mindset€¦ · frame the brain defaults to in order to interpret life. it is the entrained...
TRANSCRIPT
MINDSET
— L I S A W I M B E R G E R
3 Keys For Managing
Your Mindset
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W H AT I S YO U R
M I N D S E T ?
Let’s take a step back and ask “what is
mindset?” A mindset is the lens through
which we perceive the world. It is the habitual
frame the brain defaults to in order to
interpret life. It is the entrained beliefs,
thoughts, patterns, expectations, optimism,
limitations, momentum, and stories that
prime our approach to life.
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H OW D O P E O P L E H AV E
D I F F E R E N T M I N D S E T S ?
Our mindsets are developed over a lifetime
of personal experiences through our
upbringings, our formative stories, and
our mental and emotional habits.
Through our nature, nurture, and personal
histories, we develop a lens through which
we view both the world and ourselves.
The experiences we have evolve into stories we
tell ourselves and repeat to ourselves either
consciously or subconsciously over a lifetime. It is
the evolution from failing a test to the belief “I am
a failure” which may dictate our actions, attitude,
and motivation in the future.
Well-rehearsed patterns - that is, beliefs or stories
we often revisit - become entrained maps in our
neurology. The more focus, time, and repetition we
give these beliefs, the more resources are allocated
to them automatically. Our neurology does not
discriminate between good & bad or healthy
& unhealthy when it develops and activates
entrained patterns.
Our brains function on two foundations:
efficiency and predictability. In an effort to be efficient, the brain will pull up whatever it has been trained to retrieve. It makes predictions on what
to activate based on what has been previously
trained, regardless of its perceivable ‘goodness’
or ‘badness’.
So if we typically revisit or have a strong emotional
connection to the belief “I am a failure,” our brains
will retrieve that belief for us more easily and at
a lower threshold. It doesn’t take long for a well-
rehearsed story to become a pattern of thinking
and, ultimately, a mindset. Soon, this story -
whether rehearsed a thousand times throughout
our lives or once with great emotional intensity
- may evolve into our attitudes about ourselves
and our world and determine whether or not we
act or even dare to dream in the future.
H OW D O O U R
M I N D S E T S D E V E L O P ?
L E T ’ S TA L K A B O U T
T H E B R A I N ’ S
O B S E S S I O N W I T H
P R E D I C T I O N
The brain is obsessed with predictability for two
major reasons.
Efficiency and Safety.
Not only does the brain rely on predictability in
its quest for efficiency, but the fear and stress center of the brain relies on predictability for its
sense of safety. The fight/flight/freeze center, the Limbic brain, assumes that as long as its inputs
are familiar, we must be safe.
Even if in reality what is familiar is unsafe or
unhealthy, familiarity satisfies the Limbic brain’s search for a sense of certainty and is interpreted
as safety.
This is why leaving our comfort zone, developing a new habit, or trying to improve our mindset
can be so difficult. Change is unfamiliar and can trigger a stress response in our neurology even
when it’s an improvement.
Simultaneously, from its basis in efficiency, the brain is determined to give us what it thinks we
want based on what has been rehearsed enough
to become predictable and we must battle the
efficiency of a well-trained mindset we may have spent years practicing.
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“The secret is in
utilizing the same
tools that naturally
entrained our
mindset in the first place....”
So that explains why it’s been difficult to improve our mindsets. But do we have control over it? Absolutely!
If our mindsets became so deeply embedded without
our focused attention, imagine how we could design
our mindsets if we utilized these same subconscious neurological systems on a conscious level!
The secret is in utilizing the same tools that naturally entrained our mindset in the first place: focus, time, and repetition.
Many of us have gotten frustrated with ourselves because
we feel like we “should know better” when we fall back on
personally outdated ways of thinking. But understanding
that the brain is looking for what we’ve practiced tells us
that whatever we give focus, time, and repetition to will
become our brains’ new default pattern over time.
This is the neuroplastic nature of our brains and the power
of self-directed neuroplasticity.
D O W E H AV E C O N T RO L OV E RO U R M I N D S E T S ?
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So we know we can influence substantial changes in our mindset and we know
how. But what changes?
Let’s continue with our example of an
anticipatory failure mindset and look
at changing it to a success mindset.
A success mindset may help us make
major movements toward our goals,
create goals to strive toward, and
improve our perception of ourselves.
But “success” can look and feel incredibly
different from person to person. Some may define “success” as an amount of wealth, others as a level of freedom, still
others as simply spending more time in
a feeling of contentment.
