Modern brain science research has shown how the health of our brains determines our quality of life. It has also bridged the gap between spiritual beliefs and techniques and how they actually work in physical reality.

The human brain has evolved to where we now have three primary levels – the cortex, the sub-cortex and the reptilian brain stem. The brain stem is the oldest and is responsible for purely instinctual response, functioning and survival.  The sub-cortex developed next and includes the amygdala and hippocampus.  It’s more responsible for regulating our emotional responses.  The cortex is the most recently evolved part of the brain.  It governs executive reasoning and decision-making.  Some scientists believe it is where the soul lies and is the connection between heaven and earthly reality.

In his book Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hanson, PhD says that, for evolutionary reasons, the brain defaults to negativity. We all have a reactive, fight/flight/freeze red zone and a positive, responsive, contented green zone of brain functioning.  He offers ways that we can counter this negative default through affirmations and other techniques and live more in the positive green zone.  We can literally rewire the brain which gives us the realistic hope that we can live in peace, happiness, and effectiveness more of the time.