Brain Massages and Insights – How To See The Big Picture!

Massages and Insights – How to see the big Picture!

Have you ever wondered how you can, on demand, tap into your intuition and super-ness?

The answers lie in here…

After 2.5 years of being in India, I finally went for a Shirodhara massage.
‘What’s this?’ some of you may ask. I didn’t know either until very recently, so I thought I would suss it out for myself.  I’m in India. I can. I should, shouldn’t I?

In Sanskrit “Shiro” means head or forehead and “dhara” means flow and the technique is the continuous flow of lukewarm liquids onto your forehead. This ancient massage therapy promises to relieve symptoms of anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), tiredness, insomnia (remember “pineal gland”), jet lag (again that pineal gland) and hypertension. It renews energy, creates calm, clarity of thought, reduces worry and excessive thought – reducing worry lines and keeps you looking young. Dream therapy for a woman!

At first I focussed on the steady flow of oil onto my forehead and then, as if transported in time – I awoke. In the hands of others, my time had flown.

Fast forward a few days, after getting up before sparrows fart with startling clarity and useful ideas for writing (I do this) I discover a free 90minute online course hosted by Judith Glaser about C-IQ – conversational intelligence. You all know I am totally into conversational stuff so I register and log in, bushy tailed and bright eyed with my sleep rhythms totally messed up because of the time difference between India and USA. Sometime into the webinar Judith spoke about the workings of our brains, the primitive brain, the limbic brain and the neo- or prefrontal cortex – which also happens to the area of your “third eye” and, which Judith says is the bridge between what you intend doing and the impact you have on those around you.

And I get thinking that my Shirodhara massage was all about stimulating my “third eye” and here’s me with my index finger hovering over my mouse with a “should I, shouldn’t I?” quiver.
My intuition tells me to follow my “should I” route and I discovered (even though I might be preaching to the converted) some fascinating facts and findings – pure science – to share with you.

We all know that ancient civilizations were into the power of “eye”. In the world of Hinduism, Shiva and other deities are often depicted with the 3^rd eye that represents awakening and consciousness; the Christians created the “all-seeing” eye of providence – meaning foresight and sensible anticipation – which is still on the US dollar – and, the Egyptians had their eyes of “Ra” (the right “sun” eye) and “Horus” (the left “moon” eye) that represent our different ways of looking at things.

If you look at an image of the Egyptian eye, it looks much like our pineal gland (PG) which is neatly nestled in the middle of your brain (between your eyebrows) at the same level as your eyes. The first ever recorded notes about our pineal glands (PG) date back to a Greek doctor and philosopher known as Galen who believed the pineal played a part in regulating blood flow. Later on, René Descartes, also fascinated by it asserted that the pineal was the source of all thought.

This got me thinking about words and phrases we use without really noticing their em-bed-ded messages and I brainstormed words like in-sight, fore-sight, hind-sight, over-sight, short-sighted, long-sighted, near-sighted, tunnel visions, intuition and tuition along with expressions like mind’s eye, AHA! moments, to see the light and to see clearly.

And then I remembered someone once saying “we don’t notice what we don’t notice” and ” we don’t see what we don’t see”.

In an age of mass-destraction we have become really good at scanning stuff and over-looking things.

We don’t see what we don’t see. Not surprising if you only ever look out of your physical eyes that process and filter data according to what’s left of long forgotten experiences which have been stored in your subconscious databank.

Yip. We semi-consciously go about our daily business not noticing that it is our subconscious which influences what we do, including the decisions around those actions, everyday.

So what?

So if you’re sourcing your subconscious for ideas, you’re neither getting new ones, or creative ones.

Here’s why.

You operate on three levels of consciousness – subconscious (or lower consciousness), conscious and super-conscious (higher consciousness). Some experts mention more but for the sake of me keeping it simple for myself I’m sticking to these. I have even created a little metaphor for myself – a “bush girl” picture of the three levels of consciousness – your conscious mind would be like a warrior on a hunt (focused on relieving hunger), your subconscious would be like the animal hiding and running in the shadows, and your super-conscious is the light that guides you, the warrior.

