The brain is a machine unlike any other. It never stops working yet it constantly needs fuel, but unlike any other machine, it never operates at full capacity. According to psychologist and medical science, the brain is made up of different parts that operate differently from one another. There are parts of the brain that humans have yet to use and there are parts that are constantly overused. Even without human intervention or ability, the brain gives admission to information even when we are unaware.

Regardless of what kind of information and how much of it goes into our brains, only we, as individuals, can control what portion of that information we will keep and use and what portion we will discard. The ability to control what our brain keeps and uses is an extraordinary skill that must be practiced and exercised persistently if we as humans want to maintain control over our own thoughts. Otherwise, we will be controlled by whatever subliminal illusions occupy our brains.

There are a few things to know about maintaining control over what and how the brain processes the information it receives. However, one should realize that even though the brain belongs to us does not mean that we will ever have complete control over it. But as long as we do, we can filter our minds and make it work for us in many ways.

The first thing to remember is that we have the power to feed our brains whatever we want it to have. We do not have to be subject to outside influences that feed our brains for us, such as television, radio, or the opinions of other people. The way to accomplish this simple task is to designate to your brain what you will feed it, which will help it grow by learning. For example, everyone has interest; maybe jogging, painting, music, or writing, and those interests are key to training the mind.

As strange as it may sound, not all people like listening to music or watching television or going shopping, they would rather read books for the purpose of gaining knowledge, some would rather paint for hours at a time exercising creativity, some would rather walk or run and some people like to talk. Whatever the interest, if it feeds the brain positive, enlightening things instead of destructive, it is well worth it.

Destructive brain food is food that does the brain's thinking for it. It does not allow the brain to actively participate in whatever it is feeding it and it strips all creativity, cognitive power, and abstract concepts from the brain, which slows down processing, and slowly infects it with illusionary imagery of unrealistic impressions. The brain processes these impressions as abstract thus causing the person to confuse fact from fiction. When this happens, the ability to organize ideas is blurred and the person becomes dependant on destructive food to organize his or her thoughts for them.

Various factors contribute to how the brain processes information. Sometimes that information is processed through the wrong channels of the brain and people tend to lose sight of reality. Stress is one of those factors, thus people have nervous breakdowns. Another factor is chemical brain damage as well as biological; this type damage causes the brain to shut the person out of reality for a certain period of time. Normally called comatose. Still other factors could come from environment, which causes people to view the world only one way and leads to disillusionment about life in general.

To overcome such disorders, people must exercise their brains, as in expanding it and allowing it to feed from multiple venues. Traveling helps the brain because the brain gets a chance to comprehend different spheres of the earth, its environments, climates, peoples and culture. It also has a chance to eliminate the destructive food fed to it over the years of immobility. In other words, if a person stays idol in one place, i.e., a house, job, city, or even a country for long periods of their life, their brains can only gather the food fed to it by that atmosphere.

If one cannot afford to travel, the next best thing is to read about the world and other places. One does not necessarily have to read about other countries but can read about other jobs, other people or the writings of other people, and or about something that interest them. Everyone has dreams and hopes for themselves so they can read about whatever those dreams are, which gives hope and ideas to the brain.

People have different taste in books. People have different interest and different ways they feed their brains. Being active outdoors helps the brain to free itself from monotony and, which allows "the right brain" or creative side to operate. This exercise helps to switch brainpower from the abstract to the figurative, which in turn also builds ideas.

The power of thought brought about by knowledge building gives strength to words. The more brain power a person has the stronger and more meaningful their words will be, but the weaker the brain, the less chance a person has for decent values.

"Small minds talk about other people. Average minds talk about events, but great minds talk about ideas." - Winston Churchill.

© 2003 by AfroStaff