Caroline Leaf Quotes

Frame your world with your words.

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought. Peace Pilgrim

You cannot sit back and wait to be happy and healthy and have a great thought life; you have to make the choice to make this happen. You have to choose to get rid of the toxic and get back in alignment with God. You can be overwhelmed by every small setback in life, or you can be energized by the possibilities they bring.

You are not a victim. You can control your reactions. You do have a choice.

Our brains are made for love. Not fear. Not performance. Not aggression. But LOVE.

Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate. Moment by moment, every day, you are changing the structure of your brain through your thinking. When we hope, it is an activity of the mind that changes the structure of our brain in a positive and normal direction.

The sins of parents create a predisposition, not a destiny.

God designed humans to observe our own thoughts, catch those that are bad, and get rid of them.

Because we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26) and have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), our normal state is one of perfection.

Multitasking is a persistent myth. Paying deep, focused attention to one task at a time is the correct way.

We are not victims of our biology. We are co-creators of our destiny alongside God. God leads, but we have to choose to let God lead. We have been designed to create thoughts, and from these we live out our lives (Prov. 23:7).

Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44), will come at you with a thousand negative probabilities, but you always need to remember that a probability has no power.

Main Scripture: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV Linked Science Concept: When you objectively observe your own thinking with the view to capturing rogue thoughts, you in effect direct your attention to stop the negative impact and rewire healthy new circuits into your brain.

Your body is not in control of your mind—your mind is in control of your body, and your mind is stronger than your body. Mind certainly is over matter.

Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (NIV).

What your mind creates only your mind can take away.

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

How we think not only affects our own spirit, soul, and body but also people around us.

Daytime thinking is a building process, whereas nighttime thinking is a sorting process.

The American Institute of Health estimates that 75–90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related problems.

We are not victims of our biology or circumstances. How we react to the events and circumstances of life can have an enormous impact on our mental and even physical health.

You are wired for love, and fear is a learned and not a natural response (2 Tim. 1:7). You have the

Research shows that 75 to 98 percent of mental, physical, and behavioral illness comes from one’s thought life.

As he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).

Reaction is the key word here. You cannot control the events or circumstances of your life, but you can control your reactions.

One would have thought that not even Joyce could have maltreated a salad to the point where it became inedible, but one would have been wrong. Abustle with wild life, it was also soaked in a vinegary dressing. Barnaby lifted a soggy lettuce leaf. A small insect emerged, valiantly swimming against the tide.

Things are uncertain, but I can handle it. I’ve never experienced this before, but I can handle it. These are uncertain times, but I can handle it. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I can handle it.

By the same token, if you choose to add a signal—for example, saying something like, “My mother had depression and that’s why I have depression, and now my daughter is suffering from depression”—then the epigenetic marks are activated. The thinking and speaking out the problem serve as the signal that makes it a reality.

Your brain cannot change until you accept the anxiety or depression as a signal giving you information on its cause, or origin, and in this way you make the anxiety or depression work for you and not against you.

Our choices—the natural consequences of our thoughts and imagination—get “under the skin” of our DNA and can turn certain genes on and off, changing the structure of the neurons in our brains. So our thoughts, imagination, and choices can change the structure and function of our brains on every level:

The process of thinking and choosing is the most powerful thing in the universe after God, and it is a phenomenal gift from God to be treasured and used properly.

New thoughts are formed over twenty-one days, and these new thoughts are formed into habits after sixty-three days.

In fact, when it comes to exercise, your nervous system changes first, followed by your muscles.

If the brain can get worse by constantly focusing on the problem, then the brain can get better by understanding how to eliminate and replace the problem.

When we step out of our Perfect You, we will be in conflict and this will make us frustrated and unhappy, and even temporarily reduce our intelligence and potentially lead to mental ill health.

Many animals are also given growth hormones to further speed up the fattening process.18 These hormones are associated with a number of health risks in both animals and humans, including a possible correlation with cancer, which is why many countries no longer permit the use of hormones in industrial meat production.

Excessive consumption of the high amounts of sodium in processed, salty foods can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, cancer, weight gain, osteoporosis, and overeating—this list is equally long and alarming.2

Our mind is designed to control the body, of which the brain is a part, not the other way around. Matter does not control us; we control matter through our thinking and choosing. We cannot control the events and circumstances of life but we can control our reactions. In fact, we can control our reactions to anything, and in doing so, we change our brains. It’s not easy; it is hard work, but it can be done through our thoughts and choices.

