Nothing is as vital to the enjoyment of your later years and your quality of life than the three pounds of gray matter between your ears. Yes, your brain.

This was dramatically illustrated by the state of Ronald Reagan, once considered one of the most powerful men in the world, who was reduced to lying in bed wearing diapers before his death from Alzheimer’s disease, the disease that perhaps best demonstrates how essential the brain is to quality of life.

Naturally, as baby boomers age, the question arises: how best to maintain the viability of the brain? The key to activities that improve brain function is something called transferability. According to Newsweek, doing crossword puzzles improves your ability to do crossword puzzles and not much else. Which kinds of activities transfer from that specific activity into general brain health and alertness?

Newsweek narrows it down to three types of activities: exercise, meditation, and playing one well-researched computer game called Space Fortress.

What do practitioners of Access Consciousness, dedicated to taking a different point of view on everything, know about this subject that publications such as Newsweek magazine, that also covered this topic, doesn’t know yet?

Access has a different point of view on exercise. Newsweek states that 45 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 times a week is enough to stimulate formation of new neurons and neurotransmitters, as well as the chemicals that promote neuron formation. What can Access’s awareness contribute towards this step toward anti-aging?

“Bodies hate to exercise,” observes Access Founder and #1 best-selling author Gary Douglas. “But they love to move.” The word “exercise” sounds suspiciously like “exorcise” to our bodies. If we changed our points of view on exercise, might we be more likely to engage in this life-enhancing activity? What if describing it as movement and enjoying the process of it could make it a lot more fun and inviting that something that sounds so much like exorcise?

Another factor in creating anti-aging effects is meditation, described as “mindfulness-based mind-fitness training, which requires concentration on one object.” A neuroscientist has found that this can enhance mental agility and attention by creating more efficient brain processes. If mindfulness-based mind-fitness training is not available on a street corner in your neighborhood, how else might you give your brain the anti-aging effects of meditation?

One process that is available nearly worldwide is a simple hands-on practice called “the Bars.” In a typical bars session, a trained practitioner places their fingers on a series of 32 different points on your head over the period of about an hour. In that one-hour session, up to 10,000 years of accumulated thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are creating limitations and obstacles to your life can be released.

During the Bars session, practitioners claim that the electrical functioning of the brain is changed. Doctors of different disciplines who are trained in biofeedback have confirmed this, by reporting the changes in their own brain wave function while receiving a Bars session. Activity typically moves from the normal waking state of Beta through Alpha into Theta brain waves of deep relaxation.

While Newsweek assumes that it was the focusing aspect of meditation, which created the anti-aging effects on the brain, studies done by Dr. Carl and Stephanie Simonton on cancer survivors suggest that the act of relaxation, which is provided effortlessly and to a very high degree by the bars, is a key to survival.

If relaxation is truly a key contributor to longevity, then clearly the Bars process can make a major contribution. Bars practitioners say the worst thing that can happen during your session is that you’ll feel more relaxed than after a fabulous massage. The best that can happen is your whole life can change.

Learning to do the Bars is available to everyone. No anatomy or medical training is required; in fact, children can be trained to do them, and often do so even more effectively than adults! Some 400 Bars facilitators are available to provide individual sessions, with more being added around the world every day. Their locations range from Abu Dhabi to Turkey, with more available in the US, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Turkey. You can locate classes and bars facilitators near you by searching the website at www.bars.accessconsciousness.com.

Classes in the Bars and Access Consciousness are offered worldwide. For classes near you can consult the website, www.bars.accessconsciousness.com. DVDs illustrating the bars are also available from the website.