Manage Your Brain

Sometimes we get confused and believe that we are our brain.

Who "we" are is much bigger - it's our soul and our essence.  It's our spirit and our passion.

Knowing that our brain is just an organ lets us know that it can be managed.

The next thing to know is that our brain's mission is it's own survival.  Our brain is wired up to keep itself alive.

As such, it is wired up to look for danger.

We survived and evolved as a species because our brains are really good at being on the lookout for saber tooth tigers and other crazy stuff that would have killed us back on the Savannah.

The problem is, there aren't any more saber tooth tigers.  We are much more safe today than we have ever been as a species.  

But our brain still looks for saber tooth tigers.  So it will find things that it believes to resemble a saber tooth tiger.

Bottom line, your brain will invent threats.  Why?  Because it's good at it and because it wants to survive.

Our brains, for eons, have been in the habit of saying "watch out, that thing might kill you."

If we believe our brain, the chemistry in our body changes to respond to the threat just as if our own survival is being threatened.  This reaction is called stress and it is super unhealthy.

Some examples of our brain's invented threats to our very survival:  public speaking, the boss we don't get along with, the painful family member, or dealing with conflict.

None of these things will kill us, but often we respond to them as if they will.

When you notice your brain saying "watch out, that thing might kill you," manage your brain and say...

"Great job brain.  You are doing what you think you are supposed to do.  You can relax because we are perfectly safe.  What I would like you to do is reduce the amount of time you look for threats and start looking for opportunities that will promote our well being."