The Original Brain-Changing App: Unlearn Old Habits and Save The World!
Take a look to the left of the flowers: brain folds. Okay, work with me . . . . SEE the map of your brain. (It might not be flowers on the other side: it might be skeletons, or a labyrinth with a monster at the centre, or _______ your call!)
Pick a metaphor that works for YOU! No need to get all pre-frontal cortex and amygdala on yourself—the brain is a complicated hunk of (mostly) (gorgeous) fat!—just imagine all those folds and loops and then let an image in . . . Now also (because your brain LIKES doing this) . . . Imagine the way a troublesome habit might show up as a zig-zag. Or a loop. Or a tear. Or a ladder that goes up and down, up and down . . . We all have them, right? A tiresome habit—like a revolving door, perhaps. A habit like a nosebleed. A habit we don’t even know is a habit because we think it is just the way we are.
The good news, it’s NOT just the way you are. So hop back in there, into the zinging map of your synaptic super-maze and identify that squiggling habit, or that ‘just the way I am’ behaviour. (For me, that would be Procrastination. And, A Temper. And, a tendency to be drawn toward Conflict. And, feeling Overwhelmed. Oh, yeah, and Self-pity . . . Shall I go on or do you have the idea? These are ALL habits of mind that I regularly work on . . .)
Now, I invite you to shift that squiggle in your mind, or imagine the Goddess Eraser, erasing it! Make that old whine of Self-Pity obsolete, colour in that Perfectionism, write over whatever you got going on. Allow your visualized brain map to change . . . There, look at those flowers! A waterfall of light! Mix your metaphors.
If only it were that easy.
I KNOW. It’s not easy to change our brains. Our deeply patterned, often-entrenched habits of mind, identity, self-talk and self-action. However . . . it IS possible. The most important discovery of neuroscience in the last two decades is that our gorgeous brains can change, grow and complexify.
Even as we age. Yep!
Even when we sustain brain injuries. Uh-huh. Truly.
Critical brain structures are capable of regenerating, relearning or passing their functions on to other structures. Our brains are inventive, plastic (changeable) and (really truly) beautiful. Their lifelong goal and purpose in our skulls, and connected by our nervous systems to our entire bodies, is to LEARN. But we, too, need to be able to teach them. They need some guidance when it comes to learning new patterns—new maps—of thought.
One thing we can do right now is use our IMAGINATIONS to help change the grooves in our brain-maps—or, our habitual habits of mind and body. Feeling stuck? Angry? Overwhelmed? Imagine (and remember) a time when you didn’t feel that way; when you experienced flow: swimming in the lake. Drawing a picture. Listening to music. When you felt peaceful and flexible, walking through the woods. Doing yoga with your beautiful teacher. When you felt clear and organized—as though all was well, and would be well, and shall be well, to quote the holy woman Julian of Norwich.
It sounds SO SIMPLE! And yet, truly changing our habits of mind—as we’ve been exploring in The (Courageous Writers’) Academy—often involves delving into our complicated organization of experience. Then investigating that territory courageously . . .
This is what I think about all the damn time as a therapist—without saying too much to my patients about it (because that would be annoying: “Here, do THIS to get out of your own way!” Luckily it’s different in a blog, I can say whatever I want). Anyway, this what I think about regarding MY OWN BRAIN, and the world’s very big, very powerful brains . . .
“Mr. Putin, I think you need some sessions with me. Free, on the house, on the free world, actually . . . Listen, here’s a really a-MAY-zing visualization exercise, k, Mr. Putin? Now, take a deep breath, feel your feet. We want you to feel the ground, yes, yes, not blow it up . . . Now, imagine your brain . . . You can imagine a better future for yourself, your people, your country, and all the walruses off the coast of Siberia. . . Exhale . . . ”
Below is an unedited, unexpurgated, PURE audio file of yours truly leading a Creative Visualization meditation in which (yep) I ask my Courage Room Collective peeps to do a little brain imaging the old-fashioned way. Not with an MRI machine but with the imagination! If only I could get Vladimir in here. If ONLY I spoke Russian!
This is powerful work. Seriously. We cannot change anything—on the micro to the macro level—without first imagining the change. Do not underestimate the power of the imagination.
( FYI The Courage Room Collective gets together 3 times/month to write . . . and to work courageously with our imaginations, our brains, our bodies—and to laugh. YES, you can join us! Hop over here for more info. We meet the first three Thursdays of most months, 12-1 EST. You do NOT have to be there live, as our recordings and my show notes go up in the Collective Online.)
Now, if you’d like to do a little creative visualization and begin to change your brain by engaging your imagination, grab a notebook, press play and enjoy the trip . . . I’m going to post one of these per month and I PROMISE the next one will be a little tidier. For now, you get the authentic version with lots of pauses for those exhalations . . .
Bon courage!
kaz