Re-wiring your Brain: A Method of Conscious Control

Reclaiming a conscious control of our lives requires us to be first, be aware of our automatic thought patterns and response suggestions.

There's very little control we can exert over our lives. This control begins from within- over our thoughts, preferences, attitudes, intentions and responses.

Rewiring your daily behaviour is an intentional practice. It requires one to be aware of the feelings generated in one's bodies with regards to any circumstance, and their interpretation of it.

This practice also comes down to a decision. That we no longer want to feel a certain way about ourselves, because it upsets us. Therefore, this practice makes space to create ease, compassion, kindness and joy in our lives.

A Practice:

The next time you are triggered, and your brain wants to make a hurtful comment about you, take a pause. Do not follow through or complete the thought. It takes a certain amount of practice to get there. Eventually, it gets easier.

Once, you're in the pause, tell yourself - "I am feeling triggered right now, and I might not say good things about myself when I am not in the right mind space. So right now, I am gonna refrain from saying anything mean about me."

Your mind is like a child, hence it listens to your instructions. Initially, there might be some resistance along the lines of "But this is what happens, and this means I am not good enough".

You can listen to the fears, and respond in a way that comforts your mind for now. "Maybe so far, but we can choose not to believe this, and we can get there soon enough". In this way, you're not dismissing a thought pattern that your body has known so far, and making space to progress towards a new thought framework.

Another practice is getting to the root of your mind connections. You can just decide on a new thought pattern. For instance, next time you feel discomfort about your body, you can say something like "Just because I feel this way, doesn't mean I am a bad person. It just means that I am getting comfortable in my body. My body is beautiful, and I love it. It takes care of me". You can practise any phrase that feels most natural to you.

While practising any shifts, remember that the steps can be improvised to suit your understanding of how the world works.

Every practice is different, and people connect with their practices in their own ways. It might take a while to get a hang of it. However, the crucial point is to just start. It is a conscious commitment to the process. It requires trust and repetition. Most importantly, your decision to never look back.

The outcome can take various forms, and show up in different ways in everyone.