Montag, 28. Mai 2018

Education: Mind, Brain, Heart, Thoughts, Life .... briefing to NLP_1

As I first started to get preoccupied by and involved in so-called “Law of Attraction” or “Resonance Law” it was, for that phase of my life, already too late (Summer 2015). I already lost my identity and the direct communication with myself, but at that moment, I had no idea about all these huge and refined processes, which lead our entire existence.
 
Winter 2014/2015 was the first moment of my own death without any exaggeration. Autumn 2015 was the second moment of the same dying process and somehow, instinctual, I decided to let things happen. It was my cat that stopped me to put an end to the story. And a wonder happened mid of November 2015 that drew me out of the abyss.

Starting mid of 2016, I restarted to slowly breath.

At the beginning of autumn 2016, I thought I am out of the existential disaster. I did a lot of work with myself and the result was to experience a lot. Crazy stuff going so deep and out of any imagination. End of 2017 I fall down again through what I call “external influences” and just along few days I was allowed to experience the third stage of my death that began in autumn 2014. Over the years, I got the chance to observe the processes and to know how our thoughts do lead us happy or crazy until the system is shutting down!

People who never experienced such things will never understand because these things are very particular, are beyond our imaginative power and cannot be really understood. 

It is the same like life. If you ask me, how life is, I cannot give you any answer that suits you. I would say: “Live it and you’ll feel how it is. If you are lucky enough, you will also know how life is, if you get what I mean!”

My interest grew after I started to study the anatomy and physiology of the human body. Not from the beginning, but afterwards. And I was lucky enough to have an extraordinary teacher, the leader of our class, Reini. 

Then I continued to be curious and to look for more information and I found an affirmation like this: 

Our body is formed by cells. We are an amount of about 37 trillion cells. Cells are living entities owning a sort of intelligence we humans are not aware of. Cells do react to our thoughts. Thoughts can be trained in the same manner we train our muscles.

And, if you really pay attention to that, you will discover that anything is happening by chance in life, but by programming. 

People still (unfortunately) make jokes about “burnout”-stories. I recently heard a short dialogue: “One of our cooks in hotel had a breakdown, a burnout, so we are again without a good cook in the kitchen.” And the other person replied laughing: “Burnout? Sorry, but when one of my employee come to me with such of stories I say to him: “Hey, man, I do not have time for a burnout!” and he laughed …. Ja, very funny indeed ….. Until he will eventually be touched on the shoulder from the back ….

If you are aware about yourself – and this is the way I teach all my clients, does not matter if they are athletes or people who start to train for a healthier life – you know that every single second your body is physically reacting. This means, your body literally change in response to the thoughts that run through your mind.

Do you get it? Thoughts – mind – body reactions – wellness – sickness – act vs. react etc. etc.

We humans are still unable to understand our nature of being. Through the science, we know something about our physiology, of course. But how our body is really functioning is still a mystery because the science still cannot explain how we really got the capacity of speaking, of language. When you say out a word, where is it coming from? What generates that word and what means that word? We often have communication issues with others, because our words are perceived, in their intrinsec meaning, very different from what we actually intended to exprim. This is a huge issue ...... which should give us thinking how relative everything around us is. The meanings of the words, in so many languages on earth, are the opera of our brains and imagination. 
Let's take a "stupid" example: If someone will decide that from tomorrow the meaning of the word "white" will be actually "door", what can you do? How do you know that the "door" is the "right" word for the object "door"?!
Just thinking about something can cause our brain to release neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that allow it to communicate with parts of our nervous system and ourselves. Neurotransmitters control virtually all of our body’s functions, from hormones to digestion to feeling happy, sad or depressed.

There were so many experiments conducted over the centuries and we still do not understand precisely how to manage important aspects of our life and ourselves.

More and more people become curious nowadays and thanks to the internet as the fastest way to share information we know about the newest results in science and non-science world. We already know about studies that shown that thoughts alone can improve visions, fitness and strength …. Oh yeah, going back to what I said before: “Thoughts can be trained like we train the muscle cells.” – watch out! It was proven that you could improve your fitness and even grow your muscle mass through intensive mental training. Of course, you will get stronger, healthier and more efficient if you use the combination mental – physical training, no doubt. But the simple fact, that you can determine physical changes in your body just by thinking in a certain way (mental training methods like visualising, switching behaviours, fantasy journeys etc) is one of the most fascinating thing I got to know through the experiences of the last 3 years of my life.

