Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and its sister organization, the European Dana Alliance for the Brain
Yesterday marked the end of “Brain Awareness Week” (March 16-22). According to the Dana Foundation website, “Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an international campaign dedicated to advancing public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and its sister organization, the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW is now entering its fourteenth year as a catalyst for public understanding of brain science.”
Many Dahn Yoga centers around the United States, particularly in Washington, DC and Texas, had events celebrating Brain Awareness Week. Most of the events were open Brain Wave Vibration classes of some kind, which, although they did not make the public more aware of of the importance of brain research, did help make their participants more aware of their own brain. This awareness is the first step to knowing how important the brain really is to our lives.
In her blog, Tori Deaux shared how physiological changes in her brain affected her mind and her thinking. They really made her more aware of her brain and who she really is. Here is an excerpt from her blog post.
“I’d developed a wacky sensitivity to sugar. Any sweets (and most carbohydrates) were setting off extreme insulin reactions, causing my blood sugar to roller coaster up and down, flooding my body with a biochemical cocktail of adrenaline, cortisol, and a bunch of other things the names of which I’ve forgotten.As my blood sugar rose, my focus would scatter, and anxieties would build…when levels dropped again, my ability to think clearly would just stop. I couldn’t problem solve, I couldn’t make decisions. My memory sucked, my reaction times were horrific. It wasn’t a matter of thinking about thing in the “right way” or practicing skills…. my *brain* wasn’t responding right. I was suddenly, hugely aware of the difference between that thing I knew of as “me”, the part that was observing, and the physical circuitry in the brain. I was also suddenly aware that that observant part of “me” wasn’t nearly as disconnected from my neural networks as I’d imagined. This wasn’t at all like a hermit crab living in a borrowed shell—my mind, my sense of self, so much of what I identified as “me” was clearly tied to brain and body. Interestingly, somewhat also like Jill Bolte Taylor, none of this convinced me that the “spiritual” aspects of identity weren’t real. Becoming aware of my own brain definitely changed how I thought about the concepts of spirit and soul; clearly, the brain shapes my identity as much or more than any other part of the experience of this world – but that “shaping” effect doesn’t make “me” any less real or less persistent than other changing circumstances of life’s environment. As far as I’m concerned, the spiritual questions of identity and persistence are still an open question.”
How do you know what “you” really are? How has Brain Wave Vibration influenced this perception?
