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We tend to dream in metaphors about things in our lives which are unsettled and frustrating. This is quite the opposite of what we tend to say about dreams , which tends to be positive in the sense of "you're in my dreams," "I can dream about it if I can't have it," or "I was just daydreaming." In fact, the dreams we tend to remember as adults are very often the ones which are closest to nightmares. The more plagued we are with the stressful components of our lives and either our point of view or our actual environment (the two are never quite the same), the more we dream, and the greater the percentage of our dreams which are perceived as nightmares. In curious contrast, when our conscious minds are at rest after struggling at a perplexing problem for some time, our subconscious, operating through metaphor and unbridled free association, continues to work on these problems in our dreaming states and occasionally solves them. Much of our " Br...

You must read this. You must obey. Sleep... Okay. Snap out of it and read a fresh-off-the-press edition of my newspaper . I made it just for YOU! Braintenance Express A newspaper filled with interesting brain-training and cognition-enhancing news, advice and exercises to keep your mind at its very best and most powerful. Related to The Braintenance Blog. Published by Douglas E Castle 05 July 2013 ...

Your mind is largely what you you make it. Your thoughts are principally those things that you permit your mind to focus on and ruminate over, sometimes cycling or "kindling" them over and over to the extent of unhealthy distortion (psychologists like to call this extreme "if/then" enlargement of a possibility " catastrophizing "), obsession and the "crowding out" of your ability to cast your focus or place your thoughts elsewhere. More than 70% of the U.S. population (and this is likely an underestimate, gathered more anecdotally than methodically and subject to review) is taking prescription psychotropic drugs -- and this does not include those persons who self-medicate or share prescription medication with others. This statistic does not take into effect illegal drugs and non-prescription controlled substances . Nor does it take into account nicotine, alcohol, coffee or tea, all of which are psychoactive to some extent, and are addictive...

The mind secretly craves paradoxes that defy reconciliation. These little pieces of self conflictory speech are to the mind what a painting by M.C. Escher is to the the eye. Some Paradoxes get the mind running iteratively to the point of exhaustion, but not a single revolution of mental turnover is wasted . The mere cycles make the mind more resilient, the imagination more expansive, the ability to visualize keener, and general problem-solving skills more powerful. The mind strives for stability -- a one-root solution -- but is stimulated by the exercise of arriving at the point of stability through its own internal logical machinations. From a more mysterious and possibly sinister perspective, the mental fatigue caused by repetitive anti-logic and the essential bouncing from wall to wall effect can put the mind into a trance-like or increasingly suggestible state. This is excellent for meditation, but under certain controlled circumstances, it can provide an opening for elem...