Your conscious mind is what you work with when you’re awake – which means everything you are aware of, doing or thinking about in the present moment. It sees things in separate “parts” or “entities” – a thing is merely a thing causing your conscious mind to have a very limited view of the world around it. Because your conscious mind works on restricted memory capacity it accounts for a small percentage of your conscious awareness. Like a mere 20% or, maybe, even less!

Which, means, if you’re only doing 20% of what you could be doing, you’re only achieving 20% of what you could be achieving!
What a waste of beautiful creative potential!

Your subconscious mind, lies below the surface of your awareness.
It “records” and saves everything you feel, think and do and, even though nothing in there ever gets forgotten, most of it remains “out of sight” and therefore “out of mind”. It’s an un-thinking thinking that happens while you’re driving, for example. You get to your destination and you’re not aware of “how” you got there; you were so “lost in thought” you got hijacked by “highway hypnosis”.

In a nutshell – most humans spend most of their lives functioning in states of lower consciousness – only because societies and cultures reward practical, tried and tested self-justifying outlooks on life where we are principally concerned with ourselves, our survival and our own success. Boom.

But, with a little effort and practice you can access and change your data! Read on to get your 8 “how to” hacks.

The 3^rd level of consciousness is your super-consciousness (SC).
I know, I know it sounds too super awesome doesn’t it?
And, perhaps, a little too “far out”, vague, touchy-feely, wishy-washy esoteric and hippy like?
But here’s the thing. It isn’t and the beauty of it is that tapping into your higher consciousness is super-easy. All you have to do is make sure the conditions are right and the rest will happen, when you rest.

Your super-conscious or higher consciousness is you having the ability to respond to life with a level of awareness that not only sees things for what they are – a tangible material reality – but also recognizes the intangible energy and consciousness behind that reality. You are now “turned on” like a state-of-the-art device that can send and receive all the right signals, but only if the power is switched on. You are also able to recognize that all the “parts” and “entities” you once saw as separate, are now connected and make up a whole (as offered by Aristotle).

You start “seeing” with your 3^rd eye and, for the sake of my readers who have to have proven empirical facts, the pre-frontal neo-cortex part of your brain and your Pineal Gland is, in physiological reality, your “3^rd eye”. Here lies the “tunnel” to your inner vision and it is here that you access and channel your intuition.

#intuition a.k.a. hunch, instinct, feeling, insight, gut reaction and sixth sense – an awareness, farsightedness, insight and vision. Intuition is your ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. Intuition may not always be comfortable but it does nudge you out of your comfort zone, get you to lose your blinkers and expand your “seeing” and “perceiving” range.

Intuition, like Shakespeare’s rose, has existed for thousands of years under many names and here are two which have, more recently, been sold to us as:

• #flow (Mihály Csíkszentmihályi – Psychologist) – a.k.a. “being in the zone” is a feeling of energized focus and a fully enjoyable immersion in an activity which causes you to lose your sense of space and time. #timeflies

• #eustress (Hans Selye) – a.k.a good stress from Greek prefix “eu” meaning good which you might have already heard of in time management topics. Eustress is not defined by the “stress” but rather how you perceive the stressor, in other words, your attitude towards stress – you have to watch this Ted Talk!

Your super or higher-conscious works best in conditions of calm and confident intentions. An attitude of certainty and clarity turns on your SC device and this “energy” combined with your enthusiasm lets you go on and on with whatever it is you’re doing without getting tired; you might even forget to eat.

Brian Tracy – thought leader, motivational speaker and best-selling author of over 70 books says your super conscious mind, is a form of free energy that is available to you when you’re ready to work with it. As long as you are clear about and stay focussed on what you want, your SC will clear any obstructions in your way. If you are not ready but have a strong intent your SC, as your “tutor” will set up a few obstacles, setbacks, problems, frustrations and temporary failures along the way to make sure you keep your eye on what you want.

