What Lies is Your Brain Telling You Today?
Your automatic, unconscious brain plays re-runs of old beliefs throughout the day each day.
A belief is just a thought that has been played over and over.
Many of these thoughts are stories or ways of explaining what we’ve experienced in our past.
And our brain’s motive is always at least to help us survive.
But if you want to do more than survive (ie, thrive), then you’ll need to call out the lies being played in your automatic brain.
This works better one at a time, not all at once.
Identify one lie your brain is telling you today.
Say it out loud or write it down or both.
Ask gentle questions like,
“How does that thought feel?”
“is this really true?”
“Do I get to choose in this moment whether to continue buying in to that?”
Be light and playful with it, not forceful.
Be curious. Drop judgment.
Go slow, don’t rush.
Be willing to feel some uncomfortable feelings about it while your brain opens up to a new way. Breathe through it.
Here’s one of mine that comes up sometimes:
I’m too F-ed up from my past to ever be as consistently happy and successful as I want to be.
Is that really true?
Here are some others to consider:
- “I’m unworthy because of ______.” (Are you really unworthy?)
- “But I owe this person (narcissist) for all they’ve done for me.” (Do you really owe them?)
- “I HAVE TO do _____ today.” (Do you really have to?)
- “I’ll never be able to _____.” (What if you can?)
- “Women shouldn’t hold as much authority in church as men because that is the divine design.” (Is this really a divine design?)
- “This urge (for porn/other) will never pass unless I give in to it.” (Is that true?)
- “This depression feels like it will never pass.” (Has that ever been true before/yet?)
Share with a friend who could use this reminder today.
