Dr David Hamilton Home Page

Visualisation Changes the Brain
(www.drdavidhamilton.com)

Did you know that visualization changes structures within your brain?

Recent scientific studies involved people being shown photographs that would provoke an emotion. A photo of an Andrex puppy, for instance, would generate a warm feeling but an image of war might generate anger.

The scientists discovered that the people could alter structures in their brain by simply changing how they felt about certain images. For instance, on being shown an image of a burns victim most people felt a negative emotion. But if the scientists then told them that it was actually a photograph of an actor wearing make-up to film a scene then their emotion changed. But here’s where it gets amazing...When the people reframed the picture in their minds in this way, MRI scans of their brains revealed that parts of their brains actually changed .

How many times in life do we make assumptions regarding, say, people’s behavior, or what they say, of even about stuff that’s happening in our lives without knowing the real truth? Each time we make an assumption, the feelings we generate become physically imprinted into our brains, and also throughout the body.

Next time you make an assumption, ask yourself, as Byron Katie says, “Can I absolutely know this to be true?” Almost always you can’t. So, give people a chance. Give yourself a chance! Make an effort to see the best in people. It can be hard but it gets easier with practice. Especially when the positive feelings you generate get built into the structure of your brain.

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