The brain is the biggest mystery of us, this is for sure.
It is known, that the heart is “just a muscle”, but …… we assume that our emotions belong to the heart and our thoughts belong to the brain. 
I still have a lot to read, but  ….. if the Heart is “just a muscle” which does the job of pumping blood in and out, than the Emotions have also to belong to the Brain, right? Or to the Soul?! 
Aha ..... The Soul ..... what is the Soul?! 
How to put it in words so that I do it understandable …. ?
We struggle all the time between “what the heart desires” and “what the brain wants”. 
In my understanding, the heart and the brain work together in a sort of competition. 
When you are in front of a huge decision in your life you always FEEL and THINK. You sometimes follow the FEEL-pattern and sometimes you follow the THINK-pattern.

You follow the INTUITION (Her Majesty The Heart - or The Soul, well the Feeling) – which can be also trained due to my experience – or you follow the RATIONAL THINKING, also the mind (His Majesty, The Brain).

The Brain and the Heart are connected through the neck (The neck is the part of the body, on many vertebrates, that separates the head from the torso.) and the throat (is the front part of the neck, positioned in front of the vertebra. It contains the pharynx and larynx.) and sometimes accidents happen or blockades occur on the Highway, if you know what I mean. It is said that throat problems are the message of the body that between brain/heart, rational/emotional something is going wrong, a conflict is there, ready to come or already in progress. And as have read that I remembered about 2 or 3 winters when I got laringitis around the exactly same time of the year: month of February. And it was so bad, I lost my voice entirely and I had to stay home for about 2 weeks. Coincidence or not, the exactly period of times when I was struggeling with frustrations at the work place trying to find a solution, a new job, to take a decision .....

We all know about the placebo effect. It is said, there is no placebo effect, there is just an illusion about a placebo effect.

In The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World, Lynne McTaggart writes:

A sizable body of research exploring the nature of consciousness, carried on for more than thirty years in prestigious scientific institutions around the world, shows that thoughts are capable of affecting everything from the simplest machines to the most complex living beings. This evidence suggests that human thoughts and intentions are an actual physical “something” with astonishing power to change our world. Every thought we have is tangible energy with the power to transform. A thought is not only a thing; a thought is a thing that influences other things

If I remember the way I used to live and think and react just 4 years ago and I observe myself now, still being on the way to re-modelate my way to exist, I know I changed a lot. I also know I still have some fears to understand and change, as they come back to me and put me in danger (again). The fear of “not being fast enough, smart enough, good enough, intelligent enough”. This kills me, as well as letting someone else to put me under pressure.

End of 2017 I made another big step in my life. After two years of isolation, I changed the place of living. I do consciously practice gratitude, almost every day when looking around me to this fairy-tale landscape and I realize once again that I am allowed to live my dream for real. Just being here! Just being!

Every thought we have causes neurochemical change, some temporary and some lasting. When we consciously practice gratitude, we get a surge of rewarding neurotransmitters, like dopamine, and experience a general alerting and brightening of the mind.
There is a study, where people deeply in love were shown pictures of their sweeties, and their brains become more active in the caudate nucleus, a reward center, giving them that in-love swoon. When they stopped looking at the pictures, their reward centers went back to sleep.

In mental training, we use the method of “put the anchor”. Visualise the most possible positive picture of your life – usually pictures from memories, happy moments and choose the happiest of all – and where you are in stress or getting depressed, go back to that picture. The method is to correlate that picture and the involved wellness feeling with a point you can touch, for instance when you touch your nose or your finger or whatever “the anchor” comes instantly to you and you put yourself in the happiest moment of your life. This method determines changes in your brain, the messages are transmitted and your entire mind and body positively react. If you train the method, you will find out the real results. Changing your life is about trying, being curious, being open minded, experience and being open for experiments. There is no other way to find out what works best for you.

