I’ve Got The Whole Brain In My Hands

I held a brain. As I picked it up carefully in my hands, it felt like a piece of firm tofu, fragile yet heavy for its size, the color reminiscent of an old pencil eraser, a pinkish-grey.

The brain weighs a bit over 3 lbs. While it is only 2% of our body weight, it consumes 20% of the body’s energy. The brain has the greatest fat density of any organ in the body, being about 60% fat. And at 75% water, has the highest volume of water of any body part.

It was the most amazing experience to cradle this source of all our thinking, knowing, and being.

Without it we cannot live. And mastering it is the only way we can change.

It was marvelous and awe-inspiring to imagine the huge energy potential of the brain I held in my hands–86 billion brain cells, each connecting with up to 40,000 synapses.

Yet many of the thoughts generated from those neural connections are negative. We’re pre-disposed to self-protecting thoughts, to ‘me’ centered thoughts. What is called ‘negativity dominance.’

The brain needs a finely tuned environment to do its job. To have a positive open outlook requires a healthy brain to be able to do some reality testing and put our ‘negativity dominance’ into perspective. So many every day things can keep us from optimal functioning…

A little dehydration impacts our memory.

Not enough sleep makes us think foggy.

If we don’t get the right balance of supportive nutrients, our brains get sluggish.

Inhaling vapors of gasoline, chemical fertilizers, or nicotine smoke can stop blood flow to certain parts of the brain almost immediately.

The more I learn about the brain–its power and its fragility–the more I am committed to protect and enrich my most precious asset. Time to take my Omega-3 pill and another glass of water!

Photo credit: Jane Maliszewski, 2016