Kevin Bemel ·
Why You Need a Liver for Your Brain
Being married to a Registered Nurse exposes me to far more information about physiology than I ever want to know. Additionally, sitting through the Navy’s annual training on alcohol and drugs, I have become inordinately familiar with the liver’s function: Synthesizing proteins and storing glycogen, sure. But best known is its role in detoxification. (Children will be happy to know liver is not good for you.) Without this vital organ, seemingly benign lipophilic chemical compounds, let alone potentially harmful pharmaceuticals and liquor, would debilitate your body. No exaggeration, within months you would die.
Axiomatic in the world of personal development is that you are better off having a positive attitude than a negative one. Put simply, you improve your relationships and chances of success by filling your mind with life affirming, upbeat material. While I have not seen any studies to back this up, I have never met a pessimist with a long and happy marriage or who built a successful business.
Contemporary culture’s pernicious effect on you is so pervasive yet subtle you may not realize its impact. But while your liver can process toxins you put in your body, no such filter exists for your brain or soul. You need to intentionally create one.
I remember many years ago when profanity was a regular part of my speech. I was unconscious of how, unbeknownst to me, it increased my negative perception of events. Something bad would happen and instead of it being a challenge it was a f*****g mess. The yearlong process of purging expletives from my vocabulary also moderated the unwarranted pessimism with which I viewed situations.
Here is a simple process for creating a liver for your brain:
- Identify the mental and spiritual toxins violating your mind and soul. These may come from television, music, groups to which you belong, or people with whom you associate.
- List them in order of impact: Least harmful to worst. It does not need to be scientific. Your opinion is all that counts.
- Create a strategy for filtering the least harmful one. The most benign one should be easiest to filter out so start there and give yourself the best chance for a victory.
- Proceed to the next least harmful. Once your first filter has worked take on each one on your list, modifying your filter as necessary.
Make your filter as simple to implement as possible. In the case of changing my language, I picked alternative words to use in place of swear words. To this day I still say jerk, gosh, and bloody (If I move to England I will have to give the last one up.)
Leading an optimistic, self-affirming life takes more than reading positive aphorisms. By creating a liver for your brain you purge toxins that can kill you mentally and spiritually. Take action on this today – and start living a holistically healthy life now.
What mental or spiritual toxin has the worst impact on you?
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