Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health (2 page)

Acknowledgments

The wonderful Baker Books publishing team—efficiency,

excellence, and speed describe their high-standard ap-

proach to completing a project.

My very special family, whose love and support have always

been a scaffold to me.

My friends: There are so many who have encouraged me

and spoken words of wisdom and prophecy over my

life, and who contributed to this book in ways they

perhaps don’t even realize. Mentioning all of you would

fill pages, but you know who you are, and I appreciate

and love you all. In fact, it was hard to choose who
not

to ask to do endorsements because I wanted all of you

in my book.

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Switch On Your Brain with Hope

Main Scripture: Faith is the substance of things

hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He-

brews 11:1

Linked Science Concept: Thoughts are real, physical

things that occupy mental real estate. Moment by

moment, every day, you are changing the structure

of your brain through your thinking. When we hope,

it is an activity of the mind that changes the struc-

ture of our brain in a positive and normal direction.

It was only a few decades ago that scientists—including

those who trained me—considered the brain to be a fixed

and hardwired machine. This view saw the damaged brain

as incurable. They believed brain damage was hopeless and

untreatable, whether the effects were from stroke, cardio-

vascular event, traumatic brain injury, learning disabilities,

traumas, PTSD, OCD, depression, anxiety—even aging. All of

these causes and conditions were seen as largely irreversible.

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Because this was the presiding view of the brain, I was

trained back in the ’80s to teach my patients
compensation
,

not
restoration
of function. I was trained in the conventional

wisdom of the time that said brain normality was an impos-

sibility for those with mental limitations or brain damage of

any kind. Being a student of the Bible, however, I was deeply

familiar with and constantly comforted by Romans 12:2: “Do

not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind” (NIV). I knew this famous and

fabulous “renewing of the mind” passage was a truth I needed

to apply to my patients’ care to help them overcome their defi-

cits. So my relentless search of this truth as a scientist began.

I was struck by how my patients, using the therapeutic

techniques I was developing from my research, belied the

negative picture conventional science presented of the human

brain at that time. These results confirmed that the brain,

far from being fixed in toxicity, can change even in the most

challenging neurological situations.

I was in awe of what each patient displayed in terms of what

you
can do when you set your mind to it
. Each new scientific

study in this direction confirmed what I knew intuitively to

be true: We are not victims of our biology or circumstances.

How we react to the events and circumstances of life can have

an enormous impact on our mental and even physical health.

As we think, we change the physical nature of our brain.

As we consciously direct our thinking, we can wire out toxic

patterns of thinking and replace them with healthy thoughts.

New thought networks grow. We increase our intelligence

and bring healing to our brains, minds, and physical bodies.

It all starts in the realm of the mind, with our ability to

think and choose—the most powerful thing in the universe

after God, and indeed, fashioned after God.

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Toxic Memory: Adapted Graphic Sketch

It is with our phenomenal minds that we understand the

truths set down in our spirits. It is with our minds that we

wire these truths into the brain, which is part of the body.

It is with our minds that we choose to develop the spiritual

part of who we are and “Therefore put away all filthiness and

rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted

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word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21 ESV).

It is with our minds that we reject or believe the lies of the

Enemy, the Prince of Lies. It is with our minds that we change

the physical reality of the brain to reflect our choices. It is

with our minds that we decide to follow God’s rules and live

in peace despite what is going on around us. It is with our

minds that we choose to follow the lies of Satan and spiral

into mental, physical, and spiritual disarray.

Thought changes the structure of matter. God said, “Let

there be light” (Gen. 1:3), and his words produced the phys-

ical earth. And science, which, again, is just catching up with

the Word of God, is confirming this reality in a tangible and

thought-provoking way with eminently clear accounts arising

from the burgeoning field of neuroplasticity research.

Neuroplasticity by definition means the brain is malleable

and adaptable, changing moment by moment of every day.

