How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself

Recent neuroscience research suggests that spiritual experiences have a concrete basis in the brain, and that spiritual practices can have significant health benefits.

Brain's Neural Foundation For Relationship With the Divine

Miller articulates that every human brain has an inherent capacity to awaken to spiritual experiences. This innate potential for spiritual perception and connection implies that transcendental love, divine guidance, and a sense of oneness are accessible to all individuals.

Every Brain Can Perceive Transcendent Love, Receive Divine Guidance, and Experience Oneness and Interconnectedness

Miller elaborates on how the bonding network in the brain, when activated through spiritual connection, allows individuals to feel enveloped in love as if they are being physically embraced. This reflects the brain's ability to perceive and respond to feelings of transcendental love, validating the idea that spiritual experiences have a neural basis.

Neurological Changes From Spiritual Practice or Connection

Engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, and connection has tangible effects on the brain. These practices can significantly boost the brain's bonding networks, leading to lower stress levels and improved overall wellbeing.

Spiritual Practices Like Prayer, Meditation, and Connection Boost Bonding Networks, Lower Stress, and Enhance Wellbeing Markers

When individuals engage in these spiritual practices, there is a noticeable increase in peace and a reduction in stress and cortisol levels. This is a direct result of the activation of the bonding network within the brain.

Dorsal and Ventral Attention Networks Expand and Shift During Divine Experience, Enhancing Awareness, Insight, and Guidance

Miller points out that spiritual experiences engag ...

Exploring the interplay between spirituality and parenting, Miller and Lewis Howes examine the potential impact of fostering spiritual development in children.

The Natural Spiritual Awareness and Capacity of Children

Nurturing Children's Innate Spiritual Awareness

Miller suggests that parents can nurture a child's innate spiritual awareness by teaching them to listen to their hearts and receive their own spiritual answers. She advises using tools such as meditation or prayer. From her personal experience of adopting her son, Miller was proactive in countering the secular materialist narrative with a spiritually rich story of how they came to be a family, thereby encouraging his spiritual development from a young age.

The Benefits Of Cultivating a Child's Spiritual Life

Spiritual Children Engage Less In Risky Behaviors and Achieve Higher Wellbeing and Academic Success

The conversation shifts to the tangible benefits of a strong spiritual foundation in childhood. Miller points out that children with an active relationship to spirituality are less likely to engage in risky behaviors—they show a 40% lower likelihood of using and abusing substances, are 60% less prone to depression as teenagers, and are 80% less likely to engage in dangerous or unprotected sex. These spiritual children also exhibit more positive markers of thriving, such as a heightened sense of meaning, purpose, and notable academic success.

Challenges Parents Face In Developing Their Child's Spirituality

Parents Unprepared to Foster Child's Spiritual Development due to Their Own Lack of Understanding

A major challenge identified by Miller and Howes is that parents frequently doubt their abi ...

The discussion points to the numerous benefits of spiritual practice, ranging from reduced stress and improved health to a greater sense of meaning, purpose, and connection.

Reduced Stress, Improved Physical and Mental Health

Spiritual Practice Reduces Stress and Enhances Well-Being

The activation of the bonding network through spiritually connected practices implies a reduction in stress and an enhancement of well-being. Engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation can help lower stress and result in benefits such as regulated cortisol patterns. Miller speaks about the ability of spiritual awakening to lift people out of despair, enhancing well-being. While medication can provide immediate relief from severe pain, Miller points out it often doesn't address deeper feelings of being unloved or isolated when it's taken away.

Rangan Chatterjee emphasizes the importance of inner well-being for physical health, suggesting that managing stress and cultivating inner calm can positively affect health. By not taking offense and fostering a learner's mindset, one can reduce stress from feeling criticized or triggered. Chatterjee also mentions training to create a gap between stimulus and response, which promotes inner calm and reduces stress, leading to better relationships, contentment, happiness, and improved health. He adds that stress is linked to many conditions seen by doctors, indicating stress management could help with various health issues.

Greater Sense of Meaning, Purpose, and Connection

Building a Divine or Higher Power Connection Instills Love, Guidance, and Presence, Offering Existential Fulfillment

Miller discusses the relationship between spiritual practices and the feeling of being loved and held, suggesting that such a connection with a divine presence provides a sense of love, guidance, and existential fulfillment. When maintaining a spiritual practice and feeling God's presence, one's brain reveals a sense of love, oneness, and never being alone. Miller suggests that the capability for spiritual connection is inherent in every brain, emphasizing that engaging our spiritual side is essential to feeling loved and not isolated.

Miller also addresses the societal shift away from public spirituality and advocates for a pluralistic approach, where sharing diverse spiritual experiences can enhance our understanding of one another and foster connections. She argues that a strong spiritual core is one of the most valuable gifts parents can offer their children, helping to solidify the child's natural spiritual awareness and sense of being cared for by a higher power. Howes supports this by noting the strength and guidanc ...