Awakened Minds Incorporated

Neuroscience Reveals the Nourishing Benefits That Silence Has on Your Brain Here's what happens to your brain when it's surrounded by the noise of nothingness. When's the last time you sat in total, utter silence? While it's not easy to find true peace and quiet, there's now evidence you may want to find more opportunities to embrace  noiselessness  throughout your day. We already know too much noise is not a good thing for our brains or our bodies. Research has linked noise pollution to increased blood pressure, sleep loss, and heart disease. These results have led to even more research on the long-term effects of noise. Along the way, almost by accident, scientists who study noise are uncovering benefits of its absence. A recent piece in  Nautilus  explores in detail the positive effects that silence can have on our brains. Journalist Daniel A. Gross elaborates on several studi

Anyone who's learned to ride a bike or touch type might have wondered how a task that is so arduous at first could be so seamlessly easy later.  A new study reveals more about exactly what goes on in the brain as we form these habits, transitioning from intense concentration to autopilot. The results, found in rats but thought to be analogous to humans, show that habitual learning, as it's called, involves two brain circuits — one used for movement and the other for higher, cognitive thinking. As a task is learned, these circuits trade off in terms of their engagement.  The movement circuit, which involves a part of the brain called the dorsolateral striatum, becomes more active, while the cognitive circuit, which involves a region called the dorsomedial striatum, takes a dip. "If you imagine these two systems are competing, then at the end stages of training, activity in the dorsomedial striatum is fairly weak whereas activity in the dorsolateral str

What Do You Think Of Most Of The Time? Are you thinking about something that happened, what went wrong, what didn't work out, why you're upset with someone, why you don't like someone, or what someone did? Or are you thinking about what you want to achieve, how you want to change your life, or how you can make more money or what you can do to meet the right person? What you think about most during the day is what your subconscious picks up on and brings into your life. So if you're thinking about what went wrong or what someone did, you're just telling your subconscious mind that you want more of the same. And so it will keep bringing you more of the same. Now if you were to change your thoughts, and instead thought about what you wanted, thought about finding solutions to help you achieve what you really want then your subconscious mind would bring you more success and help you achieve all that you want. So if you want to