H OW T O D E S I G N A N E W M I N D S E T
In order to develop a mindset that will
feel natural and productive for you,
consider your own definition of success. Knowing there is no single correct
answer, spend some time writing down
a definition of what success would feel like to you.
These are the elements of success that
would register as a reward for your brain
to pursue. You may find momentum easier to gather when you are striving
toward your right kind of personal
success rather than a perceived should.
Now let’s take a look at how to activate
and support motivation and goal-setting
in the brain.
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MOV I N G T H E B R A I N T O R E C E P T I V I T Y ,
MO T I VAT I O N , A N D G OA L - S E T T I N G
Where do motivation and goal-setting
primarily live in the brain? The Prefrontal
Cortex! Along with our ability to project future timelines, creative problem-solve,
comprehend multiple perspectives,
access compassion and empathy, recall
social norms, practice patience, prime a
mental dynamic for learning, and more.
So how can we train our brains to spend
more time here rather than in the limiting
beliefs we may spend an unnecessary
amount of time in? On a neurological
level, this question is really asking: ‘How
do we move resources from the Limbic
brain (the fear and stress system) to the
Prefrontal Cortex (the social and higher development system)?’.
The first step is to downregulate the Limbic brain so resources can be
reallocated elsewhere. The Limbic
brain’s job is to monitor for perceivable
threats and, as we now know, it registers
predictability and familiarity as safety.
So in order to calm the Limbic brain and
free its resources, we can focus on the
predictable and familiar. This could be
noticing the reliability and constancy of
our natural breath or gravity.
By acknowledging the familiarity and
predictability of these sensations or of
other elements of current safety, we can
quiet the Limbic brain and free up its
resources to be redistributed elsewhere.
With these freed up resources, we
can turn to step two: upregulating the
Prefrontal Cortex. What is the PFC’s favorite food?
Novelty.
Novelty is something slightly unusual,
but not so unfamiliar that it could register
as an unknown threat. This could look
like brushing your teeth with your non-
dominant hand, writing your name
upside down, or changing your route
to work or the order of your morning
routine.
By activating the PFC by giving it something to be curious about, we can
access its qualities such as motivation,
goal-setting, higher learning, etc. By
introducing novelty as part of our daily
routine and throughout the day, we can
practice spending time in the part of the
brain that will support a success mindset
or any healthy changes to our mindset.
Now let’s introduce some tools that
incorporate what we know about our
neurology to support a healthy or
improved mindset.
3 GREAT PRACTICES
TO MANAGE OR
CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
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1 . P H Y S I C A LL I N K A S O M AT I C C U E
Associating a physical experience with a
mental practice helps to mark the experience
as important in our neurology. By creating a
somatic link with a new experience, we can
strengthen its accessibility in our neurology
and make it easier for our brains to retrieve
later. In this way, we can support and even
expedite the development of a substantial
improvement to our mindsets.
WHY:
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Create a somatic link to your desired thought, pattern, or habit to mark the
experience as important and increase
its retrievability.
Add an additional layer of importance
to the link by activating your Prefrontal
Cortex simultaneously with the incorporation of novelty into this
practice.
Try brushing your teeth with your
non-dominant hand or mixing up the
order of your morning routine while
practicing your new thought, pattern,
or habit.
Later in the day, give some thought to
the new pattern again while carrying
your keys or your coffee, typing, tapping a part of your body, or making
an interesting gesture with your non-
dominant hand. Later, take a different route home while practicing your new
mindset again.
The incorporation of a physical
experience with mental entrainment
highlights the full experience in your
neurology, increasing its retrievability
later.
The bonus of activating the PFC during this practice not only primes the brain
to pay attention to the experience even
more, but increases the accessibility of
qualities such as motivation, goal-setting,
creativity, problem-solving, timeline
projection, perspective, compassion,
empathy, patience, and primes the brain
for a learning experience.
Once you establish a somatic link to
your new pattern, you can also access
that pattern throughout the day on
a conscious or subconscious level by
practicing that link.
Now when you are standing in line or
driving your commute, you can tap with
your non-dominant hand and retrieve
the mental association of your desired
experience throughout the day.
The more you access the new thought,
pattern, habit, or mindset - even in small
ways - the more retrievable it becomes
and the easier it is to access and repeat
over time.