#tuition a.k.a. lesson and learning, instruction, schooling, teaching, uplifting, improvement, betterment, illumination, guidance, enlightenment

It is your SC, or rather, your intuition that will guide you and provide all the answers you need when you are ready for it. So listen carefully.
Rumi – (a 13th-century Persian poet, theologian and Sufi mystic whose influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions) said there is a voice that doesn’t use words; listen. Einstein said this:

When you get this and when you get your hunch or inspiration you also need to remember that this moment of clarity and insight has a very short shelf-life. The time is right now, right now. Wake up. Kick butt. Repeat!

Laura Day author of several self-help books says intuition is accurate insight and information that you have not gained through the everyday use of your five senses, intellect or experience – that’s your subconscious remember? Intuition is information that you didn’t know was available to you and, which can guide you to the best version of yourself.

OK, so what does your Pineal Gland (PG) have to do with intuition?
Your PG is responsible for producing melatonin, a serotonin derived hormone that encourages peaceful sleep and regulates your daily as well as your seasonal sleep cycles. It is also a potent anti-stress agent that impacts your well-being.

So how do you access your super-powers and raise your consciousness?

You rest and sleep more!

Leading scientific expert—Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab—reveals his ground-breaking exploration of sleep in his book “Why We Sleep – Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. He says “routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor that, amongst many other things, determines whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. Yikes!

But, just like sleep is super important, so is being fully “awake”.
So how do you (re)activate the 80% of unused wealth?

How do you activate your intuition and higher consciousness?

Do these 8 things:

#1 Remember that “practice makes perfect” as long as you want whatever it is you want. Both Emerson and Earl Nightingale quoted similar lines along the lines of “a (wo)man becomes what (s)he thinks about” and the Bible states “as you sow, so you will reap” – this refers to your thoughts and actions.

#2 Practice thinking less. If you think too much you “paralyze” yourself. Overthinking, be it getting consumed by the past, present or what lies ahead, limits and exhausts your brain capacity. I don’t need to list the various forms of mental exhaustion do I?

But. Here’s the good news! Just as you have the ability to think negative thoughts, so you have the power to think the opposite. So,

#3 Practice thinking different thoughts. Re-wire your brain! Your subconscious is trained to respond to your thoughts and operates purely out of habit. When you are worried, excited or afraid, your subconscious reacts in patterns according to your experiences and feelings which causes you to think in limiting beliefs and all you do is duplicate same old same old. Switch to upbeat, optimistic, and self-encouraging thoughts with the intent to change things.

#4 Practice making powerful statements (written and spoken) of the things you want in your life. Repeat them as often as you can during your day. Keep a journal. Create a flow chart of post-its. Energy flows where your attention goes and when you state what you want your subconscious will notice the shift and respond accordingly. You start manifesting the things you want.

Judith Glaser (C-IQ) says our brains love new terms and when you change your “language” you open up your mind’s curiosity to fill it up with new content that will create a change in your inner “chemistry”. Your new language will make the invisible visible. Isn’t that super?

#5 Practice doing something that will bring your closer to what you want every day and then, by visualizing and embodying the feeling when it starts to become a reality, allow yourself to feel that success now already. You’ll get a dose of dopamine which will reinforce the positive feeling and get you addicted to doing more of the feel good stuff.

#6 Practice talking to your Pineal partner. Just before you go to sleep or after a relaxing activity entrust your thoughts (problem, issue, challenge, query) to your super-consiousness. You will get the answer and inspirations. But. Do not go and short circuit your conversation by scrolling devices afterwards!

#7 Practice getting more rest and sleep. Get at least 7 – 8 hours’ sleep! Make time for down-time. Pace your peace-full time every single day.

#8 Trust your intuition. Trust yourself. Do some introspective, inner-directed and guided listening. Connect with your inner voice and then, shift from being a positive thinker to being the positive know-er and do-er too!

You can do this, and you absolutely cannot go wrong!

Hester Bergh-Appoyer 

speaker | coach | cross-cultural connector | wannabe writer

PS –  the images and illustrations are all sourced from the internet