Have You Talked to Your Brain Lately?

I’m serious, last night I totally told my amygdala that it was time to just calm down. I told them (we actually have two) that I know that life is stressful, and that a car honking can seem like a life threat, but really, just cool it with the pumping out of adrenaline every five minutes because, seriously, these chemical rushes with no running up trees to release them are causing me serious threat.

I’d never thought that I could talk to my body before, and I like the permission I’ve given myself. I’ve talked to ‘myself’ of course, many times, saying things like, “Geez, now you’ve done it.” You all know, it’s those mama and daddy voices in our heads, telling us we’re just not good enough. Even though, you know, all along, we’re only as good as we are. I’ve also learned to cheer myself on, telling myself things like, “Come on kiddo, you can do it!” I was never a participant in sports, so I had to learn to do this, also. Cheering yourself on is much nicer than beating yourself up.

Another thing I’ve learned, through the book The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles is that we humans cannot both protect ourselves and grow at the same time, simple, but true. When our bodies are in a protecting mode, the cellular energy goes into shutting down, when we’re in a safe mode, our energy propels us into growth. What shuts people down? Many times those unconscious beliefs we’re walking around with. The book is not just a ‘believe and receive’ or power of positive thinking book, it’s written by cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton.

This book explains the placebo effect and the nocebo effect (the power of not believing), and how the brain can actually override the body. One of my favorite lines from the book is this, “Doctors should not dismiss the power of the mind as something inferior to the powers of chemicals and the scalpel. The should let go of their conviction that the body and its parts are essentially stupid and that we need outside intervention to maintain our health” (p. 107). I’m not advocating for a world without doctors and/or medication, my youngest daughter is dependent on her thyroid medication, and I’m grateful for it. I am saying that we can talk to ourselves, (seriously) and start to live a life understanding our unconscious beliefs and how they just might be working so hard to keep us safe, that we’re not growing and we’re not happy.