Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health

By Dr. Caroline Leaf

Prologue

What would you do if you found a switch that could turn on your brain and enable you to be happier, healthier in your mind and body, more prosperous, and more intelligent?

In this book you will learn how to find and activate that switch. What you think with your mind changes your brain and body, and you are designed with the power to switch on your brain. Your mind is that switch.

You have an extraordinary ability to determine, achieve, and maintain optimal levels of intelligence, mental health, peace, and happiness, as well as the prevention of disease in your body and mind. You can, through conscious effort, gain control of your thoughts and feelings, and in doing so, you can change the programming and chemistry of your brain.

Science is finally catching up with the Bible, showing us the proof that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7). Breakthrough neuroscientific research is confirming daily what we instinctively knew all along: What you are thinking every moment of every day becomes a physical reality in your brain and body, which affects your optimal mental and physical health. These thoughts collectively form your attitude, which is your state of mind, and it's your attitude and not your DNA that determines much of the quality of your life.

This state of mind is a real, physical, electromagnetic, quantum, and chemical flow in the brain that switches groups of genes on or off in a positive or negative direction based on your choices and subsequent reactions. Scientifically, this is called epigenetics; spiritually, this is the enactment of Deuteronomy 30:19, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." The brain responds to your mind by sending these neurological signals throughout the body, which means that your thoughts and emotions are transformed into physiological and spiritual effects, and then physiological experiences transform into mental and emotional states. It's a profound and eye-opening thought to realize something seemingly immaterial like a belief can take on a physical existence as a positive or negative change in our cells.

And you are in control of all of this. The choices you make today not only impact your spirit, soul, and body, but can also impact the next four generations.

The great news is that we are wired for love, which means all our mental circuitry is wired only for the positive, and we have a natural optimism bias wired into us. Our default mode is one of being designed to make good choices. So our bad choices and reactions were wired in by our choices, and therefore can be wired out. Our brain is neuroplastic-it can change and regrow. In addition, God has built in the operating principle of neurogenesis-new nerve cells are birthed daily for our mental benefit. This sounds like Lamentations 3:22-23, "The LORD's mercies . . . are new every morning." This book shows you how to get back control over your thoughts and renew (as in Rom. 12:2) and rewire your brain in the direction you were originally designed to go.

Based solidly on the latest neuroscientific research on the brain, as well as my clinical experience and research, you will learn how thoughts impact your spirit, soul, and body. You will also learn how to detox your thoughts using my practical, detailed, and easy-to-use 21-Day Brain Detox Plan.

The application is for all walks of life. You won't forgive that person, get rid of that anxiety or depression, follow that essential preventative healthcare, strive to that intellectual level you know you are capable of, follow that dream, eat that organic food, do that diet, be that great parent or husband or wife or friend, get that promotion, or make other changes to create a quality, positive lifestyle-unless you first choose to get your mind right and switch on your brain. After all, the ability to think and choose and to use your mind correctly is often the hardest step, but it is the first and most powerful step.

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.