Power Up Your Brain (31 page)

Remember that these are only general recommendations. Consult your physician or dietician for specific recommendations based upon your height, level of activity, muscularity, metabolism, underlying medical conditions, medications, and other factors.

You will fast for one day during this week.

If possible, choose the 11th day after the full moon, which is the ideal fasting and meditation day, and it will synchronize your fasting and deepen your meditation experience as you energetically connect with others who also adopt this program.

Follow the same recommendations as in Week 1.

On the fasting day, continue to take all of your nutritional supplements, but add a second tablespoon of coconut oil and a second tablespoon of olive oil in the afternoon. Take a double dosage of pterostilbene, sulforaphane, curcumin (from turmeric extract), and green tea extract twice on this day only; or simply take two capsules of Nrf2 Activator morning and evening.

Practice yoga or a similar stretching/flexibility program at least twice a week for at least 30 minutes per session.

Reduce your exercise from daily workouts to five days a week, but increase each workout to 40 to 45 minutes, if possible.

Coincide your exercise-free day with your fasting day.

Open and close your shamanic exercises with the Creating Sacred Space prayer, or a similar prayer of your own creation or choosing.

Perform the Sky Gazing exercise each morning at sunrise.

Perform the Dream Yoga and Lucid Dreaming exercises each evening.

Perform the Quieting Your HPA Axis exercise twice during this week in the evening before going to bed.

Enjoy a Shaman’s Bath once each week in the evening before going to bed.

Participate in the Power Up Your Brain Program’s daily Planetary Meditation. Download the daily image as your desktop screen saver, and tune in to the Human Global Matrix of others around the planet who are meditating at the same time.

Often during each day, be aware of your breath and cultivate stillness.

Ask for forgiveness of anyone you may have wronged. Drop them a handwritten note in the mail, or get on the telephone with them and say you are sorry directly. “I’m sorry” is one of the most powerful sentences that our higher brain knows. Then continue to work on forgiving anyone who you believe has wronged you, using the Radical Forgiveness exercise in Chapter 13.

Now, after five weeks in the Power Up Your Brain Program, you are well on your journey toward a healed brain, one that is increasingly free of the damaging effects of stress and trauma, and that is primed for enlightenment.

Continue to choose as many organic foods as are available.

Continue to avoid allergens and hydrogenated and saturated fats.

Continue to eat an elevated number of whole fruits and vegetables, at least five to six servings.

Continue consuming only one serving of carbohydrates each day and up to one glass of wine daily (if desired), but not on your fasting day.

Continue on your restricted calorie eating plan. Women can have up to 2,000 calories per day, and men can have up to 2,550 calories. Remember that these are only general recommendations. Consult your physician or dietician for specific recommendations.

Caffeine:
Reintroduce caffeine in the form of coffee or tea, if you wish. Consume no more than 60 mg of caffeine each day, preferably in the morning.

Read labels. A typical 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee will contain from 60 to 120 mg of caffeine, depending on the type and how finely it is ground. Green tea contains a predictable 20 mg of caffeine in an 8-ounce cup. Black tea contains 45 mg in an 8-ounce cup.

Monitor your response to caffeine carefully. Reduce the amount if symptoms of overstimulation, such as insomnia, follow caffeine use.

Continue to fast one day a month, preferably on the 11th day after the full moon.

Continue to take your nutritional supplements.

On the days you fast, increase your daily supplements, as described on page 181.

Practice yoga or a similar stretching/flexibility program at least twice a week for at least 30 minutes per session.

Continue to do aerobic exercise for 40 to 45 minutes, 5 days a week. Refrain from aerobic exercise on the day of your fast.

Continue with the shamanic exercises: Creating Sacred Space, Sky Gazing, Dream Yoga, Lucid Dreaming, Quieting Your HPA Axis, and the Shaman’s Bath.

Participate in the Power Up Your Brain Program’s daily Planetary Meditation. Download this peace meditation—along with an image that can be used as your desktop screen saver—from
www.PowerUpYourBrain.com
. As you do the meditation, try to tune in with others around the planet who are meditating at the same time.

Often during each day, take time to be consciously aware of your breath in order to cultivate stillness. Take long, deep breaths and feel the air move in and out of your body. Notice the sensations in your body as you breathe. And as your breathing becomes more rhythmic, you will find your sense of inner peace growing.

Cultivate relationships with people that uplift and inspire you. Choose your friends carefully, and care for them like a gardener tends to his flowers. Invest prime time and energy into the friendships that you want to take with you for the rest of your life.