Neural Rivers of Mind Matte Paper Print - 18" x 24"

Potential. Can we improve ourselves and our lives through changing our thoughts? Can we have a different, better experience through shifting our perspective? Do we have the ability to enhance or to alter what we consider reality simply by understanding it differently?

Social psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer of Harvard University set out to research these questions. In the now famous Counterclockwise study, elderly participants stayed in a retreat that was retrofitted to simulate the 1950s–when the participants were much younger. As with any scientific study, a control group participated, and both groups underwent physical and cognitive testing before the study. The TVs played shows from that era, and the radios and magazines also only had content from the 1950s. The entire environment transported their consciousness back to their youth. The study had one major difference between the groups however. The control group had to speak in the past tense, as if their youth had ended; the other group had to speak in the present tense, as if they really were living in the 1950s.

At the end of the study, the researchers ran the same tests on the participants. The results were shocking. Both groups improved their physical strength and flexibility; their hearing and vision were better; and their fingers were more agile, less affected by arthritis. Even their posture, height, and weight had all changed, and they scored higher on the same cognitive tests. Then came the next surprise. The group that thought and behaved as if they really were in the 1950s turned out to have far superior improvements–as if their brains had instructed their bodies to become biologically and cognitively younger. This group had improved their lives by changing their thoughts and altered ‘reality’ by understanding it differently. Dr. Langer isn’t the only one to discover how mindset manifests reality.

A world away, Dr. John E. Sarno had become frustrated. As Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and attending physician, he had seen thousands of patients and treated them using standard medical procedures. They kept coming back, complaining that after specialized tests, medications, and even surgeries, their pain persisted. Dr. Sarno felt confused and searched for an explanation in the accepted literature. No one knew why so many patients were resistant to the usual treatments. Confusion turned to clarity when, after intense research into the brain-body connection, Dr. Sarno discovered neural pathways from the unconscious to the rest of the body and how repressed emotions, beliefs, and ideas could manifest as physical symptoms. The book The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders was born and has relieved thousands of people from their pain.

This painting represents the ‘neural rivers of mind’ that allows us, through neuroplasticity, to change our thoughts and behaviors and therefore to change our experience, our reality. Though I’ve never met Drs. Langer or Sarno, I had my own experience with the brain-body connection. My leg was throbbing and my physician ran every test known to medicine: x-rays, blood tests, you name it. We tested vitamin levels and nutrient deficiencies. Every test returned normal results. The pain was so intense I could barely walk through the streets of New York, and the pain medication only lasted so long. This went on for months and no one, including specialists, had answers. During a talk therapy session, I wept out of sheer exhaustion and frustration. Not only was my leg still in pain, I felt angry and hopeless in my job search because every company either ghosted me, ignored me, or rejected me. My finances were shot. I felt helpless to support myself and humiliated as an adult.

My therapist–trained in the analysis of the subconscious mind–was silent until the very end, but as I was leaving said, “It sounds like you’re having trouble standing on your own two feet.” Within 24 hours, the pain disappeared and has never returned. He made the connection between my experience of unemployment and the pain in my leg. In fact, I did feel crippled financially, and my brain manifested that feeling in my leg. Our brains, our minds, and our bodies are connected through networks and channels similar to a system of rivers. The material that we think, and feel, and even the food we eat, affects our bodies. More than 90% of serotonin and at least 50% of dopamine inside you is made in your gut, which gets its energy from what you choose to eat and drink. Scientists call this the gut-brain axis and it affects our mental state. We are truly ‘rivers’ of mind flowing in a multiplicity of directions with different currents of thought and feeling; where we go, what we experience, depends on our thoughts and feelings–conscious and unconscious. We determine–both consciously and unconsciously–the course of our lives.

My hope is that each time you see your new paper print, you reflect on the content of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and choose a path of action that leads to expanded awareness of your subconscious brain so that you may swim freely in the neural rivers of your mind.

• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%

Important: To accurately view the colors and saturation of the products, please make sure your device's display settings are set to "Natural."