Are You Screwing Yourself? How to Stop
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Do You feel Screwed or Free?
We all live on a continuum that puts us on a healthy or unhealthy path in life. Depending on where we are on that continuum, we work out of different parts of our brain that either serves up a sense of freedom or rigidity in our lives.
If you want to experience a sense of freedom and fluidity in life, train yourself to spend more time in the part of your brain that gives you the freedom to choose your best path and less time in the part that makes you feel screwed.
By training yourself to be calm and centered in response to situations that push you off-center or that rile you up, you’ll spend more of your day in the part of your brain where you have the freedom to think and act consciously and deliberately.
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Freedom is just another word for living out of Your Cerebral Cortex
When we spiral up to our best fully-functioning selves, we work out of our cerebral cortex where we're free to act consciously and deliberately.
It is from this place in your brain you have the most control over your life and the greatest ability to make choices that serve you best.
Learning to calm yourself in response to stressful experiences is the key to spending more time in this part of the brain.
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We're Screwed!
Feeling 'Screwed' is just another word for living out of your Reptilian Brain
When we descend into the depths of our unhealthiest and rigidly-functioning selves we plunge into our reptilian brains where we lock ourselves into obsessive and harmful ways of thinking and acting that are difficult to overcome.
You screw yourself when you habitually lock yourself into operating out of your rigidly controlled and fixated primitive reptilian brain. Why? At this level of our brain, we lose the freedom to think and act independently.
The reptilian brain serves an essential function when we find ourselves in emergency situations where we need to react quickly--especially when we feel threatened. It is our streetwise 'fight or flight' brain that gives us that shot of adrenaline and heightens our readiness and alertness to take action.
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The Freedom to Think and Act Independently
Everyone needs to work out of their reptilian brain many times a day. The reptilian brain is very useful when we use it for those momentary shots of adrenaline and quick reactions. But we screw ourselves when we habitually live and work out of it instead of just visiting it when needed.
The key to visiting your reptilian brain rather than living in it is to practice calming yourself after getting riled up, and to reduce the amount of stimuli creating fear and threat in your life. The sooner you return to a place of calm, the sooner you recover your freedom to act with choice.
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Feeling the Squeeze
Is your Reptilian Brain Putting the Squeeze on You?
If your reptilian brain is putting the squeeze on you, making you feel screwed, here's how to put a stop to it:
Practice calming yourself each and every time you get riled up.
The goal is to regularly practice resetting your energy and mindset by redirecting your attention. Wherever your attention goes your energy follows. If your attention goes to calming yourself, your energy will follow.
"Try to be a sheet of paper with nothing on it.
Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the absolute. "
Rumi
Always start with a set of slow and relaxed inhales and exhales. Visualize breathing 'uplift into your heart and breathing out 'calmness into your gut'. Let your attention rest on this image.
Next, put your attention towards looking for one calming activity to engage in. This doesn't have to take a lot of time, and it doesn't have to be the perfect activity. Just do something.
The more you practice calming and centering yourself after getting hyped up, the greater the sense of freedom you'll gain. And the more you redirect your attention towards activities that make you feel good and away from fear-producing activities, the more your life will feel within your control.
Stop screwing yourself. Train yourself to return to a calm frame of mind in response to stressful situations.
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I love helping others tap into their more robust and resilient natures, particularly when working through self-doubt, life and career transitions, relationships, and self-confidence issues.
I encourage you to take a nonjudgmental and growth-oriented path towards becoming the best person you’re meant to be—while encouraging you to appreciate the richness of who you already are.
We're all in this awesome life together. When you lift yourself up, you lift up everyone around you. Join me in my quest to make it a better life for all by starting with yourself.
