Ishan Shivanand argues that modern life numbs the brain, calcifying the pineal gland through light pollution and constant stimulation. He explains how this disrupts sleep and creativity, then offers meditation and exercise practices to reactivate the nervous system and restore natural rhythms.
When we say that we want our body to work like a Ferrari, the most important thing in a Ferrari is the engine. In the same manner, the most important thing inside your body is your brain. Now, brain is the one thing which we abuse the most. Because if you look at your own lifestyle, we have a left brain, the logic mind, and the right brain, that is the creative mind. The work of the creative mind is to give humanity the charm, the wonder, the inquisitiveness, and at the same time the power to create. But as I said, In today's lifestyle, we are living in a certain manner where we are numbing our mind again and again and again. From the morning, the minute we get up, we don't let our mind think. There is the newspaper, there is the cell phone, there is the computer, then there is the job, then there is again— everything that you look around you is a numbing agent taking away your free thought. The result of this is the calcification of the pineal gland. Just like your lungs get affected by air pollution, in the same manner, your brain, your pineal gland gets affected by light pollution. Because you see, it is the work of the pineal gland to release serotonin. It is the work of the pineal gland to release melatonin. Now, the work of these chemicals inside your body is to help you relax, is to help create a body clock where your body can guide you when it is time to relax and when it is time to be alert. And what happens is that when the pineal gland starts to get calcified, you know, because of the lifestyle we are living. The pineal cannot tell us when it's a day, when it's a night, because outside it's a night, but in front of us in our smart screen, it's what you call Switzerland daytime. So the pineal is confused, the brain is confused, and the result is we can't wake up without coffee and we can't sleep without help of external numbing agents. So this is what we need to change. We need to kickstart our central nervous system. We need to kickstart our brain. We need to kickstart our pineal gland. So the next exercises that I'm going to teach you, these exercises, these meditation, are going to help you in this manner. They are going to help sort of revive the Ferrari engine because we've not used it for such a long time. We need free thought, we need creativity. Otherwise, what's the difference between a man and a monkey. So the effects are going to be simple: a good and awakened central nervous system, a good and awakened pineal gland, and the power to relax, and the power of creativity and intuition.
