On Faith and New Beginnings

I love this time of year. Spring is bursting forth in all her glory, bringing with her the sweet scent of hope and new life.

I was on the pity pot last week - fighting the same battles and trying to crawl out of the same pit . . . again! Thankfully, Geoff reminded me that this is where the rubber meets the road in terms of faith. How blessed we are to have our faith tried and tested, because it is only then that we can know what our faith is made of. As James 1 says "2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

I have to admit I was not all that joyful. But today . . . today is Easter Sunday. The ultimate celebration of new life and new beginnings. The ultimate source of hope and the foundation of our faith. A story that is so elegantly echoed every spring, as the flowers burst from the ground, and buds blossom on "dead" branches. It is an echo of the story of our risen Lord, who came, died, and rose again, so that we may have life, and be with Him for eternity. The Lord says in Isaiah 43: " 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

I must again choose to believe. I must again place my trust in "Him who cares for me" I'm getting my reps in - allowing my faith muscles to keep growing.

Today I am glad. I am thankful that God has reminded me again of new life through the celebration of Easter and a beautiful spring day. Today I am victorious. I will press on in renewed strength to fight the battles that await me another day - even if it is the same battle . . again.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
2 Cor 5:17

S phase Update

Back from an amazing week in Phoenix completing the S phase certification with Z health. It was an awesome opportunity to hang out with some great like-minded folks, learn a lot, move a lot, and just have fun. For those of you not familiar with Z health, a quick explanation is that it is a multi-dimensional system designed to achieve rapid changes in performance and health by driving neural change. S phase is primarily about sports performance.

We learned a lot about the visual system and processing, and how that relates to movement/health/performance and even cognitive function. Vision is much more than just acuity! For example, if the eyes do not team correctly, or if the images from the eyes are confusing, it places a constant stress on the nervous system as it tries to compensate. This can create significant alterations in motor processing, movement, and behavior. From a biomechanical aspect, eye motion has a direct impact on the dural layers (connective tissue) which surround the brain and spinal cord. A lack of eye motion in general or in certain body positions can affect joint motion and neural tension adversely. Pretty amazing stuff!

In addition to the visual fun, we learned the ABCs of sports specific movement. It amazes me that with our societal obsession with sports our kids are never taught how to move to perform these sports safely.

Throughout the week, I discovered that I had some significant difficulties with processing visual information, especially with respect to articulating visual information. During my session with Dr. Cobb, we discovered that I had difficulty tracking darker colors (green, blue etc). After working a bit on color specific visual drills, my other processing problems and residual joint stiffness improved significantly. Amazing! I'm wondering how my brain training will be affected by some of this stuff as well - it will certainly be something to experiment with!

I plan to post more on my brain training thoughts soon.

Quick Update

Well, I'm off to S phase (Level 3 Z health certification) tomorrow AM. I haven't had much time to update the blog lately so I plan to do so when I return. I'm really looking forward to seeing how my body and mind respond to the training next week! It should be a lot of really good neural chunking! Woo hoo!

Roller Coasters

Do you ever feel like you're on a roller coaster? I do. My particular ride is the kind where you go straight up so high you forget that there is down, and then it spirals down down down before it takes off again for the top.

So the question is: Does one try to fight the twists and turns, accept them, or succumb to them? If there were no ups and downs I suppose life would be incredibly boring. If you try to fight the spirals you become exhausted with the futility. You can't stop the ride because only God has the brakes. If you succumb, you flop around in your seat like a rag doll and sustain a head injury. So that leaves acceptance.

My current definition of acceptance in relation to life's twists and turns and ups and downs is to allow myself to completely experience the ride while keeping an eye on the Controller of the ride. To me, this means that it is O.K. to really experience all the emotions of the moment by acknowledging them, feeling the hurt or elation, and then turning them over to the One who holds me in the palm of His hand. This entails reminding myself of the truth again and again in the midst of emotional turmoil - something that has been getting much easier the more I practice it. This also means less time wallowing in tar pits and one more step in the direction of experiencing the fullness of life!

Goodbye to the Tin Man

This has been an interesting couple weeks. I have again been overwhelmed by the love and support from the people in my life.

Last week I had the flu. I haven't been that sick in a while, and it hit me hard (in addition to some emotional struggles I was dealing with at the same time). I was laying there feeling sorry for myself, and I prayed that God would show himself real to me in a big way, 'cause I just wasn't feeling His presence or concern. That day I received a phone call from someone I haven't talked to in a while and boy did that hit the spot. She spoke some truth into my life, and I was overwhelmed by her care, concern, love, and encouragement. Over the next few days I continued to receive unsolicited phone calls and emails from people encouraging me and offering their love and support. It was really cool because I'm usually pretty reclusive and don't have that much contact with people. I was truly overwhelmed with the thought that these folks really do care about me, and this experience has continued to change my heart.

