Book Study -Switch on Your Brain Ch2

Main Scripture - Colossians 3:15 (AMP)
Let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in the peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ's] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always]

Linked Scientific Concept
Choice is real, and free will exists.  You are able to stand outside of yourself, observe your own thinking, consult with God, and change the negative, toxic thought or grow the healthy positive thought.  When you do this, your brain responds with a positive neuro-chemical rush and structural changes that will improve your intellect, health, and peace.  You will experience soul harmony

If a doctor was to show you an image of the neurons, proteins and chemical responses in your brain you would see things that look like trees with branches.  Your thoughts actually form proteins and produce chemical responses that form branch like connections in your brain.    One thought, whether negative or positive, can form a web of connections in your brain that will produce negative or positive output through your actions and your health.  How you  handle and process your thoughts is a choice.  You can grow healthy thoughts by choosing not to worry or to be anxious, both are areas in which God advises us below:
 Matthew 6
⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

How many times does Jesus say above do not worry? We are not called to a life of worry.  We are called to a life of peace.  We are not called to "worry".  We are called to "peace".  Lately when I'm tempted to worry or dwell on something that causes stress, I have heard something in my heart say "You are not called to this".  You are called to "prayer".  You are called to "casting your cares" upon God.  Look below:

^{1 Peter 5}

⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Phillippians 4:6

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  

As you can see, you  have not been called to worry and you cause literal "brain damage" in doing so.  You have been called to something so much better and God has given you the equipment to live in this truth.  This will literal produce trees of life in your brain.  These trees are made of proteins, neurons, and real chemical processes that will altar the facts or your life and change the output of your life.  Below is an excerpt from "Switch on Your Brain":

"Just the mind activity from your reading of the next few lines generates electromagnetic, electrochemical, and quantum action in your neurons. It causes
magnetic fields that can be measured;
electrical impulses that can be tracked;
chemical effects that can be seen and measured;
photons to be activated that can be captured on computer screens;

 energy activity that can be explained using quantum physics; and
vibrations in the membranes of the neurons that can be picked up by instrumentation.
This combined activity sets up an intricate and organized sequence of actions of neurotransmitters, proteins, and energy that forms a signal. Your thinking has just created a powerful signal that is going to change the landscape of your brain.

 This signal you have just created passes through the membrane of the cell, travels to the cell’s nucleus, and enters the chromosome, activating a strand of DNA. The DNA is zipped up, almost as though it is in a cocoon, until activated or unzipped by the signal. When the DNA is zipped up, it is in a dormant or inert state. This cocoon also protects the DNA from the rest of the intracellular environment while in this inert state.
So, the zipped up DNA has to be opened so that the appropriate genetic code needed to build…

Genes may create an environment within us in which a problem may grow, a predisposition, but they do not produce the problem; we produce it through our choices."

  

My Final Thought - Our reaction and interaction with life constructs a life within us that creates the output that produces our external life.  Deep reflective thinking builds healthy brain cells, not short rapid fire thoughts, produced by rushing through life.  As you go through your day, pause frequently and think through your reactions to things and your interaction with your life.