Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health (7 page)

load also increased three times faster, and their stress levels

were higher, with damaging amounts of cortisol flowing. Dr.

Ironson summarizes her research by saying, “If you believe

God loves you, it’s an enormously protective factor, even

more protective than scoring low for depression or high for

optimism. A view of a benevolent God is protective, but

scoring high on the
personalized
statement ‘God loves
me
’

is even stronger.”17

As you can imagine, the implications of this research are

enormous, from how we present ourselves to others to how we

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Choice and Your Multiple-Perspective Advantage

help others and ourselves manage illness. Our choices have an

impact. Our choices become
physiology
, and what we believe

as well as what we believe about ourselves alters the facts.

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).

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped

for, the evidence of things not seen.” Whatever you believe in

and hope for becomes substance on a physical level, and you

act upon this. This process can move in either direction—

negative or positive.

In the next chapter we look more in depth at the impact

of our choices and how to eliminate toxic choices.

1. You are not a victim. You can control your reactions.

You do have a choice.

2. Free will is not an illusion. Thinking it is an illusion is

dangerous thinking, and it basically says that we are not

responsible for our actions, thus providing an excuse

to do whatever we want to do, with no consequences.

3. Our free will influences our thinking, which produces

our state of mind. This is so important to human be-

havior and potential that I have dedicated my life to

understanding the process of thought and how we can

choose to think the way God wants us to think. Far from

explaining away free will, the neuroscientific evidence

actually explains how free will works.

4. What we say and do is based on what we have already

built into our minds. We evaluate this information and

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

make our choices based on this information. Then we

choose to build a new thought, and this is what drives

what we say and do.

5. Choice has mental
real estate
around the front of the

brain. Certain areas light up when we think and choose.

6. One of the most exciting features of frontal lobes is

how they enable us in a sense to stand outside ourselves

and observe our own thinking.

7. We have what I like to call “multiple-perspective ad-

vantage”—MPA for short. Our unique, multifaceted

nature, made in God’s image, allows us to see things

from many different angles or perspectives.

8. All this thinking activity is real, and it can be seen on

various types of brain imaging.

9. This
thinking
creates signals that unzip the DNA, which

then expresses genes making proteins.

10. We have a switch gene called the “creb gene” that we

choose to switch on with our thoughts.

11. Our genetic makeup fluctuates by the minute based on

what we are thinking and choosing.

12. A time is coming when medical practitioners will in-

clude admonitions like Philippians 4:8 and Romans

12:2 on their prescription pads. Part 2 of this book is

designed to help you apply God’s prescription.

13. From the gene myth to the truth: We are not victims of

our biology; we control our biology.

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3

Your Choices

Change Your Brain

Main Scripture: Do not conform to the pattern of

this world, but be transformed by the renewing of

your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve

what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect

will. Romans 12:2 NIV

Linked Science Concept: Through our thoughts we

can be our own micro surgeons as we make choices

that will change the circuits in our brains. We are

designed to do our own brain surgery and rewire

our brains by thinking and by choosing to renew

our minds.

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,

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

imagination, and choices can change the structure and function

of our brains on every level: molecular, genetic, epigenetic,

cellular, structural, neurochemical, electromagnetic, and even

subatomic. Through our thoughts, we can be our own brain

surgeons as we make choices that change the circuits in our

brains. We are designed to do our own brain surgery.

This scientific power of our mind to change the brain is

called
epigenetics
and spiritually it is as a man thinks, so is he

(Prov. 23:7). The way the brain changes as a result of mental

activity is scientifically called
neuroplasticity
. And spiritually,

it is the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2).

In chapter 2, I introduced you to the science of epigenetics,

which is tangible, scientific proof of how important our choices

are; they bring life or death, blessing or cursing; and they reach

beyond us to influence the next generations (Deut. 30:19). This is

because choices become signals that change our brain and body,

so these changes are not dictated by our genes. Our thinking and

subsequent choices become the signal switches for our genes.

What’s incredible is that genes are dormant until switched on

by a signal; they have potential, but they have to be activated to

release that potential. They have to be unzipped. (See chap. 2.)

Epigenetics Is an Ancient Science and Spiritual Truth

Epigenetics is referred to as a new science, but actually it is

an ancient science that we find throughout the Bible. At its

most basic level, epigenetics is the fact that your thoughts

and choices impact your physical brain and body, your men-

tal health, and your spiritual development (Deut. 30:19; Ps.

