What are the signs that your brain works against you?

• RYou worry about things that you don’t have control over
• ROver-think decisions and circumstances
• RExperience persistent or irrational thoughts or fears
• RHave feelings of anxiety, overwhelm or panic
• RFall into old, destructive patterns or unhealthy behaviors
• RYou often wonder why you want a specific outcome but end up with something else

How Your Brain Gets You Into Trouble

It seems counter-intuitive but when unchecked your brain can and often will work against you. It has the best of intention but the results can be devastating on your life. The process is simple:

• RYour brain receives information from the environment. This information can include anything from images, marketing messages, verbal communication from others, physical sensations, emotional reactions, etc.
• RYour brain immediately processes this information to ensure your safety. If you feel vulnerable or unsafe, a part of your nervous system is then triggered into action to defend you from any potential danger or harm.
• RWorking in this ‘survival mode,’ your brain rapidly issues commands to your organs, releases hormones, and initiates patterns of action to ensure your safety and provide immediate relief from the distress or discomfort experienced, and to do it quickly.
• RIn this mode, however, the brain does not rationalize or analyze the process or actions taken. It just moves to protect you from the immediate, perceived threat. In short, it reacts in a habitual or automatic way without any awareness or thought for future consequences.

The Vicious Cycle – What This Means to You

The following illustrates this process in real time and how it can create devastating, vicious cycles in your life:

1. An event occurs or a thought surfaces in your mind thus initiating a deceptive message.
2. The deceptive message can present itself in the form of an unpleasant or distressing sensation such as:
   • Strong emotional response: anger, sadness, hopeless, anxiety, dread, helplessness, isolation, depression or fear.
   • Overwhelming cravings.
   • Physical sensation: racing or pounding heart, tightness in chest, nausea, pit in your stomach, butterflies, sweaty palms, fatigue, heat in face or chest
3. We instinctively avoid or escape unpleasant experiences. As a result you feel an urgent need to rid yourself of the sensation.
4. Your brain does not distinguish between beneficial and damaging actions so often times in your haste to avoid the unpleasant sensation you react in an automatic or habitual way that is unhealthy or unhelpful for you. Possible unhealthy reactions can include:
   • Getting into an argument or fight
   • Excessive eating, binging or dieting
   • Endlessly checking and rechecking something
   • Avoiding people or situations
   • Unexpected or embarrassing outbursts
   • Spending money you do not have
   • Compulsive sex
   • Over-thinking or over-analyzing situations
   • Shutting out the world or becoming withdrawn or introverted
   • Feeding an addiction such as smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc.
   • Procrastinating or avoiding people or healthy activities