Train Your Brain to be Your Best Ally

Train Your Brain to Be Your Best Ally

Frequently, I hear my clients say some version of this: “If I could only get my thoughts and my brain in line with what I want to achieve, everything would be so much easier!”

We can.

We can absolutely train our brain to be our best friend, our best ally. It’s easy if we start by really paying attention to what we’re telling ourselves we’re going to do, in the moment.

If you’re telling yourself you want to make a change, shift a habit, create a new way of being, but you’re not staying 100% truthful with what you tell yourself, then your brain has no reason to believe what you say!

It’s a catch 22.

Anytime you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, you’ve broken a promise with yourself. Think about if you tell your child (or in my case my dog) that you’re going to do something. Then you don’t do what you said you were going to do. And, this happens frequently. Chances are, after a while, they aren’t going to believe you and it is exactly the same with our minds. Tell yourself you’re going to get up at 5:30 and start exercising and you hit the snooze button. You have just reminded yourself that what you say you want or what you say you are going to do isn’t the truth. It’s just a suggestion that can be ignored.
When we have integrity with what we tell ourselves, we can accomplish so much more
To regain integrity with yourself and to start training your brain to follow through with everything you say you want to do, follow these super-simple steps.
Begin by telling yourself what you are going to do next, the exact things you are going to do.
I’m going to take a shower right now, get in the shower. I’m going to eat lunch right now, chow. I’m going to take my supplements right now...which is a perfect real-life example because I didn’t have water on my desk. If I had left the supplements sitting on my desk until I finished writing this, I would NOT have had integrity with myself. It would have been a small, broken promise. Find the water, take the supplements.
Step it up. This is going to be a 100% commitment so make it count. What’s something you want to do, or keep saying would be a good idea, but you’re not doing? Set a time-frame, 30-days is a good start, and fully commit.
For me, it was simply finishing all my showers with a cold water shower*. I told myself that for a month I was going to finish each shower with a 30-90 minute cold rinse. I was nailing it until the night I forgot. Got out of the shower, got dressed, ready for bed and then I remembered. Because I was training my brain to believe everything I said I wanted, I got back in the shower and did the cold rinse. Not what I wanted to do, but after doing so, I felt more powerful and committed to whatever I wanted. This is training your brain.
Always act as soon as you say you’re going to do something. Use an alarm if you need to be reminded to do something at a certain time.
This is a long-game. It’s a daily practice that I’m not perfect at yet, but as with all practices, the more you do, the better you get. And, the more benefits you will reap!
Jump in, the water’s fine!

*There are several potential health benefits for taking cold showers. I’ll let you do your own research.