Welcome to my book, Bright Brains Meditate: Smart Learning, Smart Decision Making, Smart Problem Solving.
Bright Brains Meditate is a practical book that clearly explains small steps that quickly increase your intelligence and deliver rewarding results.
Updated: 29th November 2025
Note: This is a work-in-progress draft version that is continuously being edited and updated. This will be free to access until the final version is published.
Bright Brains Meditate
Smart Learning,
Smart Decision Making,
Smart Problem Solving
Introduction
Learn fast.
Decisions trusted.
Problems solved.
How?
The key is using your brain the way that your brain evolved to work.
Imagine you are in a 100 metre race.
You are limited to crawling.
Your competitor is free to run.
Who will win the race, you or your competitor?
Clearly, your competitor will sprint to the finish line leaving you in the dust still crawling.
Why will your competitor win the race?
Your competitor is using their body in the way that the human body evolved to work. Humans evolved to be bipedal and we are very efficient at moving on two legs. Humans did not evolve to be quadrupedal and we are very inefficient at moving on all fours.
You are probably unknowingly self-limiting your brain by using your brain differently to how the human brain evolved to work.
Stop crawling and start sprinting by learning how to use your brain.
You are your brain.
Your personality, your memories, your dreams and your ambitions are all in your brain.
Your brain is constantly solving problems, learning and making decisions in all areas of your life.
Using your brain how it evolved to work maximizes your logical, emotional and social intelligence.
Our brains are the most complex things in the known universe.
There are evolutionary, psychological and biological processes that drive how our brains work.
There are basic principles behind these processes.
There is a single overarching principle that we can easily use to have a healthy, happy and high-performance brain.
You don’t need to be a scientist to understand this principle and once you understand the principle it’s easy to use in daily life.
Firstly, we’ll define the overarching principle and use science to look at how our brains work.
Secondly, we’ll take a brief look at this overarching principle in action in famous real-life examples.
Thirdly, we’ll discover how to use this overarching principle to our advantage in daily life.
This book is a practical guide that gives you a clear understanding of how your brain works and how you can get more from your brain.
Using your brain more effectively gives you:
- Faster learning
- Faster problem solving
- Less stress
- More energy
- Clearer direction
- Clearer purpose
Let’s get started!
Science
Principle
Brain Balance Principle:
Brain performance is optimal when conscious and non-conscious brain activity is balanced.
Simplified Brain Balance Principle:
Bright brains meditate.
Conscious brain activity = Awake.
Non-conscious brain activity = Assist + Bright.
Conscious Awake is what we experience as our present consciousness and is supported by Non-Conscious Assist (sensory processing, memory retrieval, etc).
Non-conscious Bright is where information is processed, linked and stored (complex problem solving, deep learning, detailed memory).
The scientific reason for this principle is evolution.
Humans evolved in an environment where there were long valleys of non-conscious brain activity with short peaks of conscious brain activity.
Human brains evolved to be highly cognitively efficient with this balance between conscious and non-conscious brain activity.
Human brain is a biological computer with a fixed amount of processing capacity.
Active conscious brain activity takes up a large amount of processing capacity. To get around this capacity limitation human brains store information for processing later when conscious brain activity is low and there is the capacity available to process information, link information together and make sense of it which is done automatically with no conscious effort required.
Evolution
Human evolution history.
Human brain evolution history.
Hunter gatherer society > Agrarian society > Industrial Society > Information society.
Clock to indicate visually. 12 hours = whole of human history, last 5 minutes is modern humans, etc.
Balance
Hunter gatherer and agrarian = Lots of walking around which allows low Awake Brain activity and high Bright Brain activity.
Industrial = Specialisation at work which means higher Awake Brain activity and lower Bright Brain activity.
Information = Very high Awake Brain activity and very low Bright Brain activity.
Human brain activity has recently changed from mainly Bright Brain activity with bursts of Awake Brain activity to mainly Awake Brain activity with hardly any Bright Brain activity.
Human brains evolved to work in the environment we lived in for the majority of human history.
Human brains are not designed to be used with a constantly high Awake Brain activity and low or no Bright Brain activity.
Burnout vs boredom.
Simplify life so that Awake Brain has less to deal with.
Have a healthy balance between Awake Brain activity and Bright Brain activity.
Bright Brains
Archimedes
Eureka! Bath.
Newton
Apple falling. Sitting outside, in countryside due to plague.
Darwin
Theory of evolution. Daily schedule.
Meditate
What
Definition of meditation.
At it’s core meditation is the minimization of conscious brain activity which frees up the brain capacity for the non-conscious brain activity to work.
Ancient humans understood the need for a healthy balance between conscious and non-conscious brain activity.
Over time this became part of tradition, culture and religion. Over time meditation grew it’s own variations which were added piece by piece by the people of that culture.
How
Daily use. Anything where your conscious brain activity is minimal.
Mini-meditation during the day. Walk, close your eyes, sit somewhere quiet, get a drink.
Evenings and weekends. Exercise (walking, running, yoga, weights), sitting outside, lying down, bath.
Dynamic
Life is dynamic.
Sometimes life will be busy and other times not so busy.
If you want high performance prioritize time to meditate.
Non-conscious brain activity is where the brightness comes from.
Simplify life and have a healthy balance.
The balance needs to dynamically change to match what is going on in your life.
Summary
Human brains evolved to work with a balance between conscious and non-conscious brain activity.
Use your brain how it evolved to work.
Build meditation into your daily and weekly life.
Dynamically adjust as required by life circumstances.
Edwin Leo 