1 . P H Y S I C A LL I N K A S O M AT I C C U E
HOW:
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2 . M E N TA LP R AC T I C E T H E 5 - S T E P
N E U RO S C U L P T I N G ® MO DA L I T Y
The 5-Step Neurosculpting® modality
incorporates what we know about our
neurology into its structure.
The established 5-Step process was
developed around our neurobiology
and seamlessly integrates practices
for downregulating the Limbic brain,
upregulating the Prefrontal Cortex, supporting self-directed neuroplasticity,
and including somatic and mental
associations for increased retrievability.
WHY:
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Whether you are attending a class,
following a guided exercise, or self-
directing at home, the Neurosculpting®
5-Step modality is accessible and easy to
follow along with.
Step 1: Quiet the Limbic Brain
By focusing on our sense of safety,
predictability, and familiarity, we can
quiet the stress response and reallocate
those resources to other parts of the
brain. This may include focusing on the
familiar, consistent, and effortless nature of our natural breath or of gravity or the
acknowledgment of our current level of
safety.
Step 2: Activate the Prefrontal Cortex
By bringing our attention to something
novel or curious, we can activate our PFC and create access to the abilities housed
here including goal-setting, creativity,
problem-solving, motivation, patience,
empathy, social norms, the ability to
perceive multiple perspectives and
project future timelines, and more.
This could look like doing a familiar
activity with your non-dominant hand
or in a slightly unusual way, trying to
imagine a completely new color or shape,
or listening to your favorite comedian.
Step 3: Create Cross-Talk Between the
Hemispheres
Toggling between the left and right
hemispheres distributes the experience
across the brain and creates a whole-
brain approach to the practice. This may
look like spelling words out or listing items
numerically for the left hemisphere and
creating imagery or relationships for the
right hemisphere.
Step 4: Create a Somatic Link
Using the physical body to create
an intentional association marks an
experience as important and increases its
future retrievability. This could be tapping
a part of the body or making an interesting
gesture with your non-dominant hand.
Step 5: Name the Meditation
Naming or labeling the exercise adds
an extra layer of mental association and
further increases its ability to be easily
retrieved on a conscious or subconscious
level. This could be a word you are likely to
hear during the day and be reminded of
the experience or a completely made-up
word that the PFC gets to play with.
2 . M E N TA L P R AC T I C E T H E 5 - S T E P
N E U RO S C U L P T I N G ® MO DA L I T Y
HOW:
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3 . S O C I A LJ O I N A L I K E - M I N D E D C O M MU N I T Y
Becoming involved in a community or
with individuals with similarly desirable
mindsets or goals increases our exposure to
a new mindset and supports the repeated
access to a new pattern. It also provides an
opportunity for accountability to practicing
the new mindset.
WHY: HOW:
Join a group of like-minded friends, a social
media page or group, hobby enthusiasts, or
the Neurosculpting® Institute membership
community. Be sure to tell someone in your
new community or a loved one about your
new practice. Some say you are the average
of the people you surround yourself with.
Give yourself the opportunity to have people
to practice your new mindset with and to
support your personal development.
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Additional resources for this endeavor can be found across the publications of the Neurosculpting® Institute, including books, CDs, audio class downloads, online learning events, our memberships, as well as the NSI Learning Store and blog.
HOW TO BEGIN
YOUR PRACTICE
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Consider becoming a member of the Neurosculpting® community with any
of our premium membership programs. More details on our website:
www.NeuroSculptingInstitute.com
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Foundational Neurosculpting®: Intro Audio Class- 3hr
Enjoy this audio capture of most versatile class, Neurosculpting® for
Beginners. You’ll learn the basic brain dynamics of a stress cycle and
how to navigate those patterns. You’ll discover the basic neuroscience
of neuroplasticity and learn was you can enhance your brain’s learning
and focus.
The Neurobiology of Goal-Setting and Motivation –1.5hr
In this introductory audio class, you’ll explore the neurobiology respon-
sible for those moments when you’ve motivated yourself to reach your
goals AND the process behind those moments of self-sabotage and lack of motivation. Discover the amazing process of neural communication and learn ways to influence that chemistry and physiology.
Warrior One: Immersion into Practical Neurosculpting®
Consider this a BOOT CAMP experience! This program is the direct curriculum outlined in, NEW BELIEFS, NEW BRAIN: Free Yourself from Stress and Fear. Neurosculpting® is a cutting-edge modality integrat-
ing mindfulness and neuroscience into a simple five-step whole brain approach to heal trauma, rewrite limiting beliefs, and find wholeness.