Scientists are finally beginning to see the brain as having

renew able characteristics (as in Rom. 12:2); it is no longer

viewed as a machine that is hardwired early in life, unable to

adapt, and wearing out with age. With example after fasci-

nating example, exceptional scientists talk about and dem-

onstrate—using brain-imaging techniques and the evidence

of behavioral changes—how people can change their brains

with their minds. We can see and measure the activity of the

mind through the firing of neurons. We can even predict the

seeming elusiveness of the main functions of the mind—that

of thinking and choosing—through quantum mechanics.

I continue to find myself moving in a world of engrossing

truths, and my spirit leaps inside of me. The fact that the

brain is plastic and can actually be changed by the mind gives

tangible hope to everyone, no matter what the circumstance.

I have been privileged to work with and see:

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• autistic children cope in academic and social environ ments

• senior citizens sharpen their memories to the point that

in their eighties they change careers and obtain degrees

• young men and women who grew up in abject poverty

and a lifestyle of selling and taking drugs do a complete

about-face in their lives, go back to school, and become

leaders in their communities

• car accident victims who had been written off by neu-

rologists as “vegetables” retrain their brains to the point

that they complete their schooling up to a tertiary level

and go on to become successful, contributing citizens

• students labeled as learning disabled with years of ther-

apy and no hope left master learning and achieve grades

they and their parents only dreamed of

• schools in some of the worst third-world areas in Af-

rica, in which students could not pass to the next level,

become schools on the minister of education’s “most

improved” list

• children with dyslexia learn to read and write and even

help their parents study for exams successfully

• suicidal and emotionally traumatized minds set free

• entire schools improve grades across core subjects

And the list goes on.

Science is hovering on a precipice as we recognize the re-

sponsibility and impact of our thinking and the resultant

choices we make, which have ramifications right down to the

ways in which the genes of our bodies express themselves.

Deuteronomy 30:19 is becoming a reality in the world we

live in today as we begin to see the effects of choice in the

brain and body: “I set before you life and death, blessing

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and cursing; choose life so that you and your descendants

may live.”

How we think not only affects our own spirit, soul, and

body but also people around us. Science and Scripture both

show how the results of our decisions pass through the sperm

and ova to the next four generations, profoundly affecting

their choices and lifestyles. The science of epigenetics (the

signals, including our thoughts, that affect the activity of

our genes) explains how this plays out. This reminds me of

the Scripture, “he punishes the children and their children

for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation”

(Exod. 34:7 NIV).

That the brain is plastic and can be changed moment-by-

moment by how we direct our thinking—in other words, the

choices we make—is a top idea on the bestseller lists, and it

actually is the key to switching on our brains. Add to this the

fact that every morning when you wake up, new baby nerve

cells have been born while you were sleeping that are there

at your disposal to be used in tearing down toxic thoughts

and rebuilding healthy thoughts. The birth of these new baby

nerve cells is called neurogenesis, which brings to mind, “The

Lord’s mercies . . . are new every morning” (Lam. 3:23).

What a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless

adaptivity of the human brain God has given us.

This book is divided into two parts, with the overall goal

of showing you how to switch on your brain. Part 1 uncovers

the keys to doing so. In part 2 you will see how all these keys

work together in my 5-Step Switch On Your Brain Learning

Process during my 21-Day Brain Detox Plan. Here I will lead

you through a process of switching on your brain to achieve

peak happiness, thinking, and health.

Here are some of the key points in this book:

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• Your mind is the most powerful thing in the universe

after God.

• Free will and choice are real, spiritual, and scientific facts

(Deut. 30:19).

• Your mind (soul) has one foot in the door of the spirit

and one foot in the door of the body; you can change

your brain with your mind and essentially renew your

mind (Rom. 12:2).

• You can develop your spirit through choices you make

in your mind to be led by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 2:20).

• Your body is not in control of your mind—your mind is

in control of your body, and your mind is stronger than

your body. Mind certainly is
over
matter.

• You are not a victim of your biology.

• You cannot control the events and circumstances of life,

but you can control your reaction to those events and

circumstances (Matt. 7:13–14; Gal. 6:7–8).

• When you think, you build thoughts, and these become

physical substances in your brain. “As he thinks in his