34:11–16; Prov. 3:7–8). And these choices will impact not

only your
own
spirit, soul, and body but also the people with

whom you have relationships. In fact, it goes even deeper; your

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Your Choices Change Your Brain

choices might impact the generations that follow: “For the

sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exod.

34:7 NIV; see also Exod. 20:1–6; Num. 14:8; Deut. 5:9).

The decisions you make today become part of the thought

networks in your brain. The two copies of the chromosome that

you carry in each of your cells contain the entire set of genetic

material necessary to make you. An interesting point: A cell

in your brain and a cell in your kidney contain the exact same

DNA. And while in utero (in the womb), the nascent (emerging,

developing) cells differentiate into either a brain cell or a kidney

cell
only
when crucial epigenetic processes turn the right genes

on or off. So God has designed perfectly timed epigenetic signals

to switch on in the womb as the baby is developing. “Before I

formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer. 1:5).

Our Thoughts Can Impact the Next Four Generations

Science has demonstrated how the thought networks pass

through the sperm and the ova via DNA to the next four

generations.

One of the first studies showing that an epigenetic signal

can affect genetic expression was done with mice that had

the agouti gene, which caused them to be fat, have a yellow

coat, and have an increased incidence of cancer and diabe-

tes. When the agouti gene occurs in humans, it is related to

obesity and type 2 diabetes. In the experiment, just before

conception, the agouti mother mice were fed a nutritional

chemical called a methyl group in the form of a B vitamin.

This acts as a methyl donor, which suppresses the gene ex-

pression, with the result that the offspring of this group did

not get fat or yellow. So an external signal—the nutritional

methyl—changed the generational pattern.1

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

This landmark study fostered a host of studies—including

some done on humans—that showed that not only does food

change generational patterns, but so does thinking.2 In 2003

the Human Epigenome project was launched, which showed

that epigenetics had moved from being a sideshow back in

the 1970s to what is now a main show in the biological arena,

putting genetics in a more proportional place.3

Scientific Mysteries

Epigenetics explains certain scientific mysteries that traditional

genetics never could—for example, why one member of a pair

of identical twins develops asthma but the other does not.

They have the same genome, so they should respond the same

way, but their individual perception of the world (what I term

the “I-factor”) as well as their ability to choose means they

think and react differently, which alters their genetic expres-

sion. Although their genes are the same, their
patterns of ex-

pression can be tweaked
through the signal. And this signal is

mainly affected by our reaction to the events and circumstances

of life. This is profound and the implications are enormous:

the way we react—our thinking and choosing—becomes the

signal that activates or deactivates the generational issues in

our lives.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Taken collectively, the studies on epigenetics show us that the

good, the bad, and the ugly do come down through the genera-

tions, but your mind is the signal—the epigenetic factor—that

switches these genes on or off. Therefore, you are not destined

to live out the negative patterns of your forebearers—you can

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Your Choices Change Your Brain

instead make a life choice to overcome by tweaking their pat-

terns of expression. Part 2 of this book will show you how.

Taking this further, the Scriptures that tell us the sins of the

parents will reach to the third and fourth generation (Exod.

20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18) seem to imply that we are responsible

for the unconfessed sins of our great-great-grandparents. But

we can breathe a sigh of relief when we read Deuteronomy

24:16 and Ezekiel 18:19–20, which explain that we are each

responsible for our own sins and not those of our ancestors.

I know this seems confusing, because the Scriptures say that,

on the one hand, a parent’s iniquity will be visited on the chil-

dren, but, on the other hand, we are only responsible for our own

sins. Here is how it works: Epigenetic changes represent a bio-

logical response to an environmental signal. That response can

be inherited through the generations via the epigenetic marks.

But if you remove the signal, the epigenetic marks will fade.

By the same token, if you choose to add a signal—for ex-

ample, 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. I have seen this over the

years in my private practice and in my seminars, and even

in my own life and the lives of my family and friends, time

and time again. If we don’t wake up to these truths, they

will catch us when we are not looking, and before you know

it you will be living a life you didn’t plan on living. If this is

you, here is the good news: You
can
change.

Predisposition versus Destiny

Herein lies the key: The sins of parents create a
predisposi-

tion
, not a
destiny
. You are not responsible for something you

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

are predisposed to because of ancestral decisions. You are

responsible, however, to be aware of predispositions, evaluate

them, and choose to eliminate them.

The epigenetic marks in our genes that may predispose

us to smoke, eat too much of the wrong foods, be negative,

or worry can change. This can cause, for example, the genes