Empower Your Mind: Transforming Limiting Beliefs with Neuroplasticity
Until the summer of 2019, I believed my thoughts were true, who I was, messages from the Universe, and something that freaked me out more often than I cared to admit.
I had a lot of anxious thoughts. They seemed like the only thoughts I had. They started in middle school and really didn’t ease up until I discovered life coaching in 2019 and started learning about how a normal human brain behaves.
I’ll never forget that day. I was working out and listening to a podcast. The podcaster was interviewing a life coach, Kara Lowentheil. Kara said that thoughts are just sentences in our brains. Wait, what?! Did she really say that thoughts are just sentences in our brains?
I got off the elliptical machine because I couldn’t “peddle” and wrap my mind around the concept that just blew my brain wide open. The truth of her words resonated down to my bones. My soul knew it was a truth I’d been starving to remember. It knocked me off my axis and changed the trajectory of my life in that moment.
We have an average of 60,000 thoughts each day. Ninety-five percent of those are subconscious. Which means 57,000 are habitual. They often sound like:
My life sucks
I don’t deserve a raise, promotion, boyfriend, wife
I’m not good enough
I’ll never lose this damn weight
I’m not motivated
I’m a procrastinator
My dad was an alcoholic so that means…
No one was there for me
I haven’t done “X” before, so I can’t
I don’t have anything interesting to contribute or say
There’s nothing unique about my story
My job is stressing me out
My kids, spouse, parent or co-worker never/always “X”
I’m a bad mom
I’m just wired this way
I’ll never be able to figure it out
The amazing thing about our thoughts and our brains is that we can change them! Ready for a super cool word? Neuroplasticity. It’s my favorite word! It means that our brains are capable of changing and rewiring! It means that change is always possible if we do the work and it doesn’t take long. How fantastic is that?!
A neuron is a nerve cell that transmits information. They do that by firing electrical impulses. The more that neurons fire together, the stronger their “message” becomes. If you have the thought, “I’m not good enough,” and you’ve thought it for a long time, it gets stronger. But no matter how long you’ve had a particular thought, it’s changeable! It just takes some consistent practice.
So, we’ve got a bunch of thoughts that are on autopilot. But now we know we can change the ones that aren’t serving us. We have the potential, and power, to change our lives by changing our thoughts. By tweaking the sentences that aren’t helpful.
Your thoughts aren’t truths. They’re not who you are. And they’re changeable.
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