We all agree that our brain is like a computer, but it was born centuries before. The technology we have today through the computers, an entire world being managed by computers, everything was created in this form through human brains. The human brain can be programmed in the same manner the IT-specialists set the computers we use on our work desks. The key is to know how to do it!

Our mind never fall asleep normally. There is inside of it a continuously flow of thoughts that sculpts our mind in permanent ways. Look at your mind as that movement of information through your nervous system, which on a physical level is all the electrical signals running back and forth, most of which is happening below your conscious awareness. As a thought travels through your brain, neurons fire together in distinctive ways based on the specific information being handled, and those patterns of neural activity actually change your neural structure.

The article “How Your Thoughts Program Your Cells” explains how a thought is an electrochemical event taking place in our nerve cells producing a cascade of physiological changes:

There are thousands upon thousands of receptors on each cell in our body. Each receptor is specific to one peptide, or protein. When we have feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, excitement, happiness or nervousness, each separate emotion releases its own flurry of neuropeptides. Those peptides surge through the body and connect with those receptors which change the structure of each cell as a whole. Where this gets interesting is when the cells actually divide. If a cell has been exposed to a certain peptide more than others, the new cell that is produced through its division will have more of the receptor that matches with that specific peptide. Likewise, the cell will also have less receptors for peptides that its mother/sister cell was not exposed to as often.

Due to my experience, if you wake up in the morning with thoughts of worry and fear, you are literally programming your cells to receive more of the same negative peptides in the future, as worry and fear are one of the most negative thoughts conducting our life. What’s even worse is that you’re lessening the number of receptors of positive peptides on the cells, making yourself more inclined towards negativity. And this was me in the past, I clearly see and understand now. The Big Change was only possible through a Burnout, as I was very resistant to such of Changes. It takes months and some years – it is said it takes really about seven years to reprograme yourself entirely – to be a different person, in your advantage.
Every cell in our body is replaced about every two months. Through the thoughts, we apparently can reprogram a pessimistic cell to be more optimistic by adopting positive thinking practices, like mindfulness and gratitude, for permanent results. Do not expect valuable changes in two months just because you get new cells, it does not work so fast. It works progressive, this is why it takes some years to be in front of your New Yourself, but it is depending only on your consistency in training.
The ADN can be also changed, even the science proved it  - so, the genetic is not always the issue.


Language processing refers to the way humans use words to communicate ideas and feelings, and how such communications are processed and understood. Thus it is how the brain creates and understands language. Most recent theories consider that this process is carried out entirely by and inside the brain; however, environmental factors play a role in the development of language processing as well.

This is considered one of the most characteristic abilities of the human species. However very little is known about it and there is huge scope for research on it. This part of the brain also enhances the way linguistic learners learn and think.
Most of the knowledge acquired to date on the subject has come from patients who have suffered some type of significant head injury, whether external (wounds, bullets) or internal (strokes, tumors, degenerative diseases).
Studies have shown that most of the language processing functions are carried out in the cerebral cortex. The essential function of the cortical language areas is symbolic representation. Even though language exists in different forms, all of them are based on symbolic representation.
Neural structures subserving language processing
Much of the language function is processed in several association areas, and there are two well-identified areas that are considered vital for human communication: Wernicke's area and Broca's area. These areas are usually located in the dominant hemisphere (the left hemisphere in 97% of people) and are considered the most important areas for language processing. This is why language is considered a localized and lateralized function.
However, the non-dominant hemisphere also participates in this cognitive function, and there is ongoing debate on the level of participation of the less-dominant areas.[3] The non-dominant hemisphere may be particularly involved in processing the prosody of spoken language.
Other factors are believed to be relevant to language processing and verbal fluency, such as cortical thickness, participation of prefrontal areas of the cortex, and communication between right and left hemispheres.
Wernicke's area

