Braincation
Geraldine Anathan • 23 March 2021
Taking A Month to Reset in Aspen.
Receiving the second dose of the Moderna vaccine last week almost took me to my knees. I'm not talking about the after effect (the fever, the chills, the glued-to-the-couch-for-2-days zone. What I'm referring to is the emotional release as I waited to leave Gillette Stadium, the vibration of collective energy around me; tones of grief, hope, caution, relief, celebration, and loss. We've had such a year; each of us have. We're all in this together. Sometimes the best of me came out, and certainly sometimes the worst.
Better late than never, I've come to Aspen from the east coast to spend a month, arriving just after my dad's 82nd birthday. I am here to reset, to re-prioritize, to ski, to hike, and mostly to pay attention. I hope to share relevant information that will help others to train their brains. There is nothing better than knowing we can influence our perspective. The brain wants you to be happy. My mission to show readers and clients how we can make peace with our brains. We can literally change our minds.
To get to the interesting matters of the brain (no pun intended) we first have to start with the facts. This firm, pinkish grey organ weights somewhere between 2.5-3 pounds.. While it consists of 73% water, the human body is only 60% water. Really think about that. Your brain, right now, has about a liter of water in it. That's 1/4 more than a bottle of wine. And if you scraped off the outer layer of the brain, and ironed out all the wrinkles, it might smell terrible but it would cover an area of about 2.5 square feet. In many of the keynotes I give, my favorite section is to erode the myths surrounding what we THINK we know about the brain. Like the left and right hemisphere rumor, or that we only use 10% of our brain, or that babies exposed to classical music in utero become smarter or calmer. NOPE. We'll get into all that later, but my mission here is to open a new door for you; one in which you begin to see that you can change your mind.