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Can you tell your brain “NO”?

Episode 251
Wildly Successful Lifestyle

LISTEN TO: Can you tell your brain “NO”?

Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 251 of the wildly successful Lifestyle podcast! If you haven’t heard it yet today, You are exactly where you are supposed to be and things are working in your favor, so look for how that’s true, because it is, look for the evidence of it because you’ll find what you’re looking for…ok

If you live in America, as I record this, you probably know we have had some drama lately with some of the Supreme Court decisions unless you live under a rock. And if you do live under a rock congratulations, are there any rooms available?

Just kidding kinda. But seriously. So I woke up this morning and My brain wanted to check in on the drama of what was going on but I have been doing this long enough to know that I am in a much better frame of mind when I stick to my routine in the morning of a positive message while I make coffee and my breakfast and then meditation, journaling, and my thought download. The positive video I watched was talking about knowing that something isn’t good for you and doing it anyway. I thought hmmm. Interesting. I do that sometimes. And then during my thought download, I wrote that my brain wanted to check in on the drama meaning get on Twitter and my second thought was I’m worried I’m going to. Then my third thought was but I am in control. The brain can’t reach out of my head and maneuver my phone to Twitter. I have to do that.

And it hit me right then oh wow I AM in control. I actually wrote that in my thought download journal. My brain can tell me I want something and I can say no. So part of me knows getting on Twitter isn’t the best use of my time in fact it is a huge waste of time and brain energy. The other part of me wants the drama. Which one won out and why?

I’m gonna answer that in a minute.

But first, We cause ourselves a lot of problems by just living by default. By allowing our brain to just run free with thoughts that don’t serve us. When we live by default, sometimes we get lucky and things work out and turn out good and sometimes they aren’t so good but we are often left to the whims of our primitive brain which is impulsive and doesn’t make great decisions, it won’t even give you the option sometimes.

On my podcast last week I was talking about how I thought our dishwasher had stopped working but it had just come slightly unplugged, what I didn’t tell you is how it came slightly unplugged. Remember earlier I said we cause ourselves a-lot of problems by living on default? Well the plug is under our sink and we also keep brown paper bags under our sink, we use them for recycling and so if they are folded up nicely I get them out very easily and all is well but if they’re not folded up all in one direction it’s very
difficult to get them out and so I was a little frustrated because they were kind of all folded in different directions and so Out of frustration I jerked one out which caused the fire extinguisher to knock over and everything under that side of the sink fell out onto the floor. when the fire extinguisher knocked over it slightly unplugged the dishwasher which I didn’t find out until the next day.

You see I caused myself a lot of angst in this situation. I just let my brain run free with thoughts of why the bags weren’t coming out easily and why doesn’t Eric put them in there correctly and just ruminating to the point that I got frustrated and caused a whole other level of frustration the next day because of the unplugged dishwasher. Have you ever had an experience like that? Why didn’t I just take out the bags and put them back in the same direction? It would have made my life so much easier but at the moment, my brain didn’t even offer me that option, because I was living on default in that moment. News flash, even after that happened I still didn’t put them in the right direction, probably because I was frustrated. So as I was thinking about this episode for you guys which is a week later, I thought ok I’m going to go and fix the garbage bags right now while My mind is on it so I go to do it and they are all lined up perfectly. Eric had beat me to it. Which if any of you know him personally won’t surprise you at all. He is a great example of living a very intentional life pretty consistently.

I am constantly having to work on it. So back to my story about whether or not my brain won out or if I held firm on not getting on Twitter. I won. I got to put a stone in my urge jar and why was I able to do it? Because I stuck to my daily routine and I heard that message of avoiding things we know are not good for us and then my thought download where I was able to get those thoughts out of my brain and onto digital paper where I could acknowledge it, step away from it, feel what it feels like for my brain to want
something and for me to say no, we aren’t getting on Twitter because it will wreck our mindset for the day and that isn’t how it’s going to go today. My brain can tell me I want something and I CAN say no.

And so can you. But we have to give ourselves the option. A lot of that is being intentional. Intentional about how you wake up, how you start the day, where you allow your mind to go in the morning. Does it go right to the drama? Does it go right to negative self-talk when you look in the mirror or get on the scale? Does it go right to someone else’s agenda by getting on email first thing?

We all have a brain. Our brains are hardwired in some ways from birth and In other ways from our daily habits. The good news is. It’s changeable. We CAN change the course of our life no matter how old we are. It’s not easy but as I just showed you from my experience, neither is living on default. They are both hard, You just have to pick your hard. One is a life on default and autopilot where you go wherever your primitive brain takes you. The other is a life of intention and creation where you notice the thoughts your brain sends you and ultimately decide if that’s the path you want to take or if there’s one that will serve you better long term. It’s what I like to call mindset work.

Think of your mindset work like your physical exercise. You have to do it consistently and you don’t get to a point where you can just stop, it’s ongoing. I believe we are at a point in society where the happiest healthiest people are working daily on their mental AND physical health.

My challenge to you this week is to embrace that phrase “my brain can tell me I want something, and I can say no” this causes you to be really aware that you aren’t your thoughts and your thoughts aren’t you. It will cause you to become really aware of the thoughts your brain is giving you. Take at least one of those thoughts that you KNOW

isn’t going to serve you and just say NO. That’s not the path we are taking today. Maybe your brain wants a donut for breakfast but you know the eggs will keep you fuller and have you thinking cleaner so you Acknowledge that the brain wants the donut and notice how it feels to let your brain want it and ultimately not have it because you’re in control. The urge to have it will fade. It’s one of the most empowering things you’ll ever do because we are bombarded by indulgences every second almost. In order for us each to live our version of a wildly successful lifestyle, we have to know which ones serve us long term and which ones won’t. And now you have a new tool to do it. The title of this episode is Can you tell your brain no? The answer is YES

I love you guys, Ill talk to you in a few days!

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