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How Are You Wiring Your Brain?

Aug 22, 2022

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How Are You Wiring Your Brain?

 

How are you wiring your brain?

 

Digging into another one of my FAVOURITE topics today.  

 

Rewiring your brain and nervous system.  

 

It’s SUCH an important subject and something I'm always talking to clients about.  I mean…it’s exactly what I help them do!

 

One of the things I encourage people to start with is simply to be able to think in the moment, ‘what am I wiring in right now?’

 

I even made it one of the wallpapers that we create in my Positive Pants toolkit membership every month to make it even easier to remember. 

 

You’re constantly reinforcing neural pathways.  Until you do something different. Then you can intentionally, consciously create new ones that serve you better.

 

Your wiring has been created from your own life experiences. From your upbringing, social groups, society, school, culture, what you’re watching/reading.  It’s all helping create how you’re uniquely wired. 

 

Understanding neuroplasticity is a game changer when you’re wanting to change things.

 

Even simply knowing it’s possible to wire yourself for the behaviour or thought process that you want is enough to give you hope and motivation to put the effort in.

 

Because it is effort.

 

It takes time, make it easy on yourself. 

 

You’re intentionally trying to go against your brain’s way of conserving energy and your nervous system’s way of keeping you safe. 

 

It doesn’t happen overnight.  It can happen quickly!

 

Sometimes you’ll have an experience that forever changes the way you look at something. Can you think of a few times that’s happened?

 

When you totally surprised yourself, or did something you didn’t think you were capable of and then it stuck?

 

When you’ve shown yourself evidence to the contrary of what you originally believed to be true…and then you can’t unlearn it?

 

Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to adapt through new experiences. 

 

You have the power to create new neural networks for the way you WANT to feel, think or behave.

 

Isn’t that incredible?  

 

And exciting?

 

It means wherever you’re at right now, isn’t fixed. 

 

It’s changeable.

 

But it starts with conscious awareness.

 

This is why I talk about the enneagram all the time because it’s an amazing way to get started with conscious awareness of your own motivations and behaviours. 

 

So what are you wiring in on a daily basis right now?

 

How do you start and finish your day?

 

How do you look after yourself?

 

Does the thought pop in to do something that’s good for you and you ignore it and do the thing you know is going to make you feel worse in the long run?

 

Don’t blame or shame yourself for this. It's totally natural and you’ve also got your own internal protection mechanisms at play, along with the brain and nervous system’s desire to keep you in the familiar. The rehearsed. It’s all about keeping you safe, alive and using up as little energy as possible in your day to day processes.  It’s keeping you unconscious. 

 

So when you start making conscious choices, that’s when everything can change for you.

 

That looks like meeting your own needs.  Is your body crying out for rest?  How can you give it that?  Does your body need healthy food?  How can you give it that?  Do you need human connection?  How can you get that?  How else can you look after yourself like you would someone else?

 

It also looks like knowing the difference between your body’s actual needs and your ego’s!

 

Your ego will tell you you need the junk food, or to not exercise, or you just need to binge watch a couple of episodes of your favourite Netflix show and then you’ll get back to what you needed to do.

 

When you’re assuming the worst about someone’s intentions, what are you wiring in?

 

When you’re seeking the negative in a situation, what are you wiring in?

 

You have to learn to tune into yourself. Most of us have shut down that part of us since we were kids.  Guess what helps you get back in touch with yourself?  Yep….consciousness. And patience. Add some curiosity to the mix and you’re really on to a winner. 

 

If you’re going through a hard time quite often your ego is going to try to pull you deeper and deeper into that pesky pit of despair. 

 

That’s what you’re wiring in, until you shift it up.

 

How many times has it been that you do something DIFFERENT and that’s what gets you out of a slump?

 

It’s really easy to start to use our tried and true numbing techniques.  That might be Netflix binges, doom scrolling, online shopping, substances, food.  Whatever it looks like to you. It’s REALLY easy to slip into. 

 

With any of these behaviours the relief is short lived and very swiftly followed by a fudge tonne of shame that makes you feel even worse.  And that’s what you’re wiring in.

 

I know how hard it can be to do what’s good for you when you’re feeling bad. So come back to this question. ‘What am I wiring in right now?’

 

What neural pathway am I cementing as my path of least resistance?

 

The answer is likely to be shame, self loathing, guilt, feelings of not being good enough. 

 

Whereas if you do even a small bit of what you know is good for you.  Like going for a walk, even when you really don’t want to.  

 

Or making a healthy dinner instead of a takeaway. 

 

Exercise, even if it’s just 10 minutes. 

 

Going against our ego’s instincts and doing what we KNOW is good for us. 

 

What are you wiring in then?

 

You’re wiring in self love, self trust, knowing you ARE good enough, feelings of deserving and likely you’ll feel better too. Winner. 

 

A few of my favourite ways out of what I simply like to call ‘human moments’ are all the things you hear me talk about all the time. 

 

Journaling, meditation, walking, movement, exercise, EFT (Tapping) , going outside and putting my bare feet on the floor, mindfulness, gratitude, speaking to friends.  And more recently I’ve discovered a big love for paddleboarding. I find water very very regulating so I always know that going for a swim or getting out on the river is going to really shift up my mood.

 

It’s all working with your brain and nervous system.  It’s wiring you for safety. It’s wiring you for the positive.  It’s wiring you to take care of yourself.  It’s wiring you for self-worth.

 

So as you go about your day today just ask yourself, ‘what am I wiring in right now?’

 

Fx