2. Choices become signals that change our brain and body,

and these changes are not necessarily dictated by our

genes.

3. Epigenetics is referred to as a new science, but actu-

ally it is an ancient science that we find throughout

the Bible. At its most basic level, epigenetics is the fact

that your thoughts and choices impact your physical

brain and body, your mental health, and your spiritual

development.

4. These choices will affect not only your
own
spirit, soul,

and body but also the people with whom you have

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Your Choices Change Your Brain

relationships. In fact, it goes even deeper: Your choices

might impact the generations that follow.

5. The landmark study on agouti mice fostered a host of

studies—including some done on humans—that show

that not only does food change generational patterns,

but so does thinking.

6. Taken collectively, these studies show us that the good,

the bad, and the ugly do come down through the gen-

erations. But your mind is the signal—the epigenetic

factor—that switches these genes on or off.

7. Therefore, you are not destined to live out the nega-

tive patterns of your forebearers, but you can instead

make a life choice to overcome them by tweaking their

expression. In part 2 of this book I will show you how.

8. Epigenetic changes represent a biological response to

an environmental signal. That response can be inher-

ited through the generations via the epigenetic marks.

But if you remove the signal, the epigenetic marks will

fade. If you choose to add a signal, then the epigenetic

marks are activated.

9. Herein lies the key: The sins of parents can create a
pre-

disposition
, not a
destiny
. You are not responsible for

something you are predisposed to because of ancestral

decisions. You are responsible, however, to be aware of

them, evaluate those predispositions, and choose to

eliminate them.

10. When you make a bad choice, genes switch on in the

hippocampus that dampen the stress response.

11. Scientists now know that the brain has the amazing abil-

ity to reorganize throughout life, changing its structure

and function through thinking alone.

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

12. Neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change in

response to thinking) can operate for you as well as

against you because whatever you think about the most

will grow. This applies to both the positive and negative

ends of the spectrum.

13. Our perception of the environment plus how we man-

age our environment controls our bodies and lives. So if

you change your perception, you change your biology.

You become the master of your life instead of a victim.

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4

Catch Those Thoughts

Main Scripture: We destroy arguments and every

lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,

and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Co-

rinthians 10:5 ESV

Linked Science Concept: When you objectively ob-

serve your own thinking with the view to capturing

rogue thoughts, you in effect direct your attention

to stop the negative impact and rewire healthy new

circuits into your brain.

The ability to quiet your mind, focus your attention on

the present issue, capture your thoughts, and dismiss

the distractions that come your way is an excellent

and powerful ability that God has placed within you. In the

busy age we live in, however, we have trained ourselves out of

this natural and necessary skill.
Natural
because it is wired

into the design of the brain, allowing the brain to capture and

discipline chaotic rogue thoughts;
necessary
because it calms

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our spirits so we can tune in and listen to God. When we are

mindful of catching our thoughts in this way, we change our

connection with God from uninvolved and independent to

involved and dependent.

Research dating back to the 1970s shows that capturing our

thoughts in a disciplined way rather than letting them chaoti-

cally run rampant can bring about impressive changes in how

we feel and think. This change is evidenced in cognitive, emo-

tional functioning as well as at the neural level.1 My research

shows that controlled focused thinking leads to impressive

improvement in cognitive functioning and emotional balance.2

Freeing Yourself from Burdens

Getting your thoughts disciplined and under control is one of

the first steps in freeing yourself of the burdens of the world

and beginning to enjoy life despite the burdens of the world.

When you objectively observe your own thinking with the

view to capturing rogue thoughts, you in effect direct your

attention to stop the negative impact and rewire healthy new

circuits into your brain. Second Corinthians 10:3–5 is so clear

in the instructions on this matter: “For though we live in the

world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons

we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the con-

trary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We

demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up

against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every

thought to make it obedient to Christ” (NIV). In Proverbs

4:20–22 the sage advice is to “give attention to my words;

incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from

your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are

life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”

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Catch Those Thoughts

The primary success of capturing your thoughts will be to

focus on God’s way first, not the world’s ways. And science

is showing that meditating on the elements of Jesus’s teach-

ings rewires healthy new circuits in the brain.

Science Shows the Benefits of Catching Your Thoughts

When you make a conscious decision to focus and direct your

attention correctly, you change physical matter—your brain and

your body change in a healthy way. Purposefully catching your

thoughts can control the brain’s sensory processing, the brain’s

rewiring, the neurotransmitters, the genetic expression, and

cellular activity in a positive or negative direction. You choose.

The benefits are even greater than the scientists back in

the ’70s and ’80s imagined. My patients who were successful

in therapy took their first steps to success when they started

focusing their attention and capturing their thoughts—for

example “I can’t do this,” “It’s too hard,” “It’s never worked

before,” and “I am not smart enough.” The benefits of catch-

ing any negative thoughts like these cannot be emphasized

enough. Not catching those thoughts will lead to a potential

spiral into confusion and varying levels of mental despair.