If you put your mind to it, you can achieve what God says you can achieve.

are not a victim. You can control your reactions. You do have a choice.

Faith motivates us to pursue these goals. Hope leads to expectation, which creates peace, excitement, and health in our minds, thus increasing brain and body health.

Grocery stores, for example, deliberately place candy and chocolate bars by the checkout counter in order to promote “impulse buying.

What do corn and soy have to do with meat and dairy? Today, animal feed is made up largely of corn and soy.

social media addict? This is a very real problem—so much so that researchers from Norway developed a new instrument to measure Facebook addiction called the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.[3] Social media has become as ubiquitous as television in our everyday lives, and this research shows that multitasking social media can be as addictive as drugs, alcohol, and chemical substance abuse. A large number of friends on social media networks may appear impressive, but according to a new report, the more social circles a person is linked to, the more likely the social media will be a source of stress.[4] It can also have a detrimental effect on consumer well-being because milkshake-multitasking interferes with clear thinking and decision-making, which lowers self-control and leads to rash, impulsive buying and poor eating decisions. Greater social media use is associated with a higher body mass index, increased binge eating, a lower credit score, and higher levels of credit card debt for consumers with many close friends in their social network—all caused by a lack of self-control.[5] We Can Become Shallow

Likewise, healthier products are often put close to the bottom on the shelves, while processed, sugary foods with bright packaging are put at eye level, socially conditioning us to buy more of them.48

What you are thinking every moment of every day becomes a physical reality in your brain and body, which affects your optimal mental and physical health. These thoughts collectively form your attitude, which is your state of mind, and it’s your attitude and not your DNA that determines much of the quality of your life.

Reaction is the key word here. You cannot control the events or circumstances of your life, but you can control your reactions. And controlling those reactions is the difference between healthy minds and bodies and sick minds and bodies.

The brain is never the same because it changes with every experience you have, every moment of every day—and you control this with your unique thinking, feeling, and choosing. You use your mind to use your brain. You are the architect of your brain.

Yet the animals are not just fed corn and soy. Expired cookies, candy, and even other animals are often turned into feed, including feed for large-scale dairy operations. We have turned herbivores like cattle into carnivores, often with fatal side effects.

Matter does not control us; we control matter through our thinking and choosing. We cannot control the events and circumstances of life but we can control our reactions. In fact, we can control our reactions to anything, and in doing so, we change our brains. It’s not easy; it is hard work, but it can be done through our thoughts and choices.

Happiness comes from within and success follows—not the other way around.

Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Thinking, as you will see, plays a dominant role in eating. Toxic thoughts can negate the positive effects of good nutrition. Healthy

The bottom line is this: we cannot improve our lifestyle until we learn how to manage our thinking. This is incredibly empowering.

because whatever you think about the most will grow. This applies to both the positive and negative ends of the spectrum.

The mind is a key factor throughout this book. Thinking, as you will see, plays a dominant role in eating. Toxic thoughts can negate the positive effects of good nutrition.

Scientists have found that the amount of time spent milkshake-multitasking among American young people has increased by 120 percent in the last ten years. According to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry, simultaneous exposure to electronic media during the teenage years—such as playing a computer game while watching television—appears to be associated with increased depression and anxiety in young adulthood, especially among men.[1] Considering that teens are exposed to an average of eight and a half hours of multitasking electronic media per day, we need to change something quickly.[2] Social Media Enthusiast or Addict? Another concern this raises is whether you are or your teen is a social media enthusiast or simply a

When you use the 5 Steps, your self-regulation improves and you can start getting a handle on managing your anxiety. This doesn’t mean it will go away entirely; you actually don’t want it to, because anxiety is telling you something about your life that you need to know. It does mean, however, that your anxiety will decrease over time, and you will learn to manage it—it will work for you and not against you. Anxiety is not an illness; it is a warning signal that something needs attention in your life. It is normal to feel periods of anxiety. The Neurocycle method can help you find and manage what needs attention.

