HOW TO RE-WIRE YOUR MIND FOR SUCCESS!
One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.
Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox
People all have the capacity for good. Yet, our tendencies are basically all bad. This is not a condemnation of all things, but an acceptance of natural laws so we can do something to counteract them.
As an example; if you grew up in the north where it snows then you can recall as a child the ridiculous need to taste it. For some reason, small humans seek to put everything in their mouth. Due to this strange mortal behavior, it is actually necessary to advise kids advice to not eat yellow snow; or any colored snow for that matter. (If you’ve never seen snow, the yellow stuff is where the dog peed).
Exhibiting good, healthful, moral, and economically viable behavior is oddly an extremely un-natural state. We experience this in Florida every time the news claims a hurricane is coming. People empty out the grocery stores and 7-11s of milk, bread, and water while all of the generators are swept off of the shelves at Lowes and Home Depot. No one knows how to use the generator, they will never use the generator, and some people turn it on inside of their home and get carbon monoxide poisoning or burn their house down.
When given the choice of eating berries or a bacon donut for breakfast, almost anyone naturally wants the donut and bacon It is like intelligently eating the fruit rather than the Dunkin’s is literally creating an artificial state. Regularly thinking positive thoughts, doing your best at life in general, remaining goal-focused, exercising, lifelong learning, investing in your family, and building an economic empire are vital; they’re just not common as they don’t come naturally. Even those that start with the best of intentions, tend to quit.
The area of our brains that’s responsible for executive functions is called the “pre-frontal cortex.” Just as the president of the United States makes executive decisions from the Oval Office that affect the entire country, so activity in the prefrontal cortex of our brain controls your body’s policies on lifestyle affairs. The brain is like the body’s Oval Office!
The prefrontal cortex, as a very relevant example, is responsible for controlling consumption habits. A Canadian study at the University of Waterloo found that overeating junk food can be caused by errors in how this part of the brain functions. The researchers, who published their findings in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, discovered that there were operational flaws in the prefrontal cortex in people who craved and ate the most junk food during the experiment. This ultimately applies to all “yellow snow” decisions and means that for some of us the brain is working against us instead of for us. Thanks, brain!
Brain studies have also found that the prefrontal areas of the brain can be an issue for people who struggle to control their behaviors. When high functioning, this part of the brain can manage automatic, knee-jerk-type reactions like poor spending, sleeping in, and cravings for cheesecake, bread, or vodka and instead make better, healthier, better long-term decisions on behalf of the body and your life. When this part of the brain lapses or is “taken offline,” poor choices rage against your future well-being.
Your brain provides the underlying circuitry that causes you to behave in certain ways. Utilizing technology, scientists can now see the location and action of brain activation related to what you are thinking. For example, if you view a picture of your family, are asked to change political beliefs, or are pushed to make responsible decisions your brain activity can be assessed. The occipital lobe of the brain will exhibit an increase in blood flow that’s detectable on a functional MRI scan, or be seen as electrical activity on an EEG. Visual perception in that part of the brain causes it to “fire.”
Similar studies also reveal that our abilities such as self-control along with the power to change and grow can be wired into our neural circuits. Your brain and mental wiring can enable or disable you in your abilities to explore ideas, choose the right path, and make positive changes.
WIRING AND RE-WIRING
The longer your brain’s “wiring” has been in place, the harder it is to change it. Thus, when that new diet program clashes with the mental programming that is already in place in your brain, guess what? New diet loses. If you’re a spender rather than an investor, it can be wired in and tough to change right away.
GOOD NEWS!
The good news is that, given time, the new mental programming becomes more permanent than the old programming and it’s the bad habits that don’t stick and have trouble coming back.
The more you repeat a behavior or an experience, the more fixed the wiring in your brain becomes. When we talk about really changing a habit, we are talking about changing the wiring of the brain. But the brain doesn’t rewire instantly. It requires time and repetition. The process goes like this: create the new wiring and then re-experience, re-experience, re-experience until the new wiring becomes more fixed in place than the old wiring.
In other words, when you go to CrossFit a few times, you are laying down new wiring. But you are also likely, at first, to back off or quit for any number of reasons people normally do: it’s inconvenient, painful, makes you sore, boring, you hate all people that like working out, sweating sucks, you do not like messing up your hair and make-up, and the very thought or suggestion of exercise makes you want to vomit. Nonetheless, as you re-experience, re-experience, re-experience the process, you start to enjoy the benefits, such as the endorphins, increased level of energy, more positive mental state, reduced need for medication, tighter buns and thighs, and so on. New structures are laid in place, and new wiring is secured.
RESULTS
As a result of this rewiring, believe it or not, you can become someone who is passionate about numbers, good at technology, cannot stand to miss a workout, is nauseated by the smell of fast food, now hates the sugar rush of soft drinks, loves salads, and seeks to avoid the hangover feeling because you’re now too addicted to feeling good. The new habit becomes fixed and no more yellow snow – or whatever bad, yellow snow decisions you tend to make in your life.
Have fun saving the world
Dr. Ben
