Interestingly, the part of our body that defines who we are and allows us to understand, process and react to the world around us – our brain – is the part we seem to know and understand the least. In our Get to Know your Brain series, we shed light on the control center of your being, the part that makes you you. When you know how your brain works, you can change the way you feel, think, act and react.
Did you know: the brain is made up of about 75% water, uses 20% of the total oxygen and 20% of the blood circulating in our body. Hence, the better we hydrate, the deeper we breathe, the more relaxed we are, the better our blood flows through our body and the more efficiently our brain functions.
Researchers from the universities of East London and Westminster found that students who drink water during exams obtain higher grades, performing 10% better than those who don’t – the difference of a full grade. Visual attention and memory are also proven to increase with better hydration. This is due to the enhanced performance of the brain when properly hydrated and the fact drinking water is shown to alleviate anxiety, which is known to negatively affect performance.
With clinical hypnosis, we learn how to change our brain wave cycles to enhance our mental capacities. This partly explains the rejuvenating and restorative boost experienced during and after hypnosis. It also accounts for the superior clarity of mind and mental focus experienced during hypnosis, which enables us to recover or retain considerable amounts of information, very often out of reach when we function in the conscious level of the mind.
GENVIÈV ST. CLAIR, Fellow and Former President of the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association, is an award-winning Board Certified Instructor with the NGH.