Chapter 1 Summary The debate in science is between the mind being what the brain does versus the brain doing the bidding of the mind. The correct view is that the mind is designed to control the body, of which the brain is a part, not the other way around. Our brain does not control us; we control our brain through our thinking and choosing. We can control our reactions to anything. Choices are real. You are free to make choices about how you focus your attention, and this affects how the chemicals, proteins, and wiring of your brain change and function. Research shows that DNA actually changes shape in response to our thoughts. Stress stage one is normal. Stress stage two and stage three, on the other hand, are our mind and body’s response to toxic thinking—basically normal stress gone wrong. Reaction is the key word here. You cannot control the events or circumstances of your life, but you can control your reactions.

Processed, heated, and refined fats, as well as “trans fats” (hydrogenated fats), are the bad fats commonly found in foods such as margarine, shortening, your average American pizza, and the processed cheese so widely available in grocery stores. These bad fats have been linked to a higher risk of heart disease, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, certain cancers, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, infertility and endometriosis, and depression.3 (For more on fats, see chapter 16.)

Quantum physics is creeping into every field, causing confusion among scientists, dealing a deathblow to the Newtonian dream, all because it points directly back to God, “the old man,” who has ultimate control. I love it when his plans come together.

Eric R. Kandel, a Nobel Prize–winning neuropsychiatrist for his work on memory, shows how our thoughts, even our imaginations, get “under the skin” of our DNA and can turn certain genes on and certain genes off, changing the structure of the neurons in the brain.[1] So as we think and imagine, we change the structure and function of our brains. Even Freud speculated back in the 1800s that thought leads to changes in the brain.[2] In recent years, leading neuroscientists like Marion Diamond, Norman Doidge, Joe Dispenza, Jeffrey Schwartz, Henry Markram, Bruce Lipton, and Allan Jones, to name just a few, have shown how our thoughts have remarkable power to change the brain.[3] Our brain is changing moment by moment as we are thinking. By our thinking and choosing, we are redesigning the landscape of our brain.

Step 1 (Gather) involves embracing the toxic thought, habit, or trauma (cutting open with the scalpel). Steps 2 and 3 (Reflect and Write) are the processing steps (performing the surgery). Steps 4 and 5 (Recheck and Active Reach) are the reconceptualizing steps (closing up and healing).

How real, then, is the food in our supermarkets? Real food, again, is fresh and nutritious, predominantly local, seasonal, grass fed, as wild as possible, free of synthetic chemicals, whole or minimally processed, and ecologically diverse. We have seen that in our supermarkets, even the fresh produce isn’t very fresh. Foods are no longer whole, but processed to extend shelf life.

Why the Neurocycle Is the Solution to Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. MARIE CURIE Overview Simple mind-management tools for personal use—to address and ameliorate such warning signals as anxiety, depression, toxic thinking, inability to concentrate, irritability, exhaustion, and burnout before they take over someone’s mind and life—

His gaze fixed on her chest as he rose, and she realized, with mortification, that her dress was askew. She turned her back, but his arms came around her. "Let me." His hands steady again, he ran his palms up her bodice to smooth her gown back into place. He took his time, his cheek against her temple, and Eliza tried not to shake like a leaf when his fingers brushed her nipple one last time before his hands drifted to rest on her hips. He put his mouth next to her ear. "Should I apologize for what happened?" The tiniest shake of her head. His lips touched the sensitive skin behind her ear. "May I call on you- just you, not your father?" Her heart was about to stop. She would faint and slide through his arms to land in a senseless heap on the ground. "Yes," she whispered. "Thank you." Gently, he turned her around. Eliza gazed up at him, wondering if he could tell from looking at her that she was about to fall headlong in love with him. A small smile touched his lips, bemused but reassuring.

Monday 7 May [Halifax] Foolish fancying about Caroline Greenwood, meeting her on Skircoat Moor, taking her into a shed there is there & being connected with her. Supposing myself in men’s clothes & having a penis, tho’ nothing more. All this is very bad. Let me try to make a great exertion & get the better of this lazyness [sic] in a morning – the root of all evil… Now I will try & turn over a new leaf & waste no more time in bed or any way else that I can help. May God’s help attend this resolution.