Today I feel different. Geoff noticed it last night - he said I looked different but couldn't put his finger on what it was. I think I know what it is. I got my heart back. Today my heart isn't numb - it is alive and filled with love for the first time in a very long time. I am beginning to see Ezekial 36:26 come to pass in my life: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

So I have to say a huge thank you to everyone - you have been used by God in a very real way, and I am eternally grateful for your support and love. What's also fun for me is the realization that now I can pass it on. As 2 Cor 1:3-4 says: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

Goodbye Tin Man!

Part 1 continued . . .

It seems as though I cannot get away from concept #1 from my last post. This weekend, I had the privilege of seeing the Bodyworlds 2 exhibit. The theme of the exhibit was "the three pound gem," referring to the brain and the nervous system as it relates to the function of human beings. It never ceases to amaze me how intricately the human body is crafted, and this exhibit is an awesome reminder of how complex we are, and how wonderfully the body is integrated. Interestingly, I came across the following quote at the exhibit:

"We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are" The Thalmud.

So, I am still hard at work changing my perceptions to align with the truth. I plan to go into more depth on this in my next few posts, but I will give you a glimpse of what I have been working on so far. Over the last few weeks, I have begun to take a few positive things certain people have said to me in the past (a small compliment, statement of acceptance etc), and have chosen to BELIEVE them! I have to constantly wash my mind with these truths to combat the negative and incorrect assumptions I had fabricated. This has been very exciting and freeing so far, but I have found that it is important to "get the reps in." Which means every time an obsessive or incongruent thought arises, I have to immediately replace it with a truthful statement - sometimes I've had to do this multiple times in the span of a few minutes! Over the next few months I plan to continue with this training in every major arena of my thought life. I hope you will join me!

Further up and further in: Brain Training part 1

So I left off some time ago with the question of how to live in a deeper, more true, and free reality. As I've made some recent forays into the realm of neuroscience through Z Health and independent reading, I've discovered some things pertinent to this discussion. I'd like to kick off my thoughts on "brain training" with my interpretation of a few neuroscience concepts as they relate to this subject.

Concept # 1: The individual's perception of events constitutes that individual's reality.
The brain is constantly processing a flood of internal and external stimuli. There are massive feedback loops in the brain through which information from higher cortical processing areas (this information can include: beliefs, expectations, memories of past experience, and emotions) flow "down" to influence incoming stimuli. These feedback loops not only act to confirm the accuracy of incoming stimuli, but can actually alter this information as well. Apparently, if incoming stimuli don't match up to what the brain expects (because of current emotional state, past experience, confusing/conflicting stimuli, or asynchronous "body maps"), the mind can confabulate a reality that "makes sense." This concept can help explain the phenomena of out of body experiences and body dysmorphic disorders etc. This concept also indicates that a change in belief structure, thought processes, or emotional habits can actually change your reality!

Note: This certainly does not mean that every experience can be influenced by a change in your thinking or belief structure! You cannot alter the law of gravity no matter how much you believe you can fly! Absolute truth/reality does exist, but a lot of the "reality" that we experience on a day to day basis is a perception which may or may not be true.

Concept #2: Brain architecture is plastic.
For a long time in the world of science, it was thought that the brain and neural structures could not change. We now know that the nervous system is extremely plastic (able to change). Neural connections are constantly being "pruned" or strengthened according to use. This can actually lead to a change in structure (increased number of synapses, capillary density, volume of white matter etc) of the brain. This is very exciting because it means that we are not "locked into" a state of being. Use patterns can in fact alter your brain!

Concept #3: Based on concept # 2, the way you think is a trainable skill.
Ok - so that's a "no s---t sherlock" concept, but until now, I always thought that mental practice and visualization was kind of hokey. It has been shown, that by simply imagining yourself performing a skill, (ie: piano fingering or strength exercises) the ability to perform that skill can be dramatically improved. Studies have shown that the amount of neural reorganization is almost as great as that which occurs with actual physical practice. To extrapolate this concept to our current discussion then, thought patterns and beliefs are also skilled behaviors which are in fact alterable through training (thinking). (Combine thinking skills with movement skills for double whammy!)

With the above concepts in mind, it now appears that, through training, it is in fact possible to alter your reality! So, to live in a more true reality, one must consistently train thought patterns to align with . . . (drum roll please) . . . . Truth!

Now I understand why the following verse is so important: "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." 2 Cor 10: 5-6 (emphasis mine)