Get Real to Get Happy – Using Neuroscience to Transform

So you have a beautiful functioning brain that does all sorts of handy tasks for you.

Let me tell you just a little bit about that.

And about how you can use your brain to tone down any critical fear-based thinking.

It’s not what you think.

That brain of yours makes sure that you keep on breathing, it arranges all visual input like depth, colour, shape and movement into one understandable image, it always has your back by looking out for danger. It allows for you to save energy by associative learning, it mirrors other people’s emotions so you can feel empathy and it stores and organizes your memories for you, emotions attached to them and all. To name just a few.

It does so without you having to consciously instruct in to do so. Isn’t that mind-blowing?

 

As a neuropsychologist, I’m fascinated by the brain and it’s influence on our behavior, feelings and thoughts. And about how our thoughts, feelings and behavior influence those neural structure in your head. And I love love love brainy spirituality.

The brain is pretty much always willing to cooperate with you.

Especially when it comes to healing any old pain or patterns that are still bugging you today.

BUT, you gotta know how to work that brain for it to actually transform its connections which we can healing.

Because you and I know it can throw some serious blocks on the road as well.

First understand this: memory is massively important for every little bit of emotion you experience today. Emotion help to shape behavior. Most of our memories are implicit: we’re not consciously aware of them but they do influence us.

Part of the reasons they are unconscious is because they are really old. Between ages 0 to 7 we are like sponges and we absorb every thing around us with the brainwaves of someone being hypnotized. There’s very little filter, we just accept everything and take it in. We might not remember consciously what happened but these memories do lay the foundation for the way we experience life later on.

If you’ve always felt safe as a kid, you’ll probably feel safe to explore the world when you get older. When one of your parents was very protective and afraid when you were little, you might have picked up some of that energy and are unconsciously screening your environment for any threats.

Anything and all people we see around us, can and will trigger some type of memory and emotion. Often it’s not just the memories about that particular situation or person that surface, but an entire stream of related memories. If you feel critiqued, all implicit memories about feeling criticized before come up.

That’s why we don’t see the world as it is, but as we are. We see what’s inside of us.

You perceive what you believe. Whether you are aware of those beliefs or not.

So, can you use your brain to heal and get happy.

It’s all about getting real.

Tendency nowadays is to look at the positives. To immediately jump to being grateful for the lesson and envisioning a better situation. This will feel great but it doesn’t actually change your neural wiring.

First you need to get real about what hurts. Get real about your pain and allow yourself to feel it.

You don’t need to go in knee-deep but you do want to have a bodily sensation of that feeling you wish to transform.

Why? Because this way you activate that part of the brain here these memories are stored. You activate them to transform them.

After having felt what you want to transform, then you change your pattern, do your meditation or visualization.

The memory and feeling attached to it will then be stored in its new, transformed way. You’ll have created a different neural pathway.

Repeat for lasting success.

Love, Susanne