Healthy thoughts can enhance the effects of good nutrition and mitigate the effects of bad nutrition—to a degree. In fact, healthy thoughts lead to better food choices. Eating and thinking are so intertwined that what you are thinking about before, during, and after eating will impact every single one of the 75–100 trillion cells in your body, including the cells of your digestive system. Your state of mind will have a negative or positive influence on your digestive health, and your digestive health will also have a negative or positive influence on your state of mind.

During a workshop in San Francisco, I’d spent the night at the house of a lawyer named Anne. On her nightstand there was a thin book by a guy named Joel Kramer. Unable to sleep, I picked it up and leafed through the pages. He explained the emotions Caroline and I were feeling best: We have this idea that love is supposed to last forever. But love isn’t like that. It’s a free-flowing energy that comes and goes when it pleases. Sometimes it stays for life; other times it stays for a second, a day, a month, or a year. So don’t fear love when it comes simply because it makes you vulnerable. But don’t be surprised when it leaves, either. Just be glad you had the opportunity to experience it. I’m

The nonconscious mind is responsible for somewhere between 90–99 percent of your mind’s activity.13 For example, out of the 10 million bits per second processed through the eye, only a maximum of 50 bits per second are processed consciously.14 The nonconscious mind operates twenty-four hours a day, at fantastic speeds, about a quintillion (1018) bits per second at a synaptic level and an octillion (1027) bits per second at a microtubular level, for the whole brain.15 Indeed, the mind is truly magnificent. It is the orchestra conductor,

When we direct our rest by introspection, self-reflection, and prayer: when we catch our thoughts;when we memorize and quote Scripture; and when we develop our mind intellectually, we enhance the default mode network (DMN) that improves brain function and mental, physical, and spiritual health.

La Agencia Internacional para la Investigación del Cáncer y la Organización Mundial de la Salud12 han concluido que el 80 por ciento de los cánceres se deben al estilo de vida y no a la genética,

You are not responsible for people’s reactions towards you, whether they are emotional or personal. You are not responsible for people’s perceptions of you. It is your prerogative to exist and you shouldn’t care less if your existence bothers phony insecure people. You will always be valued and respected in the right crowd.

Looks like you’re invisible, bro.” Seth’s hand clapped down on Orion’s shoulder, as he stood with his dick out right beside him – his leaf pants apparently having blown away on the wind - and Orion shoved him away so fast, he stumbled into Caleb.

Knowing what the regret zone is and using it as a “catch that thought” tool will allow you to manage your reactions.

I believe God is taking us through the material world into the spiritual world to get to know him more deeply. Why, after all, did he put our soul and spirit in a physical body and place us in a physical world?

Thought signals seem to move faster than the speed of light and in ways that classical physics cannot explain. This means our mind controls matter and is therefore a creative force.

Main Scripture: Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21 ESV Linked Science Concept: What you wire into your brain through thinking is stored in your nonconscious mind. The nonconscious mind is where 99.9 percent of our mind activity is. It is the root level that stores the thoughts with the emotions and perceptions, and it impacts the conscious mind and what we say and do. Everything is first a thought. The Geodesic Information Processing Theory is a scientific way of understanding this.

This study showed that thinking and feeling anger, fear, and frustration caused DNA to change shape according to thoughts and feelings. The DNA responded by tightening up and becoming shorter, switching off many DNA codes, which reduced quality expression. So we feel shut down by negative emotions, and our body feels this too.

Research has shown that mental practice—imagination, visualization, deep thought, and reflection—produces the same physical changes in the brain as would physically carrying out the same imagined processes.

Research shows that 75 to 98 percent of mental, physical, and behavioral illness comes from one’s thought life.4 This staggering and eye-opening statistic means only 2 to 25 percent of mental and physical illnesses come from the environment and genes.

This is not “self-help.” This is a scientifically proven and clinically applied sustainable mind-management program that has been tried, tested, and proven over thirty-plus years, a way of thinking that makes the best of mindfulness and self-help.

You cannot defeat darkness by running from it, nor can you conquer your inner demons by hiding them from the world. In order to defeat the darkness, you must bring it into the light. SETH ADAM SMITH

It’s in the quiet stillness of the moment, when we think deeply about our thinking, that we can draw on our courage to go into the depths of our nonconscious mind and embrace the chaos to find the message of truth. Your mind loves this. Your brain loves this. You will love the peace this eventually brings.

