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You Are Not Your Brain
The Four-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life
You Are Not Your Brain explores our deceptive brain messages which program us to have harmful thoughts such as “I’m not good enough.” And it tells us how we can change this detrimental wiring by challenging these brain messages and focusing our attention elsewhere. In doing so, we can rewire our brain to make it work for us, not against us.
- Anyone who wants to deal with their negative thoughts effectively
- Anyone whose brain could use some rewiring
- Anyone who is interested in the practical implications of neuropsychology
Jeffrey M. Schwartz is a medical doctor and research psychiatrist at the UCLA School of Medicine. His research focuses on the field of self-directed neuroplasticity and its application to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Rebecca Gladding is a medical doctor and was a clinical instructor and attending psychiatrist at UCLA. Her expertise lies in mindfulness, anxiety and depression.
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You Are Not Your Brain
The Four-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life
- Read in 15 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 9 key ideas
Synopsis
You Are Not Your Brain explores our deceptive brain messages which program us to have harmful thoughts such as “I’m not good enough.” And it tells us how we can change this detrimental wiring by challenging these brain messages and focusing our attention elsewhere. In doing so, we can rewire our brain to make it work for us, not against us.
Key idea 1 of 9
Your brain sends you false messages, but you aren’t defined by them.
Do you ever find yourself caught up in things you don’t want to be doing, or feel helpless when you “go” somewhere, emotionally and mentally, that you don’t want to be?
We all experience these slips and it results from deceptive brain messages that breed false thoughts or harmful impulses, which lead us astray from our true goals and intentions. Not only that, but deceptive brain messages cause problems such as overthinking and anxiety.
Consider one of the authors’ clients. He was a talented Broadway performer when his deceptive brain messages started to coerce him into believing he was unworthy of any good coming to him. Eventually, this led to him suffering from intense stage fright as well as fear of rejection for years.
Aside from stemming from his childhood experiences, he was impacted by one specific experience when he was twenty years old: he froze in front of a famous Broadway producer. And since then, his brain had been ignoring his positive qualities and honing in on his imperfections.
He paid attention to these discomforting false messages and, as a result, he started avoiding auditions completely — an unhealthy chronic response which only reinforced the messages in his brain that he was no good!
But he isn’t defined by these deceitful messages, and you aren’t by yours either.
Even though it may appear that we have no choice but to follow what our brain tells us, we must remember our biology isn’t our destiny.
You aren’t fated to live a life based on your genes. You actually have the power to break through many of the obstacles you inherit by changing the way your brain works.
Key ideas in this title
- Your brain sends you false messages, but you aren’t defined by them.
- Brain wiring makes habits hard to change and causes intense, uncomfortable sensations.
- The mind’s ability to change the brain, called self-directed neuroplasticity, enables you to rewire your brain to work for you.
- There are Four Steps to dismantle the associations between unhealthy thoughts and habits.
- Step 1: Relabel by identifying your deceptive brain messages and call them what they really are.
- Step 2: Reframe your deceptive thoughts by changing your perspective and seeing them as false, foreign invaders.
- Step 3: Refocus by placing your attention on a healthy, constructive activity while the deceptive brain messages are present.
- Step 4: Revaluing encourages you to cultivate your friendly and healthy side and see that your uncomfortable sensations are caused by false brain messages.
- Final summary
