Frequently, we underestimate the power of a simple idea that crosses our mind, an idea like “Nothing ever works out well”, something like “It just couldn’t get worse”, and the classic “I am useless” or “I’m such an idiot!” So, I am going to explain to you the problem with this kind of thoughts and why you shouldn’t allow them in your mind, because believe it or not, they can screw our lives up.
The brain is, above all, an organ disconnected from reality, its only way of knowing it is through the eyes and its interpretation of these stimuli, that is, everything the brain sees is translated into images enhanced by a filter, like those we use on Instagram, in order to discard or accentuate what the brain finds interesting. The inconvenience is that many times the result is not necessarily aimed at making us feel good, why? Well, because the brain only looks for evidence of what it already believes, so if we believe "we are useless" the brain will look for evidence to remind us of and reinforce this belief.
And that is the root of the dilemma: it turns out that for all beliefs, there will always be evidence. A simple example that will help us understand better is when we are planning to buy a car, we like a specific model and from that moment on we begin to notice many more cars on the street like the one we want; what our brain did was show us more of what it likes.
The same thing happens when you are thinking about having a child, suddenly, you notice more expecting women; or if it is not necessarily you who is wishing for a baby, but someone very close to you is pregnant, the effect is the same.
Therefore, when we accept a conditioning that makes us feel bad, our brain will look at all those details that can confirm it, it will point out any mistake you make or even cause you new errors with the purpose of proving that you, in fact, are an idiot.
But, shouldn’t the brain work in a positive way? Is it that its job is to screw you up? The truth is that there is no positive or negative for the brain, only interpretations. We must become aware of this with the purpose of replacing these limiting beliefs, first with more neutral ones, and once they are mastered, move to beliefs focused on your exponential growth.v
A particular example is the affirmation, "I will never lose weight", and thus we keep overeating, then comes the guilt, the selfcomplaining, trying again and failing again, and you will say, "Hell no, I have told myself a thousand times that I will lose 20 pounds and it never works”. The problem with jumping from a negative to a positive extreme is that our brain feels a lot of anxiety, we pull so hard, that it will try even harder so that we fail. How can we solve this? Start by replacing these ideas with more neutral ways, something that doesn’t tell the brain that it has to try too hard, for example: "Only for today I will try to eat healthy", "Today I will try to eat healthier”; that is why Alcoholics Anonymous use the idea of "One day at a time", because they understand the power of this thought (on the post “Tips to fool the mind” you can read a little more about the subject).
If we start to generate cool thoughts, because I will not refer to them as “positive”, our brains will start looking for evidence to confirm them: let's replace "I can't" with "I'm trying", "I always go wrong" with "every mistake is a lesson", "I'll never achieve anything” with “I will achieve any objective I commit myself to”, and then we will begin to see a shift in the way we perceive and live life that will bring us closer to our objectives.
Would you like to try? Leave a comment with the thought you will begin to change…
Credits
Imagen: Freepik.com | Usuario: @asier_relampagoestudio
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