Put simply, the MPA means standing back and observing your own thinking. As humans we can watch what we’re saying, doing, thinking, feeling, and choosing, as well as our body language and even our intentions. When we do this, the front of the brain fires up, kindling a super healthy brain energy flow. More specifically, we get a great theta (healing and insight) and gamma (creativity, wisdom, learning, change) ratio.

Remember, even if a thought or emotion feels urgent and is demanding a response from you, you are the boss. You don’t need to respond to every emotion, word, or action.

The mind is energy, and it generates energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing. That means we generate energy through our mind-in-action 24/7, which is part of the activity we pick up with brain technology. When we generate this mind energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing, we build thoughts, which are physical structures in our brain. This building of thoughts is called neuroplasticity.

A tree which once was a home to birds, beetles, bats – all taking the bit they need to survive, nothing more. The tree quivers with a multiverse of life, each species coming and going with hardly a twig snapped or leaf dropped. But we don’t do this. We take all that the tree will ever have to offer and zip it in a bag or lock it in the bank.

The primary success of capturing your thoughts will be to focus on God’s way first, not the world’s ways. And science is showing that meditating on the elements of Jesus’s teachings rewires healthy new circuits in the brain.

We need to stop glorifying the person who “works all weekend” and rather praise the person who succeeds in finding a balance between work, family and rest. Our culture of celebrating the workaholic is one of the main reasons we are seeing an increase in mental, emotional and physical burnout.

Lo que estás pensando cada momento de cada día se convierte en una realidad física en tu cerebro y en tu cuerpo, lo cual afecta lo mejor de tu salud física y mental. Estos pensamientos forman colectivamente tu actitud, que es tu estado mental y es tu actitud — no tu ADN — lo que determina la mayor parte de la calidad de tu vida.

Many people are broken and without hope. It’s not surprising that a Brooking’s report in October 2019 noted how “deaths of despair” were affecting many sectors of society, particularly in America’s heartland.5 Carol Graham, Brooking Institution’s senior fellow, made this eye-opening observation: “The metric that really stands out is not sort of happy, or unhappy. Happy today doesn’t matter a whole lot. It’s hope for the future or lack thereof that’s really linked with premature mortality.”6

For several long seconds it seemed that I would simply remain as such, tossed and thrashed like an over-wet side salad. But I was no mere lettuce leaf. I was a main course all of my own.

a time of ceasing from our own activity, ceasing from our own efforts (Heb. 4:9–10). Our minds need time to understand what our spirits already know.

Other research shows that women who have suffered abuse were 60 percent more likely to have a child with autism. The researchers propose that the long-lasting effects of abuse on women’s biological systems, such as the immune system and stress-response system, are responsible for increasing their likelihood of having a child with autism.20 These women were victims of toxic thinking and the stress it causes—and the abuse will therefore impact the next generation as well, and potentially the next three. This is why there are often family histories of autism. I tell you this study to highlight the responsibility we have in not only getting our own minds right but also helping others, especially victims of trauma, get their minds right.

This milkshake-multitasking, which is the truth behind multitasking, creates patterns of flightiness and lack of concentration that are unfortunately often erroneously labeled ADD and ADHD and that are too often unnecessarily medicated, adding fuel to the fire.

Breakthrough neuroscientific research is confirming daily what we instinctively knew all along: What you are thinking every moment of every day becomes a physical reality in your brain and body, which affects your optimal mental and physical health. These thoughts collectively form your attitude, which is your state of mind, and it’s your attitude and not your DNA that determines much of the quality of your life. This state of mind is a real, physical, electromagnetic, quantum, and chemical flow in the brain that switches groups of genes on or off in a positive or negative direction based on your choices and subsequent reactions.

The Institute of HeartMath, an internationally recognized, nonprofit research organization that helps people reduce stress, discusses an experiment titled “Local and Nonlocal Effects of Coherent Heart Frequencies on Conformational Changes of DNA.” This study showed that thinking and feeling anger, fear, and frustration caused DNA to change shape according to thoughts and feelings. The DNA responded by tightening up and becoming shorter, switching off many DNA codes, which reduced quality expression. So we feel shut down by negative emotions, and our body feels this too.

Ask yourself not what you want to or have to do today but rather who you want to be today and how you want to feel.

What a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptivity of the human brain God has given us.