11 Million Reasons Why Your Brain is Awesome BUT, Not Always Working For You…

& WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

Your brain is awesome. A constantly adapting processing wonder that uses a fraction of the energy of a supercomputer. But there are aspects of your thinking brain that may not always serve you well; negative thoughts that run on repeat and hold you back, out dated beliefs that limit instead of encourage, stress and anxiety about things that may never happen. Is there a way to change those automatic thoughts? Reprogram the supercomputer? Yes! And by doing so you can unlock your own ‘superpowers’ from within.

Sensory overload

Various studies, from the 1950s onwards, have suggested your brain receives 11 million signals every second.

Roughly speaking, these signals are split between:

• 10 million From the eyes

• 1 million From the skin

• 100,000 From the ears

• 100,000 From the nose

• 1,000 From the tongue

Each of these signals is being received every second. For the entirety of your life. That's an incredible amount of information. What's even more incredible? Scientists have estimated that your brain can only consciously process 60 of those signals every second.

Conscious vs Unconscious

11 million signals are going in, but only a minuscule fraction are being responded to consciously. So, what happens to the 10,999,940 bits of information that you aren't aware of? Well, they're being dealt with in the unconscious. That basically means that 99.9% of your actions are being determined without your conscious thought. As much as you might think you're in control, you’re not, not consciously.

In the main, this serves great purpose. We are designed to process a huge amount of information in a split second, in order to survive and biologically function.  Plus, how busy is your mind currently? Can you imagine if you had to actively process and filter 10,999,940 more units of information per second! 

Nonetheless, that is a lot of information piling up in your unconscious. This includes negative emotions, shocks, hurts, pain - starting from before you were even born. With so much information, things can get distorted. 

So, imagine if you could cut through the noise of your mind and influence the more grimy layers locked deeper within - to work better for you? What if you can?

Here's an interesting example: In an article published in the Journal of Neurosciences a group of scientists conducted an experiment with patients who were cortically blind (that's a type of blindness where it is no longer possible to see because the part of the brain that deals with sight is damaged, but the eye still works). The research looked at whether someone who was cortically blind could still perceive if someone was looking at them or not. And guess what? They could. At least unconsciously.

Even though the patient's sight centre did not function, another part of the brain, called the Amygdala, did. The Amygdala could tell it was being looked at. The brain had adapted. No longer able to use visual information to assess the world, it was able to change and rely on other senses. It basically adapted and reprogrammed itself.

Another interesting thing about this study is that the Amygdala is the brain's threat assessment centre. The place that processes sensory information to decide if something in the world around us represents a threat. This function was vital in the early days of evolution when humans needed to fend off threats from animals in the wild.

But today the Amygdala has tendency to overreact – perceiving even innocuous events as a threat which can send the body into flight, fright or freeze mode. Yet in reality many such events are not actual life or death situations*. And often no threat at all. But these age-old unconscious thought mechanisms are still a strong influence on how we react to modern day stresses.

(*a note, when there are real circumstances that present life or death scenarios, the body relies upon these automatic responses to keep us safe. To be able to cope in times of extreme need. For a short amount of time at least. However afterwards, it is important to be able to relax within an environment of safety and process in ways that are healthy.)

Brain reprogramming

So, what does that mean for you? If over 99% of your decision-making processes are happening unconsciously, how do you consciously affect your wellbeing? Improve your state-of-mind? Reduce stress and increase happiness? Especially since no one knows the full extent of how the brain works.

What we do know is: if there are 11 million signals being analysed by your brain every second and you don’t have conscious control, it means that sometimes this analysis might not be working in your best interest.

So what does that look like in reality? Throughout our lives we receive micro pieces of information that can slowly chip away at our confidence, self-esteem and positive self image, (especially where encouragement and positive reinforcement has not been given in abundance during formative years). These signals can evolve from a parents critical tendencies, be transferred into a ‘difficult’ boss scenario and later impact the choice of partner, for example. Or look like a life played safe and small within the reassuring confines of other peoples judgements, rather than full out and fully expressed in a way that is simply you as you. And sometimes big dramatic life events pop up out of nowhere to blindside, sending us rolling into states of shock and defence.

But if you can't do anything about these sorts of things and its mostly unconscious anyway, you should just accept it, right? Thankfully, no. Because as the example of the blind patient shows, your brain is constantly reprogramming itself.

You can re-tune your mind to help you. But how?

Fortunately, there are lots of techniques available that help. Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, cognitive therapy are some examples. These techniques help to calm and train your mind and body to respond to life stressors in more empowering ways. You can mould your brain. So instead of reacting negatively to stressful triggers, it can respond with wise active choice.

Access what’s below the surface 

But your brain can be stubborn. It can create a lot of noise to distract you. It can mask the true reasons shaping your behaviour, hidden behind misinformation and half-truths. It can be helpful therefore, to find ways to quiet the noise of your mind. To remove obstacles that your brain has tricked you into believing serve you well (but in fact are a hindrance) and to dig deeper into the root cause of what you do and how you think - in order to affect change.

And just like tending a garden, it is possible to remove the weeds that stifle growth, allowing the fertile soil to be planted with helpful thoughts that influence and create empowered behaviour. Dialling down the often child-like trigger based reactions and replacing these with intentional, self-love / self-power based thinking styles and outcomes.

By using specific, direct access techniques, it is possible to dig into the unconscious to evolve mindset, increase happiness and reduce stress.

So, if you’d like to achieve these benefits, and elevate peace of mind, self-power and purpose, connect today and I will help you arrive there.