To improve and grow, what do you need? A greater perspective. This leads to greater thinking and feeling, better actions and more resilience.
Let’s connect the dots to help put us on solid ground. We’ll draw on scientific findings to show how shifts in thinking, feeling, and acting occur. Specifically, we’ll examine three branches of science – neuroscience, epigenetics and heart rate variability – which support changes that accelerate spiritual growth.
Neuroscience and Your Thoughts and Behavior
Neuroscience deals with the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. Your brain, of course, is affected by what you do with your body and how you interact with the environment.
This means your lifestyle choices — regarding diet, sleep, food, exercise and sunlight –affect the shape and function of your brain. Different regions of the brain activate when we make healthy lifestyle choices, interact positively with others and manage stress.
Furthermore, as scientist Lisa Miller describes in The Awakened Brain, the brain activates its innate spiritual capacity with positive lifestyle and choices. In other words, your brain awakens when it focuses on big-picture areas, as if a lotus opening to a beautiful world.
fMRI brain scans show how areas of the brain interconnect. They produce chemicals instilling peace and trust in the universe, a sense of higher guidance and feelings of oneness.
Epigenetics and Your Thoughts and Behavior
The field of epigenetics helps us distinguish nature from nurture. We are born with genetics in place (nature), which is actually the smaller part that influences us. Yes, we have natural tendencies for thinking and feeling.
Nonetheless, how these genes express themselves (nurture) is the major determinant for our life. In other words, it’s what we do with what we have been given from birth that matters the most. These choices activate our thinking, feeling and actions. As shown in neuroscience, your epigenetics are influenced by the foods you eat, trauma, relationships and stress to highlight some key factors.
What then does scientific research show? Finding ways to think positively about your life and make healthy choices will help you become more resilient and handle adversity.
HeartMath and Your Thoughts and Behavior
The research institute of HeartMath studies heart rate variability. This is the variation in time between your heartbeats. It’s a measure of how well your body can adapt to physical and psychological challenges. A greater heart rate variable means more flexibility and ability to handle life’s ups and downs well.
Researchers have discovered the heart has a profound influence on the intelligence and power you have in your life. As in the other fields of science we’ve discussed, learning how to manage your thoughts and emotions puts you in a more receptive, balanced place.
Your body’s systems, led by your heart awareness, can become more balanced, more coherent. Further, there is even much more communication coming from the heart to the brain, versus the brain dominating the signals. That is why you want to “follow your heart.” Your heart knows: guiding you on your journey to wholeness.
Here’s a central key for spiritual growth. Your heart can open you to higher realms, ones that transcend ordinary thinking and thoughts altogether.
For example, doing soul-centering process can bring in your higher awareness and spiritual support. Then you can receive input – messages, images, sounds, colors – that can translate into your awareness. As a result, your thinking, feeling and actions can change.
As your heart opens more, your brain awakens.
Your Future and Now
Let’s go further into how to upgrade your perspective. Improving your thoughts, feelings and actions can shift by what you choose to focus on.
To use an extreme example, in the African Congo child soldiers have been forced into killings and brutality, as noted in Vulnerable Minds by Marc Hauser. After these troubled times in their lives, these children healed by focusing on positive events from their early childhood. Remarkably, even after such severe trauma, they still could improve their lives.
If such traumatized children can recover, it presents a powerful prompt for us. What could you do by focusing on positive past events? Also focus on current and future positive events too!
Putting It Altogether: New Perspective, New Life
So there are different ways to expand your perspective and grow spiritually. To understand what’s possible, we’ve given overviews of how current scientific and psychology research supports how we can change our reality. Using any of the approaches mentioned – lifestyle choices, stress management and emotional regulation, positive focus and soul/heart centering – can make you world come alive and thrive. And be able to help others.
As our awareness grows, we open to more possibilities. When we make heartfelt choices, we are on a different timeline, a higher trajectory. Regardless of scientific findings, we know in our heart this higher vibration is real.
As we upgrade our life — with higher-quality thoughts, feelings and actions – it radiates. We can then shine that light onto the world.