Main article: Wernicke's area
Lateral surface of the brain with Brodmann's areas numbered.
Wernicke's area is classically located in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere (Brodmann area 22), with some branches extending around the posterior section of the lateral sulcus, in the parietal lobe.
Wernicke's area is located between the auditory cortex and the visual cortex. The former is located in the transverse temporal gyrus (Brodmann areas 41 and 42), in the temporal lobe, while the latter is located in the posterior section of the occipital lobe (Brodmann areas 17, 18 and 19).
While the dominant hemisphere is in charge of most of language comprehension, recent studies have demonstrated that the non-dominant (right hemisphere in 97% of people) homologous area participates in the comprehension of ambiguous words, whether they are written or heard.
Receptive speech has traditionally been associated with Wernicke's area of the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and surrounding areas. Current models of speech perception include greater Wernicke's area, but also implicate a "dorsal" stream that includes regions also involved in speech motor processing.
First identified by Carl Wernicke in 1874, its main function is the comprehension of language and the ability to communicate coherent ideas, whether the language is vocal, written, signed.
Broca's area
Main article: Broca's area
Broca's area is usually formed by the pars triangularis and the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (Brodmann areas 44 and 45). It follows Wernicke's area, and as such they both are usually located in the left hemisphere of the brain.
Broca's area is involved mostly in the production of speech. Given its proximity to the motor cortex, neurons from Broca's area send signals to the larynx, tongue and mouth motor areas, which in turn send the signals to the corresponding muscles, thus allowing the creation of sounds.
A recent analysis of the specific roles of these sections of the left inferior frontal gyrus in verbal fluency indicates that Brodmann area 44 (pars opercularis) may subserve phonological fluency, whereas the Brodmann area 45 (pars triangularis) may be more involved in semantic fluency.[7] Further analysis shows that Broca's area may have less involvement with information for producing individual words, but, instead, Broca's area is shown to coordinate language processing information for speech production on a greater scale.
Arcuate fasciculus
The arcuate fasciculus is the area of the brain between Wernicke's area and Broca's area that connects the two through bundles of nerve fibers. This portion of the brain serves as a transit center between the two areas dealing most largely with speech and communication.
Cortical thickness and verbal fluency
Recent studies have shown that the rate of increase in raw vocabulary fluency was positively correlated with the rate of cortical thinning. In other words, greater performance improvements were associated with greater thinning. This is more evident in left hemisphere regions, including the left lateral dorsal frontal and left lateral parietal regions: the usual locations of Broca's area and Wernicke's area, respectively.
After Sowell's studies, it was hypothesized that increased performance on the verbal fluency test would correlate with decreased cortical thickness in regions that have been associated with language: the middle and superior temporal cortex, the temporal–parietal junction, and inferior and middle frontal cortex. Additionally, other areas related to sustained attention for executive tasks were also expected to be affected by cortical thinning.
One theory for the relation between cortical thinning and improved language fluency is the effect that synaptic pruning has in signaling between neurons. If cortical thinning reflects synaptic pruning, then pruning may occur relatively early for language-based abilities. The functional benefit would be a tightly honed neural system that is impervious to "neural interference", avoiding undesired signals running through the neurons which could possibly worsen verbal fluency.
The strongest correlations between language fluency and cortical thicknesses were found in the temporal lobe and temporal–parietal junction. Significant correlations were also found in the auditory cortex, the somatosensory cortex related to the organs responsible for speech (lips, mouth), and frontal and parietal regions related to attention and performance monitoring. The frontal and parietal regions are also evident in the right hemisphere.
Environmental factors influencing language processing
Environmental effects, such as social and economic factors and quality of input, affect the development language processing.
Socioeconomic factors
Differences in family socioeconomic status affects language development, leading to those from high-socioeconomic-status families having greater efficiency with language processing. These differences in language processing are evident in children as young as 18 months.
Children from lower socioeconomic statuses who receive less cognitive stimulation from their environment are at a greater disadvantage with language processing.
Bilingual development and exposure
Research on bilingual speakers shows that information about both languages is activated in the brain even when a speaker is only using one language. Some research shows that, because bilingual speakers access linguistic information in their brain differently from monolingual speakers, they have an advantage in language processing, and they outperform monolingual speakers in reaction times for language processing and then producing relevant language in certain tasks. However, other studies have found that this may not be applicable to all bilinguals.
