Our brains have evolved to keep us safe from external danger. That ancestor of yours who heard a twig snap in the tall grass behind her and optimistically thought, "It's probably just a little klipspringer and not a ferocious and stealthy leopard" -- likely never existed.
Because even if she had been right 99 times out of a 100, that one moment of overconfidence would have done her in.
And we carry these brains around with us today, even though for most of us most of the time, the dangers we face are those conjured by our thoughts and feelings rather than objective threats to life and limb.
Which is all to say that, according to my guest Dr Ellen Reed, we default to "problem-centric thinking," or PCT, which sounds like a groovy ingredient found in a particularly strong strain of weed, but isn't.
And the problem with PCT is, well, multiple problems.
For one thing, our overactive minds drag our poor bodies along with them, forcing us to pump out toxic levels of cortisol trying to keep the fight or flight machine running at all times.
For another thing, cortisol and assorted neurotransmitters shunt blood away from the parts of our brain that are actually good at solving problems more complicated than "run away from that leopard," making us less creative and less capable.
And for a third thing, PCT leads to avoidant behaviors, since fight or flight is really, preferentially speaking, flight (and fight only as a last resort if flight is prevented -- again, that gene of your ancestor who turned to face the leopard instead of heading for the hills is pretty much a statistical impossibility), and avoiding our own thoughts and feelings leads to a stymied and constricted life.
And a pretty miserable one at that.
To solve the problem, Dr Reed and her business partner Dr Jason Selk have come up with a straightforward process that they call Relentless Solution Focus, which is the name of their book of that name, which is a pretty fun phrase to write even if all my English teachers ever are turning in their graves, except for the ones who are still alive, who are regretting not criticizing my run-on sentences vociferously enough.
And if anyone needed proof that my brain is not to be trusted in stress situations, may I point out that it was my brain that just wrote that last paragraph-long sentence.
Anyway, enjoy this conversation. I hope you find Relentless Solution Focususeful in your life.
Links
RelentlessSolutionFocus.com
Relentless Solution Focus on Amazon