Name: Rewire
Rating: 4.1 (236 reviews)
Author: Richard O'Connor

What’s in it for me? Learn how to steer clear of destructive behaviors by improving your brain functioning.

We’ve all been there: you do something almost unconsciously, and then you realize how dumb it was and you wish you could take it back. Sometimes it’s something harmless, like a spelling error, but sometimes it has grave consequences, like smoking that one cigarette for old time’s sake. It can lead to a chain of destructive behaviors: not just more cigarettes, but also anger, self-hate, and guilt for falling off the wagon.

The truth is that these kinds of mistakes are common in all of us. Actually, it’s part of what makes us human.

In Rewire, Richard O’Connor explains why we make these mistakes, and how our brains are wired so that we don’t only make them; we make them often! Luckily, these blinks show how it’s possible to rewire our brains, to reverse our habits if we choose to be happier and healthier.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why we do things we regret;
why we tend to blame our faults on “just being human;” and
one way to overcome addiction.

We have two “selves” that dictate our actions – and we can learn to control them.

We've all been through this: you're faced with two choices, you know which one is right, yet you choose the wrong one. Why do we do that?

It's because we all really have two selves – a conscious self and an automatic self. They both influence our decisions.

The automatic self acts without our direct control. It's what's influencing you when you mindlessly eat a bag of chips while watching TV.

The conscious self uses rational thought and reason. When you decide to try octopus for the first time, your conscious self is in charge.

Usually, when you do something you regret, it's because your automatic self is in control, and your conscious self isn't considering the consequences. You eat those chips without thinking about it.

So if you want to overcome any bad behavior, you have to train your automatic self to stop slipping. Strengthening your conscious self to be more dominant is also useful, but training your automatic self is more effective.

Brains can physically change. You can direct the ways your brain develops, and how it affects your behavior.

Our brains are constantly building new cells, and new networks between them. In fact, it's recently been discovered that learning actually causes the growth of new cells; our behavior affects brain cell growth, thereby brain function.

When you do any action repeatedly, your nerve cells grow more and more connections with each other. For example, “go to the gym” (nerve A) will connect with “stay at the gym until my workout is done” (nerve B).

As you work out more and more, it'll become a habit. Nerves A and B will increasingly bond together.

So when we develop good habits, we replace bad habits. You need to change your automatic habits from negative to positive ones.

Repressed emotions cause us to become self-destructive.

You know how a boiling tea kettle needs to let out steam? Emotions work the same way. They're also chemical reactions, they build up, and they have breaking points.

Negative emotions like fear, anger and guilt can push us into self-destructive behavior. When we try to repress those feelings, they just come out another way.

Addictions and undertow are two other forms of self-destructive behavior.

How many of you have thought, “Yes, I've finally quit smoking!” only to find yourself smoking again two weeks later? Addiction and undertow, another kind of self-destructive behavior, often function in this pattern.

Undertow blocks your recovery when you're getting close to success. It results from bad habits that are etched into our brains. One simple mistake can make us slip back into the pattern our brains expect.

Kernaussagen in Rewire