How to Reprogram Your Brain
Mar 21, 2018
You were never hypnotized... or were you? Were you "programed" by some evil mastermind? Probably not.
Instead, what's happened are incidences and circumstances that have all coalesced into patterns. Unconscious patterns.
Our personal history has created automatic thoughts and responses that come up and "just happen".
Like the constant irritating thoughts and worries that you can't get rid of. Or obsessing over and over and over some situation in the past.
You just want to get control of your brain!
To be able to do that, you need to understand the way your brain operates.
TWO SYSTEMS
According to psychologists, we have two systems of thought.
System One
Your brain loves to optimize itself. It doesn't like to have to do a whole lot of thinking.
It says, "What do I already know and how can I apply it to this situation?"
If you’re like most people, the recurring negative thoughts and feelings that come up are EASY. Automatic. Unconscious.
To avoid thinking your brain says, "We've thought through this before and this is what worked once", (in first grade). "Use THAT now."
Easy and automatic. But not always helpful.
A similar situation or fear will prompt it to say, "Run away again!" The crazy thing is, even if it's not really similar it will still scream, "Hey, we're worried about this. Protect yourself right now."
These are System One thoughts.
Fear of rejection, ridicule and being abandoned can be life threatening in childhood. But thoughts need to be consciously examined in adulthood. Otherwise, old programing pops up and sabotages you. Your brain says, "RUN! It's the easiest route we know."
Most of our life is System One driven. Very unconscious. It HAS to be or we would go crazy with every little choice.
System Two
This system requires focus and work. But the payoff is huge.
System Two uses awareness and discipline so you can train your mind to have responses that are positive and helpful.
You can use this system to develop automatic, unconscious thoughts that are buoyant, confident and strong that lead to healthy life decisions.
Doesn't that sound wonderful?
Use System Two to discipline your mind if you want to
- BE who you truly want to be
- GO where you want to go in life
- REACH your highest life purpose
THE FRAMEWORK
You can use the brain's natural operation and re-train it. Use this framework when you work with your thoughts:
IMPORTANCE + INTENSITY + FREQUENCY = AUTOMATION
It's pretty simple, really. And works with negative or positive thoughts.
If you have frequent negative thoughts and reactions to life, it's because you're giving those thoughts more attention than other thoughts.
Sorry :-/
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The weight that you've given those negative thoughts is high. (IMPORTANCE)
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You have strong feelings about those negative thoughts. (INTENSITY)
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You are thinking those thoughts over and over. (FREQUENCY)
All that repetition seals the negative into the unconscious. And now your brain says, "Oh, that's simple, I recognize this," and pulls forward the automatic negative.
Getting the picture?
Keep obsessing about negative things and your mind gets conditioned to bring it up without your control.
MANAGE YOUR MENTALITY
The good news is you can use this same framework to your advantage. You can give positive thinking, positive questions, positive approaches to life a lot of importance and focus.
Do it by applying the above framework to retrain your brain in a helpful way. Throughout the day stop and notice - "WHERE ARE MY THOUGHTS RIGHT NOW?"
"Are these thoughts supporting me or are they negative? Are they stemming from unconscious, self protecting ways that are not advancing my life?"
- Notice what you've been thinking about.
- Apply the framework.
Frequency. Intensity. Duration. This SEALS positive responses into your brain.
Try visualizing positive outcomes. Spend a lot of time thinking about them.
Obsess on the positive.
Oh, your mind will squirm! It will crave EASY. It will want to go back to auto pilot. You tell it, "No, no, I'm not into EASY right now, I'M INTO FOCUSING."
Do the homework below regularly and see for yourself. Apply the framework and then - VOILA! You've developed automatic responses that are helpful.
This is where personal power comes from.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Here's your homework. Write down three positive questions that you are going to ask yourself throughout the day. You are going to wake up and ask, ask midday and again before bed.
Questions like...
- What can I do to INSPIRE MYSELF today?
- How can I DO BETTER?
- How can I SUPPORT those I love right now?
- How can I SHOW EXCELLENCE in this moment?
- What would my HIGHEST CHOICE be in this situation?
Do this for 30 days.
Write your own and then give your questions importance by focusing on them frequently. Give them intensity by feeling the sensations around them.
If you do this for 30 days you will experience a total shift in your life. Ask simple positive questions. Give them importance, intensity and frequency to retrain your brain.
Your mind will shift gears and live in a System Two mindset rather than in an unconscious System One mindset.
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I appreciate you.