Quality of input and child-directed speech
The use of child-directed speech affects this development in children. Those who are exposed to a greater quantity of child-directed speech develop greater proficiency with language processing.
Oral language
Speech perception
Main article: Speech perception
Acoustic stimuli are received by the auditive organ and are converted to bioelectric signals on the organ of Corti. These electric impulses are then transported through scarpa's ganglion (vestibulocochlear nerve) to the primary auditory cortex, on both hemispheres. Each hemisphere treats it differently, nevertheless: while the left side recognizes distinctive parts such as phonemes, the right side takes over prosodic characteristics and melodic information.
The signal is then transported to Wernicke's area on the left hemisphere (the information that was being processed on the right hemisphere is able to cross through inter-hemispheric axons), where the already noted analysis takes part.
During speech comprehension, activations are focused in and around Wernicke's area. A large body of evidence supports a role for the posterior superior temporal gyrus in acoustic–phonetic aspects of speech processing, whereas more ventral sites such as the posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) are thought to play a higher linguistic role linking the auditory word form to broadly distributed semantic knowledge.
Also, the pMTG site shows significant activation during the semantic association interval of the verb generation and picture naming tasks, in contrast to the pSTG sites that remain at or below baseline levels during this interval. This is consistent with a greater lexical–semantic role for pMTG relative to a more acoustic–phonetic role for pSTG.
Speech production
Main article: Speech production
From Wernicke's area, the signal is taken to Broca's area through the arcuate fasciculus. Speech production activations begin prior to verbal response in the peri-Rolandic cortices (pre- and postcentral gyri). The role of ventral peri-Rolandic cortices in speech motor functions has long been appreciated (Broca's area). The superior portion of the ventral premotor cortex also exhibited auditory responses preferential to speech stimuli and are part of the dorsal stream.
Involvement of Wernicke's area in speech production has been suggested and recent studies document the participation of traditional Wernicke's area (mid-to posterior superior temporal gyrus) only in post-response auditory feedback, while demonstrating a clear pre-response activation from the nearby temporal-parietal junction (TPJ).
It is believed that the common route to speech production is through verbal and phonological working memory using the same dorsal stream areas (temporal-parietal junction, sPMv) implicated in speech perception and phonological working memory. The observed pre-response activations at these dorsal stream sites are suggested to subserve phonological encoding and its translation to the articulatory score for speech. Post-response Wernicke's activations, on the other hand, are involved strictly in auditory self-monitoring.
Several authors support a model in which the route to speech production runs essentially in reverse of speech perception, as in going from conceptual level to word form to phonological representation.
Semantic association
Early auditory processing and word recognition take place in inferior temporal areas ("what" pathway), where the signal arrives from the primary and secondary visual cortices. The representation of the object in the "what" pathway and nearby inferior temporal areas itself constitutes a major aspect of the conceptual–semantic representation. Additional semantic and syntactic associations are also activated, and during this interval of highly variable duration (depending on the subject, the difficulty of the current object, etc.), the word to be spoken is selected. This involves some of the same sites – prefrontal cortex (PFC), supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and other association areas – involved in the semantic selection stage of verb generation.[6]
Aphasia
Main article: Aphasia
The acquired language disorders that are associated to brain activity are called aphasias. Depending on the location of the damage, the aphasias can present several differences.
The aphasias listed below are examples of acute aphasias which can result from brain injury or stroke.
  • Expressive aphasia (Broca's Aphasia): Usually characterized as a non-fluent aphasia, this language disorder is present when injury or damage occurs to or near Broca's area. Individuals with this disorder have a hard time reproducing speech, although most of their cognitive functions remain intact, and are still able to understand language. They frequently omit small words. They are aware of their language disorder and may get frustrated.
  • Receptive aphasia (Wernicke's Aphasia): Individuals with receptive aphasia are able to produce speech without a problem. However, most of the words they produce lack coherence. At the same time, they have a hard time understanding what others try to communicate. They are often unaware of their mistakes. This disorder happens when damage occurs to Wernicke's area.
  • Conduction aphasia: Characterized by poor speech repetition, this disorder is rather uncommon and happens when branches of the arcuate fasciculus are damaged. Auditory perception is practically intact, and speech generation is maintained. Patients with this disorder will be aware of their errors, and will show significant difficulty correcting them.

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